title: Smuggling Consumer Goods in Soviet Russia in the Period of the New Economic Policy
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Rupasov, Alexander I.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Tverdyukova, Elena D.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2022-09-13T17:52:02Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2022-09-13T17:52:02Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2022-06
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Rupasov A. I., Tverdyukova E. D. Smuggling Consumer Goods in Soviet Russia in the Period of the New Economic Policy. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 2022, vol. 67, issue 2, рp. 403–413.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu02.2022.206
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/37761
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: The purpose of the paper is to analyze the reasons for the persistence of consumer smuggling
  in Soviet Russia / USSR during the period of the New Economic Policy. The study draws upon
  national and regional archives and archives run by specific government departments as well as
  upon statistical and media sources. The authors conclude that the main reason for the smuggling
  trade was the shortage of consumer goods, which was caused by a decrease in imports
  and a reorientation of manufacturing towards the industrial products, rejection of the ideology
  of “everyday asceticism”, and the emergence of a new Soviet bourgeoisie. They believe that
  the factors for maintaining the scale of consumer smuggling were: disagreements between
  the border guard and the customs service, the leniency of punishments for smuggling, and
  the underdevelopment of border duty-free trade. The authors show that a lack of consumer
  imports led to a demand for smuggled items, which transformed within a short period of time
  (the first post-Revolutionary decade) unorganized smuggling carried out by individuals into
  a large-scale smuggling operation set up by organizations in which each member performed
  a specific function. The study demonstrates that government policies of protecting the state
  monopoly of foreign trade and a steady demand for smuggled goods contributed to the preservation
  of the smuggling industry. The presence of illegally imported consumer goods on the
  market contributed to the stabilization of the social situation in Soviet Russia during the years
  of the New Economic Policy. It became an alternative channel for satisfying the material needs
  of the urban population. Western products were not only sold from under the counter to representatives
  of the wealthy strata of the population but also entered the state and cooperative
  commercial network and craft workshops, which reduced shortages of goods on the domestic
  market. Smuggling in the 1920s could be classified as a “victimless crime” because it benefited
  not only its perpetrators but also those who used their services.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. History;Volume 67; Issue 2
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: smuggling
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: consumption
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: fight against smuggling
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: smuggled goods market
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Soviet Russia
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Smuggling Consumer Goods in Soviet Russia in the Period of the New Economic Policy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 06.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/37761/1/06.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 640,43 kB