scholarly journals Characteristics of shadow economy in stagnation era in USSR

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-70
Author(s):  
Ilia Valerievich Mametev

The article focuses on the problems of shadow economy, such as the illegal activity, as well as a legal activity hidden from the state control, which became an integral part of the life of the Soviet Union in the period of stagnation. The development of the shadow sector was connected, first of all, with the inability of the command-administrative system to take into account the demands of the population for certain goods and services. There have been examined prerequisites for the emergence of the shadow economy and the stages of its development in the society that built communism in the 1960s–1980s. The shadow economy contributed to the growth of corruption and criminalization, initiated the racket in the 1990s and significantly affected the public consciousness of the Soviet citizens and, later, the mentality of modern Russian society

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Elena Zubkova

To what extent was the Soviet state able to control (and oppose) the process of social exclusion and to what extent was Soviet society ready to integrate social outcasts? This article attempts to answer these questions by analyzing the phenomenon of begging in the Soviet Union between the 1940s and the 1960s. The article begins by studying the phenomenon of begging as a reaction to poverty, serving as a survival strategy for the lower social classes who were excluded from society due to poor standards of living. A brief historical overview of the campaign to combat begging in the the USSR from the Revolution of 1917 until the mid-1950s shows both the continuity and shifting perspectives of state reaction to this social problem. This article also analyzes begging, which was an important social phenomenon in the USSR after World War II, through the specific biographies of actual beggars. The article concludes with an examination of the public discourse on poverty in the 1950s and early 1960s, which reveals how both society and the state viewed the issue.


Author(s):  
Joseph M. Siracusa

‘Star Wars and beyond’ focuses on the various anti-missile shields proposed after the Cuban Missile Crisis. By the 1960s, both the United States and the Soviet Union, looking for alternatives to the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, found themselves caught up in an offensive and defensive arms race. Would an anti-missile shield respond effectively to the complex demands on it? Was the American arsenal enough of a deterrent to discourage rivals from striking first? Would the ‘shield’ approach reignite the arms race? Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (christened ‘Star Wars’ by critics) did not at first capture the public imagination, but its legacy continued in later administrations and is still felt today.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257399
Author(s):  
Spyridon Samothrakis

The debate over the optimal way of allocating societal surplus (i.e. products and services) has been raging, in one form or another, practically forever; following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the market has taken the lead vs the public sector to do this. Working within the tradition of Marx, Leontief, Beer and Cockshott, we propose what we deem an automated planning system that aims to operate on unit level (e.g., factories and citizens), rather than on aggregate demand and sectors. We explain why it is both a viable and desirable alternative to current market conditions and position our solution within current societal structures. Our experiments show that it would be trivial to plan for up to 50K industrial goods and 5K final goods in commodity hardware. Our approach bridges the gap between traditional planning methods and modern AI planning, opening up venues for further research.


2018 ◽  
pp. 406-422
Author(s):  
Elena V. Barysheva ◽  

This article studies radio broadcasts of celebratory demonstrations of workers in 1920-30s as a form of ideological influence on the public consciousness. Audio-culture, as a most wide-reaching and accessible form of mass media, had a significant impact on the audience from 1918 to 1920-30s. Radio played an important role in the solution of ideological tasks, rendering figurative and verbal influence on the masses in the Soviet Union. Explaining and spreading the changes that took place in the life and the politics of the nation, the radio created a unified space of communication. Running commentary as a communication had its rules and limitations, which had developed in the first decades of the Soviet power. Discourse stereotypes had in due course resulted in emergence of a ritualistic form of reporting similar to demonstrations and parades themselves. The genre developing, many clich?s and hackneyed phrase appeared that were to impress propaganda slogans and appeals on the listeners and to inspire emotions. Now these slogans were accessible to everyone, as reproducers were installed in the streets of cities and villages and pervaded communal flats. Event reporting intensified the emotional state of the audience, giving an impression of true popular enthusiasm. In radio reports from official festive events, message of the power inducing socio-political consolidation of the society was obvious. The research analyzes drafts of a radio program script on festive demonstration of November 7, 1939 stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Yu. K. Olesha fond). The writer’s notes indicate that the preliminary censorship and self-censorship did not allow for improvisation.


Author(s):  
Jānis Oga

This paper examines travels outside the Soviet Union by Latvian writers who were recognised by the occupation regime and acclaimed by the public during the Brezhnev era –from the 1960s into the 1980s – as one of the privileges enjoyed by the so-called creative intelligentsia, and how those travels were reflected in their literary and journalistic writings. The writers studied were born between 1910 and 1939 and can be seen as belonging to three different generations. The generational differences have a significant impact on how their experiences were treated in their works. Some of the texts considered in this paper are manifestations of their authors’ authentic creativity, whilst others exhibit obeisance to the status quo of their time and obligatory praise for the regime. But can a line between the two be clearly drawn? What were the goals and possibilities for travel among recognized and materially secure writers? What were they permitted to tell those readers who had no such travel opportunities? How did the notes they published in periodicals differ from the versions that later appeared in books? The methodological basis for this paper is the work of Alexei Yurchak, a Russian-born American anthropologist who provides a unique understanding of the concept of ‘the abroad’ (заграница) in the Soviet Union as demarcating not actual borders or territory but an imagined space, and the insights of the Canadian historian Anne E. Gorsuch about Soviet tourism abroad. Gorsuch has studied how Soviet citizens internalised Soviet norms and supported Soviet goals, but also the attempts by tourists to evade official constraints on their experience in foreign lands and how they sought to devise their own individual itineraries. Journeys abroad elicited conflicting emotions. Writers had to be comparatively affluent to travel, but they often experienced humiliation when confronted with the reality of their meager financial means outside the U.S.S.R. and the fact that they remained in durance even in the free world. Versions of their writings published in the post-Soviet period and later commentaries bear witness to episodes that could not be described in the Brezhnev era as well as self-censorship.


1984 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. M. Feldbrugge

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Dilshod P. Komolov ◽  

Using the example of the Uzbek SSR, this article reveals the process of militarization of enterprises and institutions on the eve of the attack of Fascist Germany on the Soviet Union, restrictions on the constitutional right of citizens to freely choose a profession and work, cruel exploitation of the population and the use of tens of thousands of prisoners aslabor by the despotic Soviet regime. The article also highlights the emergence of judges as victims of repression, the strengthening of party and state control over the judicial system based on archival sources.Index Terms:People's Commissariat of Justice, Supreme Court of the Uzbek SSR, people's Court, judge, investigation, sentence, prison, correctional labor, fine, working week, labor discipline, prisoner, military enterprises, decree


Author(s):  
Nikita I. Khmarenko

The emergence of pedagogical technologies and their mass introduction dates back to the 1960s. Reformation of the American and European schools was provoked by reinterpretation of the learning goals. However, the historical roots of some pedagogical technologies are much older than studies of J. Carroll and D. Bruner – renowned authorities in this area of research. One of these technologies is cooperative learning. Initially recognized as a key component of humanistic pedagogy of J. Dewey, this technology has been further developed in works of many Soviet and foreign scholars. In the 1920s, the works by J. Dewey had a serious impact on the reformation of the Soviet education system, which aimed to educate the entire population of the Soviet Union. However, for some reasons, the gradual introduction of cooperative learning into learning process took a break in the 1930s. Since the late 1990s, a serious pedagogical crisis has emerged in the Russian Federation, which cannot be mended by traditional education system; it encourages many teachers to look at the well-studied pedagogical technologies from a different perspective. Today the social order sets new requirements concerning a major breakthrough in training a person. Teamwork and analytical thinking skills, the ability to lifelong self-education and self-develop-ment require fundamental changes in the traditional education system. At the same time, for the successful implementation of pedagogical technology, it is necessary to resolve a number of issues related to the essence of the concept of cooperative learning and the definition of components. Research relevance is indicated, the historical roots and essence of the concept of pedagogical technology of cooperative learning are determined, examples of the practical application of models of this pedagogical technology are exemplified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Fedor L. Sinitsyn

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.


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