A Social History of Soviet Trade

by Hessler, Julie

• ISBN13: 9780691114927
• ISBN10: 0691114927
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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 Tradeexplores 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.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Tables	xi
Preface	xiii
Introduction	1	(18)
Two Modes of Soviet Socialism	4	(5)
Buyers, Sellers, and the Social History of Trade	9	(10)
Crisis: Revolution	19	(116)
CHAPTER ONE Trade and Consumption in Revolutionary Russia	19	(32)
Russian Retailing and Its Unraveling	20	(7)
Effects of the Anti-trade Policy	27	(11)
The Crisis Mode of Consumption	38	(10)
Conclusion	48	(3)
CHAPTER TWO The Invention of Socialism	51	(50)
The Emergence of a Socialist Distribution Network, 1918-1921	53	(8)
Rationing, "Commodity Exchange," and Price Controls	61	(18)
The Antibureaucratic Backlash and Socialist Economic Culture	79	(8)
Public-Sector Shops in the Transition to the NEP	87	(10)
Conclusion	97	(4)
CHAPTER THREE Shopkeepers and the State	101	(34)
Poverty, Capital, and the Commercial Revival	103	(10)
The Logic of Utilization and the Regulatory Context	113	(6)
Shopkeepers' Stories: The NEP from Below	119	(11)
Conclusion	130	(5)
Crisis: Restructuring	135	(116)
CHAPTER FOUR War Communism Redux	135	(62)
The NEP from Above: Trade Policy in the Shadow of the Goods Famine	137	(17)
Bureaucratism Ascendant: The Effects of Food Shortage on the Distribution System	154	(19)
Corporatism in the Service of the Plan	173	(11)
Crisis, Consumption, and the Market	184	(9)
Conclusion	193	(4)
CHAPTER FIVE Toward a New Model	197	(54)
Socialist Modernization: "Cultured Soviet Trade"	198	(17)
Bureaucratism Restrained	215	(7)
Stalinism and the Consumer, I: Urban Attitudes and Trends	222	(8)
Stalinism and the Consumer; II: The Peasant Challenge to Cultured Trade	230	(13)
Conclusion	243	(8)
Crisis: War
CHAPTER SIX The Persistent Private Sector	251	(45)
Stalin-era Bazaars	252	(21)
Travel, Bagging, and the Survivalist Consensus	273	(6)
The Revitalization of the Private Sector	279	(10)
Private Trade as a Social Formation: Continuity and Change	289	(4)
Conclusion	293	(3)
CHAPTER SEVEN
Postwar Normalization and Its Limits	296	(2)
From Wartime "Abnormalities" to the Paradox of Growth	298	(12)
Cadres Policy in Postwar Trade	310	(6)
Postwar "Cultured Trade": A Balance Sheet	316	(9)
Conclusion	325	(4)
Conclusion	329	(8)
Bibliography	337	(18)
Index	355