This study is an engaging interdisciplinary investigation of the sense in the specifically Russian context, which will be useful to those interested in sensory studies, Russian History, everyday culture, literature, and film, as well as those studying discourses on national identity, colonialism, social mobility and social engineering, personal and collective experiences, and memory.

Slavic and East European Journal

With its broad sweep in time and careful attention to issues lying just below the surface, Russian History through the Senses deserves to be read by scholars seeking fresh inspiration from clearly written articles based upon a close examination of new primary sources.

Canadian Slavonic Papers

[A] set of essays that opens doors into long familiar topics and establishes some new and exciting avenues of research … In addition to its own significant contributions to the history of sensation, this volume suggests that much more worth pursuing may be lurking within the inexpressible realm of the senses.

The Russian Review

This attention to the centrality, and often “intersensorality,” of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching in how we experience and interpret the external world, as Alexander Martin's excellent introduction underscores, has led to new understanding of key historical questions ... [the book] offers new and enlightening ways to see and think about the experience of Russian and Soviet history.

Journal of Social History

Fascinating ... I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Russian history and in the methodology of historical inquiry. I would also recommend it to skeptics and pragmatists, who can taste how not only historical fiction, but also historical scholarly works, can contribute to what Peter C. Hoffer called 'the highest purpose of historical scholarship: to make the past live again'.

European Review of History

The articles in the book are of uniformly high quality, each richly informative.

EuropeNow