Scent of Empires

Karl Schlögel is Professor of Eastern European History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt. His book Moscow 1937 was awarded the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding in 2009.

Best Summer Books of 2021, Financial Times"Tantalising"—Financial Times"Engrossing"—Morning Star"Superb... a splendidly pungent area for exploration"—The Spectator"Schlögel is a master storyteller."—Frankfurter Rundschau"A fascinating journey through scent."—Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag"This book demonstrates once again Karl Schlögel's remarkable ability to make the whole of society visible in the most inconspicuous details."—Süddeutsche Zeitung"Schlögel has captured the scent of the 'Age of Extremes' – too much may give you a headache but a short burst is stimulating and intoxicating."—Deutschlandfunk Kultur"No historian I know combines creativity in conception and fastidiousness of research like Karl Schlögel. This book is a surprise and an education. It is also a great pleasure to read."—Timothy Snyder, Yale University"'A drop of perfume can hold the entire history of the twentieth century', writes Karl Schlögel – and so it does. In this elegant, enticing, slim book, Schlögel, one of the great historians of the Soviet experiment, shifts his gaze to the world of luxury scents. With grace and intent, he moves the reader between a convent orphanage in France and an impoverished shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, between Parisian salons and Politburo meetings at the Kremlin. Bolshevism, Nazism and Stalinism emerge as olfactory experiences, in which the fragrant and the putrid are not easily uncoupled."—Marci Shore, author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe"... a tale of revolution, war and spies...."—The Sydney Morning Herald"... a compelling story full of twists and tragedies... fascinating."—Bois De Jasmin"A captivating historical account of the personal lives and political intrigue surrounding two perfumery legends."—Beauty Matter"There is much to praise about The Scent of Empires, but above all Schlögel's ability to breathe new life into well-trodden avenues of historical study is particularly commendable."—The Russian Review"Karl Schlögel is a true public intellectual."—Society"Amidst the multitude of histories of East and West that privilege verbal, visual and occasionally acoustic forms of experience and record, Karl Schlögel’s The Scent of Empires uniqely focuses on the neglected olfactory sense as the bearer of powerful memories."—Europe-Asia Studies

• List of illustrations1. Extracurricular activity2. The scent of the empire, or how Le Bouquet de Catherine from 1913 led to Chanel No. 5 and the Soviet perfume Red Moscow after the Russian Revolution3. Scentscapes. Proust's madeleine and historiography4. When 'the weakest link breaks in the imperialist chain' (Lenin). The world of scents and the olfactory revolution5. Departure from the belle époque and clothes for the New Woman. Chanel's and Lamanova's double revolution6. Chanel's Russian connection7. French connection in Moscow? The 'fatherland of workers' and traces of Mikhail Bulgakov8. Auguste Michel's incomplete project: a Palace of Soviets perfume9. The seductive scent of power. Coco Chanel and Polina Zhemchuzhina Molotova. Two careers in the twentieth century10. From another world. The smoke of the crematoria and the smell of Kolyma11. After the war. Man cannot live on bread alone. The New Look and Stilyagi12. Excursus: The grande dame of German film Olga Chekhova, cosmetics and the dream of eternal youth13. How One World smells14. Not only the Black Square: Malevich's perfume bottleNotesBibliographyIndex