As stated in the introduction by Lewis Siegelbaum, the principal objective of this collective book is “to explore the interface between the motorcar and the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR” (2). This is done mainly from two different perspectives. The fi rst perspective consists of studying the motorcar both as a point of convergence between the state and the private sphere and as a point of divergence (and compromise) between the socialist project and its reality. The focus here is on the practice of private car consumption and on the material culture specifi c to the acquisition and use of the “socialist car.”