Labour Relations and Modes of Production under Russia's Institutional Development

Abstract

The article contributes to a discussion on the taxonomy of labour relations and its relationships with modes of production in the paradigm of post-Marxian historical institutionalism in the tradition by D.C. North and R.M. Nureev. From this perspective the author provides an outline of the concept of labour relations in Russia/ USSR, with the focus on transition processes. The author traces the transitions from kin-ordered and tributary slavery to serfdom, from tributary and commodified serfdom to wage commodified labour, then to tributary and commodified labour under socialism. The outline is based primarily on the quantitative and qualitative evidence from the previous research literature. From the cross-country comparative perspective the author highlights that the cases of slavery during the early modern capitalism, inherited by the Antebellum Southern United States during the Industrial Revolution, as well as mass use of penall abour during the Soviet industrialization effort, moderately replicated in the pre-reform China, demonstrate resumption of institutions of forced labour on the path to modern economy and society. The evidence indicates that this is associated with the processes of military modernization and expansion of the war economy. In its turn, the weakening of the military threat created the possibility of commodified labour relations development. From this perspective, the trend towards expanding their share was formed in the USSR in the 1950s, and Russia’s transition to market relations in the late 1980s – 1990s appeared to be a new stage in the development of this process.