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Featuring an outstanding panel of Russian contributors, this collection is a valuable resource for students and scholars of politics, gender studies and Russian studies.

A case study based on four field trips, 1994-1996, to a mine in South Kuzbass referred to as Taldym explores the shift among Russian mineworkers from militant opposition to the communist regime, 1989-1993, to support for communists & nationalists in the late 1990s. The transformation is examined in the context of changes in the workplace, especially conflicts over the redefinition of the nature of enterprise collectivism, maintaining that worker support of the communists represented the search for a paternalistic leader to restore the security enjoyed with state-provided social benefits associated with collectivism. Taldym is considered the core of working-class radicalism because of the unique kinds of solidarity engendered in the immediate work group. Problems related to the loss of attachment to the work collective are discussed, along with family-based survival strategies, movement toward a larger collective, & support of authoritarian managers able to deliver resources to members of "alienated" collectivities. 12 References. J. Lindroth

Various arguments have been put forward to explain the social stability of the post-Stalin era, in particular theories of a "social contract", "incorporation" or "atomisation". This article argues that all these theories have been cast into serious doubt by the response of workers to the reforms of the post-communist era and proposes an alternative view of the integration of workers which centres on the social organisation of the traditional Soviet enterprise. It goes on to show the way in which the form of workers' relation to the labour collective has structured their behaviour during the transition era.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung basiert auf einer ethnographischen Studie in einem Bergwerk der Kuzbass-Region aus den Jahren 1994 bis 1996. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses steht die Frage nach den Ursachen für die hohe soziale Stabilität der Sowjetunion in der Nach-Stalin-Ära. Gängige Erklärungsmuster beziehen sich auf einen der sowjetischen Gesellschaft zugrundeliegenden Sozialvertrag, auf die Atomisierung der sowjetischen Arbeiterklasse oder auf ihre Einbindung in korporatistische Arrangements auf Unternehmensebene. Die Verfasserin zeigt, daß die Reaktion der russischen Arbeiter auf die Probleme der postsowjetischen Transformation die mangelnde Komplexität dieser Theorieansätze deutlich macht. Sie erklärt das hohe Maß an sozialer Stabilität Rußlands mit einer Kombination aus entfremdetem Kollektivismus und individuellen Überlebensstrategien auf Seiten der Arbeiter. (BIOst-Wpt)

Analysis of the relationship between Russian workers and the regime, social organization, and workers' passivity during the transition era.

This article examines the paradoxical co-existence of collectivity and passivity among Russian workers, which is linked to the non-monetary character of Soviet society. The article, based on fieldwork carried out in a mining village in Western Siberia, examines three distinct forms of collectivity: the symbolic collectivism of the enterprise as a whole; the collective identification of ordinary workers; and the collectivity of the immediate work group. In each case it is argued that the collective is defined negatively in relation to the outside and is not expressed in any form of collective self-organisation. This can be explained by reference to the structure of the enterprise within a non-monetary society, which fosters both dependence and division among workers.