Read more
Zusatztext "ulie Hessler's book offers the most comprehensive account of the consumer economy and should serve as the standard reference work on the subject." ---Marjorie L. Hilton, Journal of Social History Informationen zum Autor Julie Hessler Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung 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. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Preface xiii Introduction 1 Two Modes of Soviet Socialism 4 Buyers! Sellers! and the Social History of Trade Crisis: Revolution 9 Chapter One Trade and Consumption in Revolutionary Russia 19 Russian Retailing and Its Unraveling 20 Effects of the Anti-trade Policy 27 The Crisis Mode of Consumption 38 Conclusion 48 Chapter Two The Invention of Socialism 51 The Emergence of a Socialist Distribution Network! 1918-1921 53 Rationing! "Commodity Exchange!" and Price Controls 61 The Antibureaucratic Backlash and Socialist Economic Culture 79 Public-Sector Shops in the Transition to the NEP 87 Conclusion 97 Chapter Three Shopkeepers and the State 101 Poverty! Capital! and the Commercial Revival 103 The Logic of Utilization and the Regulatory Context 113 Shopkeepers 'Stories: The NEP from Below 119 Conclusion 130 Crisis: Restructuring Chapter Four War Communism Redux 135 The NEP from Above: Trade Policy in the Shadow of the Goods Famine 137 Bureaucratism Ascendant: The Effects of Food Shortage on the Distribution System 154 Corporatism in the Service of the Pla...
About the author
Julie Hessler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Oregon.
