Papirosy and Dependence

Abstract

The introduction presents an innovative examination of the historically contingent nature of addiction as well as the context-specific reactions to smoking by describing the unique Russian cigarette (papirosy) and leaf (makhorka). The inhalation of tobacco and the high-nicotine Russian leaf created conditions for more addictive tobacco use with more profound health consequences earlier than anywhere else on the globe. By applying cultural history, gender theory, anthropology, material culture, and sensory studies to Russian smoking, the introduction sets up the construction of tobacco’s positive and negative image and the distinctions of space, class, and gender that the scent, sight, or mark of smoking created on the body, and by extension on social spaces and class structure.