A Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and Consumption, 1917-1953

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, Oct 6, 2020 - History - 384 pages

In this sweeping study, Julie Hessler traces the invention and evolution of socialist trade, the progressive constriction of private trade, and the development of consumer habits from the 1917 revolution to Stalin's death in 1953. The book places trade and consumption in the context of debilitating economic crises. Although Soviet leaders, and above all, Stalin, identified socialism with the modernization of retailing and the elimination of most private transactions, these goals conflicted with the economic dynamics that produced shortages and with the government's bureaucratic, repressive, and socially discriminatory political culture.

A Social History of Soviet Trade explores the relationship of trade--official and unofficial--to the cyclical pattern of crisis and normalization that resulted from these tensions. It also provides a singularly detailed look at private shops during the years of the New Economic Policy, and at the remnants of private trade, mostly concentrated at the outdoor bazaars, in subsequent years. Drawing on newly opened archives in Moscow and several provinces, this richly documented work offers a new perspective on the social, economic, and political history of the formative decades of the USSR.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Revolution
17
CHAPTER
51
Rationing Commodity Exchange and Price Controls
61
The Antibureaucratic Backlash and Socialist Economic Culture
79
PublicSector Shops in the Transition to the NEP
87
Conclusion
97
Restructuring
133
Conclusion
243
Travel Bagging and the Survivalist Consensus
273
The Revitalization of the Private Sector
279
Continuity and Change
289
CHAPTER SEVEN
296
Cadres Policy in Postwar Trade
310
A Balance Sheet
316
Conclusion
325

CHAPTER FIVE
197
Bureaucratism Restrained
215
Urban Attitudes and Trends
222
The Peasant Challenge to Cultured Trade
230
Bibliography
337
Index
355
Copyright

Other editions - View all

A Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and ...
Julie Hessler
Limited preview - 2004
A Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and ...
Julie Hessler
Limited preview - 2004

Common terms and phrases

according administration agencies agricultural areas artisanal authorities bazaar became Bolsheviks bread bureaucratism capital central changes chapter cities citizens civil cloth communism consumer consumption continued cooperatives crisis cultured customers decade December decree demand direct distribution early economic effect employees example exchange factory famine GARF grain household important included income increased industrial late later less major managers manufactured material months Moscow obtained officials operation organs Party peasants percent period petty policy makers political private trade procurement profits provincial purchase queues rationing regions remained reports representatives retail revolutionary RGAE role rubles rural Russian sector sell shoes shops shortages social socialist sold Sovetskaia Soviet speculation Stalin success supplies thousand tion torgovlia towns trade urban workers

About the author (2020)

Julie Hessler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Oregon.

Bibliographic information

TitleA Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and Consumption, 1917-1953
AuthorJulie Hessler
Editionillustrated
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2020
ISBN1400843561, 9781400843565
Length384 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Russia / General
History / Social History
  
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