Losses In Russia Research Articles

The Soviet Famine of 1946–47 in Global and Historical Perspective by Nicholas Ganson, and: The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia by Serguei Alex (review)

Nicholas Ganson, The Soviet Famine of 1946-47 in Global and Historical Perspective. 240 pp. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. ISBN-13 9780230613331. $105.00. Serguei Alex. Oushakine, The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. 312 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. ISBN-13 9780801475573. $24.95 (paper). For generations, scholars have presented the Soviet past primarily as a story of victimhood, one fraught with tragedy, trauma, and catastrophe. Yet, after much fruitful research, a clear understanding of how Soviet citizens endured decades of brutality and upheaval and how those experiences continue to inform their lives in the post-Soviet era remains elusive. The two books under review provide fresh takes on these themes of tragedy and loss. Nicholas Ganson's historical work reconstructs a greatly understudied event, the famine of 1946-47, which took between one and two million lives. Serguei Oushakine's anthropological study examines a catastrophe of a very different sort, the collapse of the Soviet Union. It investigates how residents of the Siberian province of Altai have struggled to cope with the transition to postSoviet life. Ganson's heavily archival and lucidly written study of this human tragedy centers on the question of state culpability: did the postwar Stalinist regime deliberately engineer or prolong the famine as a way to reassert its authority over the countryside? Ganson's answer is a definite no, and by taking this stance, he breaks with the existing (albeit limited) historiography on the 1946-47 famine, as well as with many prominent scholars, from Robert Conquest to Lynne Viola, who have likened Stalinist agricultural policies (particularly of the 1930s) to acts of terror and genocide. (1) Although much of Ganson's study delineates the regime's brutal policies on postwar food production, he cautions against the assumption that the famines of the 1930s and 1940s fit the same model. Instead, he emphasizes the factors that preceded the state's (mis)handling of the agricultural crisis: the devastation of the war and the onset of drought and crop failure. Ganson argues that the shortages and material damage caused by the war precipitated the famine, but that other conditions created by the war--such as the experience of occupation and the rise of a Ukrainian nationalist movement in the heart of the affected region--did not. Ultimately, Ganson presents the famine not as an instance of state brutality or of the Soviet regime's general hostility toward the countryside but as another example of its long-standing practice of squeezing the peasantry to make agriculture more productive. The regime did not cause the famine, he contends, but its policies did extend the scope and duration of the crisis. A key assumption Ganson makes, one that deserves further inquiry, is that if the food supply had been better, Soviet policymakers would have acted less aggressively toward the countryside. In chapter 2, for instance, he describes how the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent tried to intervene in the countryside and help the hungry. Ganson's evidence of the regime's good intentions is compelling. At the same time, while describing hunger-related illnesses, he uses the term dystrophy (distrofiia) neutrally, without noting the controversy surrounding the term as a possible euphemism for starvation, one that the Soviet regime used to obscure its responsibility for mass hunger during the war. (2) Although Ganson deemphasizes the role played by domestic political concerns, he argues that international politics strongly determined the postwar regime's policies toward the famine. In one of the most intriguing sections of his study, Ganson demonstrates that, to compete with the United States for international political prestige, the Soviet Union kept the famine a secret and (perhaps before it understood the severity of the famine) exported grain to France, Poland, Germany, and Finland, hoping to rival the United States and the United Nations as providers of international aid. …

Oushakine, Serguei Alex. The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia (review)

Oushakine, Serguei Alex. The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia (review)

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. By Serguei Alex. Oushakine. Culture and Society after Socialism. Edited by, Bruce Grant and Nancy Ries. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. Pp. xii+299. $75.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

<i>The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia.</i> By Serguei Alex. Oushakine. Culture and Society after Socialism. Edited by, Bruce Grant and Nancy Ries. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. Pp. xii+299. $75.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

The structural perspective on postsocialist inequality: Job loss in Russia

The paper seeks to develop a structural approach to understanding post-socialist patterns of inequality, in distinction to the individual and institutional frameworks that have dominated the literature on the topic. Variation in exposure to job loss (layoff) of Russian hired workers from 1985 to 2001 is examined using employment histories from the Survey of Stratification and Migration Dynamics. The analysis focuses on the role of structural position (firm characteristics such as sector, industry, and size) in shaping job loss risk, both independently of individual characteristics such as experience, gender, and human capital and in interaction with these personal traits.

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia by Serguei Alex Oushakine

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia by Serguei Alex Oushakine

The Wage and Non-Wage Costs of Displacement: Evidence from Russia

This paper is the first to analyze the costs of job loss in Russia, using unique new data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the years 2003-2008, including a special supplement on displacement that was initiated by us. We employ fixed effects regression models and propensity score matching techniques in order to establish the causal effect of displacement for displaced individuals. The paper is innovative insofar as we investigate fringe and in-kind benefits and the propensity to have an informal employment relationship as well as a permanent contract as relevant labor market outcomes upon displacement. We also analyze monthly earnings, hourly wages, employment and hours worked, which are traditionally investigated in the literature. Compared to the control group of non-displaced workers (i.e. stayers and quitters), displaced individuals face a significant income loss following displacement, which is mainly due to the reduction in employment and hours worked. This effect is robust to the definition of displacement. The losses seem to be more pronounced and are especially large for older workers with labor market experience and human capital acquired in Soviet times and for workers with primary and secondary education. Workers displaced from state firms experience particularly large relative losses in the short run, while such losses for workers laid off from private firms are more persistent. Turning to the additional non-conventional labor market outcomes, there is a loss in terms of the number of fringe and in-kind benefits for reemployed individuals but not in terms of their value. There is also some evidence of an increased probability of working in informal jobs if displaced. These results point towards the importance of both firm-specific human capital and of obsolete skills obtained under the centrally planned economy as well as to a wider occurrence of job insecurity among displaced workers.

Out of Order: Russian Political Values in an Imperfect World. By Ellen Carnaghan. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. 330p. $55.00 cloth, $27.00 paper. - The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War and Loss in Russia. By Serguei Alex. Oushakine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. 299p. $78.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Out of Order: Russian Political Values in an Imperfect World. By Ellen Carnaghan. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. 330p. $55.00 cloth, $27.00 paper. - The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War and Loss in Russia. By Serguei Alex. Oushakine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. 299p. $78.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.

The Costs of Job Loss in Russia

The Costs of Job Loss in Russia

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia by Serguei Oushakine

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia by Serguei Oushakine

The patriotism of despair: nation, war, and loss in Russia – By Serguei Alex Oushakine

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteVolume 16, Issue 3 p. 699-700 The patriotism of despair: nation, war, and loss in Russia – By Serguei Alex Oushakine Kathryn Tomlinson, Kathryn TomlinsonSearch for more papers by this author Kathryn Tomlinson, Kathryn TomlinsonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 05 August 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2010.01646_42.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume16, Issue3September 2010Pages 699-700 RelatedInformation

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. By Sergei Alex. Oushakine. Culture and Society after Socialism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. xi, 299 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $75.00, hard bound. $24.95, paper.

The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. By Sergei Alex. Oushakine. Culture and Society after Socialism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. xi, 299 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $75.00, hard bound. $24.95, paper.

Biological mechanisms of disease and death in Moscow: rationale and design of the survey on Stress Aging and Health in Russia (SAHR).

BackgroundPrior research has revealed large differences in health and mortality across countries, socioeconomic groups, and individuals. Russia experiences one of the world's highest levels of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, great mortality differences within the population, and a heavy burden of ill health. Psychological stress has been suggested as a likely explanation of health loss and premature death in Russia and Eastern Europe. However, physiological mechanisms connecting stress with health in Russia remain unclear since existing epidemiological data are scarce and limited to conventional risk factors.Method and DesignThe survey on Stress Aging and Health in Russia (SAHR) is addressing this knowledge gap by collecting an unusually rich database that includes a wide range of reported information, physical and cognitive health outcomes, and biomarkers in a sample of Muscovite men and women aged 55 and older. The total planned sample size is 2,000 individuals. The sample was randomly selected from epidemiological cohorts formed in Moscow between the mid-1970s and the 1990s and from medical population registers. The baseline data collection was carried out from December 2006 to June 2009. Interviews and medical tests were administered at hospital or at home according to standardized protocol. Questionnaire information includes health, socio-demographic characteristics, economic well-being, cognitive functioning, and batteries on stress and depression. Biomarkers include anthropometry, grip strength, resting ECG, conventional cardiovascular factors of risk such as lipid profile and blood pressure, and other biochemical parameters such as those related to inflammation, glucose and insulin resistance, coagulation, fibrinolysis, and stress hormones. In addition to these measurements, SAHR includes dynamic biomarkers provided by 24-hour ECG (Holter) monitoring. This method continuously registers the beat-to-beat heart rate in naturalistic conditions without restrictions on normal daily activities. It provides information about heart functioning, including heart rate variability and ischemic and arrhythmic events.Re-examination of the study subjects will be conducted in 2009–2011 and will focus on health, functional status, economic conditions, behaviors, and attitudes towards aging. The subjects are also followed up for mortality and non-fatal health events.DiscussionThe SAHR will produce a valuable set of established and novel biomarkers combined with self-reported data for the international research community and will provide important insights into factors and biological mechanisms of mortality and health losses in Russia.

Comment: Controversies and Evidence in the Market Transition Debate

Despite repeated attempts to integrate competing perspectives (Szelenyi and Kostello 1996; Nee and Matthews 1996), the ongoing market transition debate has shown no signs of resolution. Instead, the 1996 AJS market transition symposium seems to have created more controversy than it settled (Nee 1996; Xie and Hannum 1996; Oberschall 1996; Parish and Michelson 1996; Walder 1996; Fligstein 1996; Szelenyi and Kostello 1996). And subsequent studies continue to reach nearly opposite conclusions (cf. Bian and Logan 1996; Gerber and Hout 1998; with Brainerd 1998; Nee and Cao, in press). When arguments become polarized, it often signals that divisions are falsely drawn (Bates 1997). Although originally made in another context, this observation is applicable here. As principals in this lively debate, we believe that clarification and reevaluation are essential for moving toward a reconciliation of competing viewpoints. In this comment we therefore identify the central issues in the controversy and provide an overall assessment of existing empirical evidence

Politics and Markets: Dual Transformations

The articles published in this issue of the Journal help advance the debate on market reform in former socialist states. In our comment, besides dealing with data analysis issues, we suggest several ways to improve the level of debate about substantive issues. These suggestions include more attention to politics, including path dependence, and more attention to middle-level generalizations from other developing market societies.