Our Daily Bread

by Kate Transchel, Elena Osokina

Drawing on newly available archival materials including official documents, reports, and personal accounts, this remarkable study presents a detailed picture of the living standards of various social groups in prewar Soviet Russia, and the role of state-controlled distribution of food and goods as a tool of the Stalinist dictatorship. The study offers a new perspective not only on the period of collectivization, industrialization, and terror but also on the regime's most rudimentary method of controlling human behavior and reshaping the social order. In her conclusion the author analyzes the long-term impacts of the Stalinist dictatorship of distribution, from bureaucratization to rural depopulation to the emergence of a distinctive type of black-market economy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia

Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jakub Ferencik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Elena Osokina's book primarily because (1) it is digestible and (2) an exceptional overview of the events in early Stalinist USSR.

Another aspect that stands out to me is the fact that Osokina is not merely discussing the famines related to that period, but rather the inefficiencies of collectivization under Stalin's system overall. The Soviet apparatus at the time inadvertently constructed markets due to how widely inefficient they were in distributing resources and -- most importantly -- food to rural areas in the USSR.

This book does quite the job of highlighting these problems and assessing our historical understanding of them.

[Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень мрачная местами книга, но вместе с тем автор обходится без предвзятости.