Soviet Economy Research Articles

Ukrainian Waste for the Soviet Economy: Shaping the National Narrative

The environmental history of Ukraine in the twentieth century is replete with various and still understudied facets. However, contemporary research predominantly employs imperial narratives, which elucidate it through the prism of Soviet history, depriving it of subjectivity and the uniqueness of the local context. This essay proposes an alternative approach. Through the example of waste recycling in the Ukrainian SSR, which was one of the Soviet republics from 1922 to 1991, we aim to demonstrate the importance of reinterpreting its environmental history by studying multi-vector centre–periphery relations in the Soviet Union. This case seeks to demonstrate not only the formation in the 1920s of Soviet colonial practices of resource extraction, including that of waste, from the periphery – the Soviet republics – but also attempts to resist these in the first decade of the Soviet totalitarian regime’s formation. This essay is based on documents from Ukrainian archives, which are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time, and on statistical collections of documents from the USSR.

Dimensions of the Shadow Reforms of Yuri Andropov’s Bureaucratic Management: Lessons from the Myths of the Totalitarian Leadership of the USSR

The article discusses the issue of bureaucratic leadership and economic reforms in the USSR during the administration of Yu. V. Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The article analyzes Andropov's consistent policy in the Soviet bureaucratic system and his uncompromising position in the fight against corruption. In this regard, the article emphasizes the years of his leadership, in which the reforms of the Soviet economy occupied a significant place, trying to inspire confidence in the Soviet society and citizens. However, the totalitarian regime of the USSR and the bureaucratic system simply blocked the package of measures proposed by the General Secretary. An analysis of the works examining the personality and party and state activities of Yu. V. Andropov allows us to conditionally distinguish two periods of the formation and development of the historiography of the problem. The first, personifying the Soviet era, ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The second covers the 1990s, as well as the beginning of this century. Within the framework of the first period, the activities of Yu. V. Andropov were covered in various works devoted to the problems of modern Soviet history. Against this background, the position of Western researchers turned out to be preferable. In the West, the steady growth of interest in Yu. V. Andropov on the part of Sovietologists was mainly due to his activities as Chairman of the KGB. At the same time, it cannot be denied that, as a rule, the noted works were distinguished by their tendentiousness and bore the imprint of the Cold War.

Henry Holdship Ware: a U.S. Military Interpreter, a Soviet Spy, and an Economist

This article looks at the life of Henry Holdship Ware (1908-1999), the grandson of the founder of Atlanta University. Captain Henry H. Ware was an aide and interpreter to Major General John Deane, Chief of the U.S. Military Mission to the Soviet Union during World War 2. In this capacity, he was an interpreter with the U.S. Army assigned to the Tripartite Conference in Moscow (1943) and Conferences at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945), and a liaison officer and interpreter during Operation Frantic, a joint American-Soviet campaign of shuttle bombing missions in Poltava, Ukraine, in June–September 1944. He was also present at the official surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany at Karlshorst on May 8, 1945, and interpreted toasts at the banquet of celebration after the ceremony. Henry Ware learnt Russian during his five-year stay as a student at Plekhanov Institute in Moscow, where he studied economics and was recruited by the NKVD to report on the American community in Moscow. Back in the USA, he was independently recruited by the Golos-Bentley Soviet espionage network under the codename ‘Vick”. In 1975, probably inspired by his study of the Soviet economy, he founded the Useful Services Exchange (USE), a community-based organization in Reston, Virginia, enabling neighbors to help each other through the exchange of services. The discussion draws on available visuals, memoirs, newspaper sources, and declassified documents.

Motivation of labor in the Siberian industry during the industrialization period of the late 1920s - 1930s: results and prospects of historical research

During the industrialization period of the late 1920s – 1930s, a new system of motivation for industrial workers and employees was formed in the USSR, which determined the directions and results of Soviet labor policy for a long time. The effectiveness of the application of specific incentives was influenced by factors related to the peculiarities of the development of individual regions and industries. Local research, therefore, is able to expand and deepen our understanding of how labor stimulation was carried out in the Soviet economy. The subject of this study is the historiography of the problem of labor motivation in the Siberian industry in the late 1920s – 1930s. The purpose is to characterize the results of studying this problem and identify promising areas for scientific research. In modern historiography, a theoretical approach has developed to study the problem of motivation of industrial labor in various periods of the USSR's existence. Its basis is the division of incentives into material, compulsory and moral, as well as the idea that labor stimulation solves the tasks of attracting workers to production and encouraging them to improve work results. Historians use local and microhistoric approaches to take into account the impact of various factors on the implementation and effectiveness of labor incentives. The study showed that the motivation of labor in the Siberian industry in the late 1920s – 1930s did not act as a subject of special and comprehensive historical research. Soviet and post-Soviet historiography has accumulated a wealth of factual material related to solving the first of these tasks of labor motivation in the Siberian industry. The solution of the second problem has not yet been studied based on the application of modern theoretical approaches and techniques. The following are promising for study: differentiation of wages for industrial workers and employees, the use of various wage systems at enterprises (piecework, piecework-progressive, etc.), the impact on the consciousness of workers through the materials of the periodical press, the organization of various forms of socialist competition.

On the art critic M. I. Fabrikant’s report “The second five-year plan of scientific libraries for arts” (on the history of Soviet librarianship in the 1930s)

The personal archive of the art critic M. I. Fabricant (1887–1966), now in the collection of the Scientific Library of Lomonosov Moscow State University, comprises many documents in the book science, arts bibliography, and Soviet-era library science. The author publishes the exegetical text of the two draft versions of the report by M. I. Fabricant “The second five-year plan of scientific libraries for arts”. The dating of this document, presumably written shortly before June 19, 1932, is substantiated; the historical and political situation in the country of that period is described. The library science terminology then emerging and reflecting the political rhetoric of the five-year plans for Soviet economy is discussed. The use of technical terms in the humanitarian sphere is accentuated, e. g. “cultural construction”, “library construction”; within the collectivization paradigm, the terms characterized new methods of organization of work: “collection mobilization”, “consolidation”, “association”, “centralization”, “affiliating”, “hubbing”, “hub (central) library”, “general arts departments”; or the terms reflected the collective nature of work, like “brigades”, “groups” of museum libraries, art experts, “mass reader”, “library activists”. The number of terms characterized the specifics of museum libraries: “special library”, “scientific library”, “cultural and historical library”, “arts library”, “scientific library for arts”, “museum library”, “museum and arts library”, “isobibliothek” [“fine arts library”], “library for arts studies”.Scientific specificity of HAC: 5.10.4. “Library science, bibliography and book science (philological sciences)”.

Экономика СССР в начальный период Великой Отечественной Войны. Часть 1

The article analyzes the economic history of the USSR, covering an important period of the history of Stalin’s economic model – the initial period of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1942). The main feature of the Soviet economy during the war was that already in the first months the USSR lost control over the most developed industrial areas. This situation required fundamental reorganization of the structure of the economy, when its main production capabilities were used to produce military equipment at the expense of reducing the output of civilian products. The losses of the USSR economy from the occupation of part of the territory are considered and it is shown that the USSR in 1941–1942 fought Germany and its allies, having halved mobilization and economic potential. The article analyzes the process of transferring the economy to the war economy, which required an increase in the length of the working day and the abolition of vacations, the introduction of the card system, and the relocation of plants to other territories. The structure of state administration bodies, changes in the organization of management and the position of its individual participants in it are studied separately. Tables are given and analyzed, giving an idea of the volume and dynamics of production of means of production in this period, the production of non-ferrous metals, the production of consumer goods, military equipment. It is shown that due to the low quality of military production in the Red Army a huge proportion of non-combat losses, which was primarily due to unrealistic plans. The situation in agriculture is examined, where the decline in productivity was due to a number of reasons, including the predominant mobilization of the population from rural areas with a minimum of reservations, the almost complete cessation of supplies of mineral fertilizers and agricultural machinery and, consequently, a sharp decline in the mechanization of work. The situation in the construction industry, in the work of railroad transport is studied. The calculation of the dynamics of national income for 1940–1942 years is given. Thus, in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War revealed the strengths of the Stalinist economic model and created in the 30-ies military-economic potential, high qualifications of the country’s leaders promoted in the last pre-war years. The greatest achievements of the Soviet economy in this period are associated with the record-breaking rapid transfer of the entire economy on military rails.

ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT REFORMS IN THE SOVIET STATE IN 1957–1965 (based on the materials of Penza region)

The relevance of the article lies in the fact that the state management experience of 1957-1965 can be useful and in demand for domestic enterprises in modern conditions. The reform of the national economy management system in the Soviet state was an urgent task of the government and the society, since the country’s economy of this period was characterized by such negative phenomena as extensive development and over-centralization, which hindered the introduction of new technologies into production. The purpose of the study is to study the managerial reorganizations in 1957–1965 in the Soviet state on the example of Penza Council of National Economy, then the Volga Council of National Economy, to analyze the main directions of the management policy of the country’s leadership, to consider the features and identify prospects that appeared in the national economy of the region during the period under study. Materials and methods. The sources of the article were information published in various publications on the management policy of the party-Soviet nomenclature of the mid-1950s and 1960s in the RSFSR, documents and materials of the State Archive of Penza region and other literature. In historiography, one can note the works of N.N. Kaluzkova, M.D. Goryachko, S.G. Kovalenko and others. When studying the problem, the authors adhered to such methods as historicism, objectivity, complexity and a social approach in covering the issues of the stated topic. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the fact that the work clarifies the issues of managing the national economy of the region, the problems of implementing government decrees and orders, and introduces a set of new archival sources. Study results. In May 1957, a law was passed on industry management through the councils of the national economy, subordinated directly to the Councils of Ministers of the Union Republics: instead of branch ministries, territorial Councils of National Economy began to be created. In the functioning of Penza region Council of National Economy, as well as throughout the country, two stages can be distinguished: 1957–1959 was characterized by decentralization of management structures, 1960–1965 – by consolidation and centralization of management in order to coordinate and control the activities of the Council of National Economy: there were state committees for industries responsible for the development of a unified sectoral policy, which were fragmented, liquidated, engaged in redistribution of functions, changed their subordination. The Councils of National Economy themselves became larger, new management units were built over them. Conclusions. The 1950s and early 1960s can generally be called a successful period in the Soviet economy development in the entire history of the USSR in terms of both economic growth rates and the efficiency of social production. The economy developed in line with global trends, especially in the second half of the 1950s. The leader of the party and the state, N.S. Khrushchev, acted in the interests of the people, saw his main purpose in ensuring peace and well-being for the Soviet people, led boldly, but in many ways impulsively and inconsistently.

On Some Aspects of the Activity of the Ussr State Arbitration in 1946–1953

For the Soviet Union, which won the Great Patriotic War and made a decisive contribution to the victory of the Allies in World War II, the post-war period was marked by the urgent need for a forced recovery of the economy suffering seriously as a result of significant human losses, the destruction of industrial enterprises, disruption in logistics links, the interruption of trade relations between various subjects of socialist economy. The State Arbitration of the USSR as a body with judicial and administrative functions became one of the state mechanisms to carry out the restoration process in the post-war Soviet economy. In this historical period the resolution of disputes between economic entities, as well as control over the execution of decisions on these disputes pursued the goal to ensure the smooth functioning and interaction of Soviet enterprises and institutions. Through the use of narrative, historical-comparative, chronological and statistical methods of historical research the article, based on a wide range of historical literature and archival sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, reveals an attempt to analyze the activities of the USSR State Arbitration in the period from 1946 to 1953, since during this period the activities of the body were directly related to restoration of the post-war Soviet economy. In order to identify the main activities of the USSR State Arbitration in the post-war period related to the restoration of the post-war Soviet economy, the paper pays great attention to the statistical data contained in archival sources. Noting the role of the USSR State Arbitration in the system of state authorities, with the activities aimed at the accelerated resolution of the economic tasks set, the article also reveals the work made to improve the State Arbitration’s own effectiveness. The article describes the historical situation in which State Arbitration had to function and develop after the Great Patriotic War.

Философские основания воззрений И.Х. Озерова

The subject of the article is the analysis of the philosophical foundations of the economic views of a major pre-revolutionary and Soviet economist Ivan Khristoforovich Ozerov (1869–1942). In the course of the study it is noted that Ozerov’s economic views are methodologically similar to state socialism. At the same time, the au-thor draws attention to the fact that in Ozerov’s scientific and journalistic works a significant part is occupied by the consideration of social development through the prism of institutions, which allows us to talk about the for-mation of methodological foundations of institutionalism in Russia in parallel with the West. It is noted that de-spite the material orientation of his activities, Ozerov also paid attention to the spiritual world. He has three jour-nalistic works to his credit, in which the economist’s idealistic perception of reality is manifested. In the course of the study, the author concludes that the main philosophical basis of Ozerov’s economic views can be con-sidered idealistic materialism.

A.P. Rudanovsky and his ideas of balance sheet analysis as an enterprise model.

This article is devoted to the contribution to the development of Russian accounting by one of the outstanding scientists of the XX century Alexander Pavlovich Rudanovsky. Particular attention is paid to balance sheet as a central category in the researcher’s works. In Rudanovsky’s works the balance sheet can be considered as a model in the modern sense of economic relations. Despite the fact that Rudanovsky’s ideas were not subsequently developed by Soviet economists, they were highly appreciated and inspired post-Soviet researchers to updated concepts. Thus, the study of its theoretical provisions remains relevant.

Соціально-економічні процеси в Івано-Франківській області Україн ської РСР в радянській історіографії

The purpose of the research is to analyze the scientific works of Soviet economists, state officials, and historians and formulate relevant recommendations for the post-war reconstruction of the economy and infrastructure of independent Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientificity, objectivity, and historicism. Problem-chronological, exploratory, and analytical methods have been employed, along with the generalization and systematization of materials. The scientific novelty lies in the awareness of both negative and positive trends in the socio-economic life of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, as a component of the western region of Ukraine and the republic. This allows for the development of a program for economic reconstruction and some theoretical and practical guidelines. The main focus should be on the legal framework and provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine. Successful reconstruction of the country is possible with the involvement of qualified specialists and managers, as well as a modern educational-information network. An important component of the state's social policy is the management of labor resources and the implementation of an active employment policy. Addressing fundamental household issues will have a positive impact on the reconstruction and development of the economy. Conclusions. There are all reasons to agree with Soviet scholars that the development of the economy and household infrastructure of the region was closely linked to the improvement of the educational and cultural level of the local population. Factors influencing the improvement of well-being and life expectancy included the level of medical services, social guarantees, pension provision, and receiving payments and benefits from the state budget. These generalizations apply to all works and publications. In the early 1970s, an economic concept was being implemented in practice – as the state's economy strengthens, the well-being of the people grows. Its essence lay in the idea that the state should allocate appropriate funds to meet the social needs of people: education, medicine, culture, and improvement. The Ukrainian people, in difficult conditions of totalitarianism, managed to preserve its language, culture, and timeless spiritual values thanks to the active efforts of the intelligentsia.

Зображення жінки в мистецтві як елемент радянської ідеології (героїня- працівниця, мати-героїня, жінка в іміджі соціалістичного реалізму) в добу «відлиги» та «застою»

In the article, the authors investigated and analyzed the aspect of the depiction of women in art during the "thaw" and "stagnation" as a key element of the Soviet ideology of those times. The purpose of the article is to study the role of heroine-worker, mother-heroine, and modern woman in the image of socialist realism. Based on this, the authors drew attention to their symbolic significance in forming ideological concepts and social values in this period. The methodological basis of the research is the use of the principles of historicism, systematicity, and comprehensiveness, as well as a combination of problem-chronological methods of induction and deduction. The scientific novelty. The authors make an essential contribution to understanding the role and portrayal of women in Soviet art during the periods of "thaw" and "stagnation". By analyzing heroine-workers, heroine-mothers, and modern women in the context of socialist realism, the article highlights new aspects of their symbolic significance, which contributes to expanding the understanding of Soviet ideology and influencing the perception of the role of women in society. Conclusions. Under the influence of Soviet ideology and communist propaganda, the changed image of a woman was like an allegory of the Motherland, contributing to educating patriotism and love for the native land and the entire Soviet state and socialist society, especially in the younger generation. The result of this process came to be completely new aspects in the perception of the role of women, which were widely reflected in works of art and testified to the modification of traditional stereotypes and social roles in the Soviet socialist society. Women's participation in various spheres of the Soviet economy, supported by ideological influence, was reflected in their new image in art, positively highlighting various aspects of their daily lives and roles in a socialist society.

РОЛЬ ИНСТИТУТА ЭКОНОМИКИ АН СССР В ОСУЩЕСТВЛЕНИИ ХОЗЯЙСТВЕННОЙ РЕФОРМЫ 1965 ГОДА

The article shows the role and place of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the course of developing theoretical problems of the Kosygin reform of 1965 followed by the discussion with the soviet economists. A number of studies reveal that the Institute of Economics was in fact the scientific headquarters of this reform. Since the late 1950s leading scientists of the Institute expressed thoughts and positions that subsequently formed the basis for the ongoing economic reform. The essence of these ideas came down to the need to develop market relations in the Soviet economy of that time and to strengthen the effectiveness of the law of value. The article also shows that in the early 1970s. the Institute of Economics was subjected to severe criticism by party authorities, which resulted in a serious reorganization of the institution.

Albania’s Foreign Economic Relations, 1956–1977: Between Moscow and Beijing

This article analyses the economic relations of the People’s Republic of Albania with socialist countries in the late 1950s–1970s, as well as the Soviet Union’s strategy of using the “economic factor” in its relations with Albania. The main sources for the article were documents of the embassies of the USSR in socialist countries, information notes of Soviet economists, reports of special services and analytical materials compiled in the Central Committee of the CPSU. The author concludes that both the Soviet Union and China sought to use economic cooperation with Albania to draw it into the orbit of their international policies. To this end, Moscow and Beijing developed complex strategies of foreign economic relations, which included interstate cooperation and partnership within the framework of international socialist cooperation of the economies of the people’s democracies. The amount of economic aid received by the PRA was significant and allowed the country to enter the stage of industrial development. At the same time, both the Soviet and Chinese partners tried to contain the gigantomania of their ally’s plans by reducing loans to certain obviously unprofitable enterprises. The Albanian elite, however, could not admit the fallacy of its economic policy and therefore attributed its low effectiveness to external enemies. Neither the Soviet Union nor the People’s Republic of China managed to use the “economic factor” to influence the internal politics of the PRA for a long period of time. Skillfully maneuvering between Moscow and Beijing and playing on the contradictions of the two leading powers of the world socialist system, Tirana maintained its socio-economic model, which proved surprisingly stable.

Академик Ю. В. Яременко: мы должны быть равны себе

The article focuses on the creative contributions of Academician Yury V. Yaremenko, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who significantly influenced the development of heterodox economic theories. Yaremenko’s theory revolves around the view of the economy as a heterogeneous and pyramidal structure. At its foundation, lower levels employ massive and inexpensive resources with low returns, while upper levels use more productive yet costlier resources. Economic growth, in this context, is characterized by the interaction of two distinct processes, explaining the effects of scientific and technological development through “structural shifts”. The theory explains the relationships between substitution and compensation processes throughout historical development, leading to various forms of labor-saving and capital-saving scientific and technological progress. Its systemic nature is evident in connecting macro-level interactions with micro-level dynamics, specifically in how enterprises respond to resource scarcity by increasing the complexity of their production processes. The theory provides an explanation for the Soviet economy’s inability to transition to intensive growth, attributing it not only to external but also to internal constraints, such as the exaggerated development of the military-industrial complex. Additionally, it sheds light on why the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lost its role in safeguarding the common national interest among economic entities. Furthermore, Yaremenko’s theoretical constructs can be extended to the global economy, which can be presented as a heterogeneous hierarchical social structure. Technological leadership is a pivotal factor in the formation of three interconnected and complex “pyramidal” structures: material, technological, and financial.

Хозяйственно-управленческая этика советских руководителей предприятий 1930–1940-х гг. По источникам личного происхождения

This article, for the first time in domestic historiography, scrutinizes the ethical principles guiding the managerial activities of directors in Russian enterprises during the 1930s and 1940s. To address this issue, a selection was made from sources of personal origin, consisting of expressions concerning the principles of managerial ethics, followed by a structured description of these principles. The study employs historical-comparative and historical-genetic methods. The significance of the economic-ethical aspect of the soviet leaders mentality allows for a fresh understanding of the genesis of the soviet elite and its role in the transformation of the socio-economic structure of the country. Furthermore, the examination of the labor ethics of soviet leaders based on personal origin sources is undertaken by the author for the first time in historiography. Additionally, the article introduces a novel approach by applying a systematic structuring method to the managerial-ethical principles of enterprise leadership. The study of managerial ethics is conducted based on personal origin sources, such as memoirs and diaries of enterprise directors. The primary portion of the source complex is extracted from the archives of the Russian State Archive of Economics (memoirs of A. L. Kozlov, A. M. Kontorshchikov, Yu. N. Kozhevnikov, and the diary of M. V. Yasvoin), the majority of which remain unpublished and minimally incorporated into scholarly discourse. The methodological foundation for studying these sources is rooted in A. Rikh's works on the understanding of economic ethics, as well as contemporary Russian historians works on new property relations in the soviet economy of the 1930s to the early 1950s. The author concludes that the fundamental ethical principles adhered to by enterprise leaders in their managerial activities consisted of an «oath» to the fundamental postulates of soviet authority and the requirements formulated by the state. The leaders deemed the principles of centralized command and personal labor participation in enterprise affairs as correct. Regarding moral norms of management, the leaders considered personal gain, nepotism, and favoritism, among other practices, as unacceptable. However, the principles of economic-labor ethics identified through published sources do not encompass the latent stratum of the soviet economic model, where deviations from certain economic-ideological norms, disregard for subordinates, «everyday» norms of managerial material support, etc., were deemed acceptable. The article concludes that a significant portion of soviet enterprise leaders in the 1930s and 1940s adhered to the proposed soviet ideological system of ethical values, striving to uphold and cultivate «socialist» ethical parameters.

Продразверстка и геоэкономика Советской России

This article is a research which touches a number of subjects covering examination of “Prodrazverstka” and the early stage of the NEP impacts on the RSFSR agricultural sector recovery. It is proposed to conduct this examination from the point of view of geo-economics. The aim of this article is to put forward arguments that prove our hypothesis that the fractional restoration of the geoeconomic space of the former Russian Empire at the end of 1919-1920 contributed to the beginning of the post-war restoration of the RSFSR national economy, when such an institutional factor as the start of the NEP in 1921 was secondary in the process of the Russian recovery from the crisis. We prove that the re-integration of the country had led to the accession of product-surplus regions in order that to ground our point, which mentioned above. In connection with the purpose of the study we carry out the following most important tasks: regarding the published in the USSR materials containing the dynamics of volumes of the state provision from 1916 to 1921; updates data on the state of the Russian economy before and after the February and October revolutions of 1917 in order to decide the degree of influence of the Imperial heritage on the survival of Russians under the conditions of severe economic crisis of 1918 – 1920; the discovery of the connection between “Prodrazverstka” and the plowing’s size in Russian agriculture. Our work is based on a number of theoretical and statistical works, including statistical and analytical studies completed by contemporaries of the Russian Civil war. In particular, the materials of Oganovsky's book Essays on the economic geography of the USSR are insufficiently analyzed in post-Soviet Russian historiography, as well as a number of other works by Soviet economic historians, in particular, the voluminous work Of arutinyan A. A. and Markus B. L. “The development of the Soviet economy”, published in 1940, is mainly devoted to the 1920s – 1930s, but contains a lot of interesting materials on the Russian economy during the First world war and the Civil war. Despite the fact that the work Arutinian A. A. and Marcus B. L. written during the era of Stalinism, it is fairly objective regarding the evaluation of achievements of the Russian Empire to the beginning of the First world war and the February revolution. We also appeal to several collections of documents. Our article definitely contains a discussion with the mainstream of historical science both in Russia and abroad. In particular, our main conclusion, which follows our research hypothesis, states that the effectiveness of the NEP in bringing the country out of the crisis was exaggerated, the ground for getting out of the economic crisis was created at the end of 1919 during the Red army’s offensive along The Civil war fronts, when a number of bread-rich regions were recaptured from the Whites and the interventionists, this process was then repeated in 1920.

Petrovsky Agricultural Fair in the Years of the New Economic Policy (Based on the Materials of the State Archive of the Perm Region)

Introduction. Since 1921, the country has been going through a period of economic experiments, a period of aggravation of the political struggle over the further development of Russia. This stage has gone down in history under the abbreviation NEP – New Economic Policy. The new economic policy has had a great impact on the daily, private lives of people, until recently insufficiently studied. The NEP period causes controversy among modern researchers of the Soviet Union, as well as disagreements in their assessment. The relevance of the topic of NEP is explained by the socio-economic and political changes that have occurred in Russian society in recent years, the transition to market relations. The experience of the “mixed economy” of the 1920s seems to have great practical significance for modern economic and political development. As such, this period was not marked by a holistic policy. There have been certain steps towards the recognition of various forms of ownership, the legalization of private entrepreneurship, and at the same time, a retreat to the position of strict state regulation, an economic dictate bordering on extortion. The purpose of the article is to consider the process of creation and functioning of fair trade in Perm during the NEP years, to analyze the impact of this practice on the daily life of citizens. Materials and Methods. The study is based on a structured approach that considers the Soviet economy as a set of complexly organized enclaves. The modular approach can be described as a transition from a general analytical scheme to a set of derived analytical schemes or blocks of a lower degree of generality. A characteristic feature of the NEP – diversity – is an attribute property of the Russian economy, as a result, its study is an urgent task today. The term “way of life” is considered as a scientific category and its potential in the study of the economy of the transition period, including the NEP period. The “scale of patterns” formed by modern economists allows us to study in more detail the problems of the NEP, including the mechanism of functioning of the patterns that unite the most economically active segments of the population. Results. The first, most significant feature of the Petrovsky Fair, as well as all fairs of the present moment, is the composition of firms and organizations that traded at the fair, which immediately changed in comparison with the pre-war time. The main figures and participants of both fairs in Perm turned out to be, due to the current economic situation, state trade enterprises. In second place in terms of turnover is cooperative trade. The size of private capital at the Petrovsky Fair was insignificant. Nevertheless, the unfolding fair trade of both fairs showed the economic power of state and cooperative trade and had a very significant impact on wholesale fair transactions during the Petrovsky Fair. Concluding the review of the results of the Petrovsky Fair, based on the available digital information and conclusions from them, it can be noted with confidence and satisfaction that the experience of the Petrovsky Fair, as the most important factor in the rapprochement of the city with the countryside and the restoration of the national economy, was successful, brought a significant revival of trade turnover and especially the resumption of lost ties and strengthening them. Discussion and Conclusion. The proposed provisions and conclusions create prerequisites for further study of trade as a factor in stabilizing the social and political situation in the country.

“In the beginning was the Word”: words and deeds of Soviet economists in the book “Cognitive structures and political economy of socialism in the USSR”, ed. by P. A. Orekhovskii

Objective: to evaluate the work “Cognitive structures and political economy of socialism in the USSR”, ed. by P.A. Orekhovsky (St. Petersburg: Aleteya, 2022).Methods: textual analysis, methodological criticism.Results: the paper reviews a collective monograph by the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences devoted to the history of Soviet economic thought in the 1950s – first half of the 1980s. The novelty of the reviewed work consists in the methodological approach. It involves analyzing the peculiarities of speech practices and assumes that their result was the formation of a special cognitive structure, which development cycle had a decisive influence on political processes. Not being a tutorial, the work can be used as auxiliary educational material on the history of Soviet economy and economic thought. At the same time, the work contains a number of controversial points. In general, it presents an important contribution to a potential discussion of the past and present of the Russian economic science and the nature of late-Soviet and post-Soviet economic and social changes.Scientific novelty: the innovation of the work consists in the consistent application of the approach to the history of Soviet economic science, which implies blurring of a clear boundary between the subject and object of economic research. The originality of the methodological approach consists in the fact that it applies Western “postmodernism” to analyze such a unique object as the Soviet economic science.Practical significance: the work can be recommended to a wide range of specialists interested in the problems under consideration.

Электронный документооборот как фактор влияния на человеческий капитал организаций

The article represents one of the first attempts in the domestic literature on the problems of electronic docu-ment management to link this issue with such a social factor as increasing trust in society and such a problem of modern management as the role of electronic document management in managing the human capital of the organization. On the issue of trust, the article substantiates the fact that the problem initially posed by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 9, 2017, to create conditions for increasing trust in electronic documents has not yet been solved. It is emphasized that the rejection of paper media has rather reduced trust in society both at the level of the state-population and at the level of corporate employer-employee relations. In order to confirm this circumstance, the authors stress the social inertia of the transition from paternalistic social and labor relations to liberal-market commodity-money relations in modern society. On the issue of the connection of transition to electronic document flow in the management of a modern organiza-tion, the article substantiates that such a transition from the standpoint of human resource management should be assessed from the standpoint of changing the paradigm of managing the labor potential of an employee, adopted in the Soviet economy, to the paradigm of human capital management in the modern economy. The given conclusion is argued both by references to socio-economic literature and the results of socio-economic research. The article justifies that the transition to management as part of human capital issues solves the prob-lem of trust and social justice in the transition to electronic document flow management.