Out recently with Yale University Press is The Art of the Bribe: Corruption under Stalin, 1943-1953 by James
Heinzen, Rowan University. The publisher describes the book as the first "archive-based study of official corruption under Stalin and a
compelling new look at the textures of everyday Soviet life after World War II":
In the Soviet Union, bribery was a skill with its own practices and culture.
James Heinzen’s innovative and compelling study examines corruption under Stalin’s dictatorship in the wake of World War II, focusing on bribery as an enduring and important presence in many areas of Soviet life. Based on extensive research in recently declassified Soviet archives, The Art of the Bribe offers revealing insights into the Soviet state, its system of law and repression, and everyday life during the years of postwar Stalinism.
Praise for
the book:
“Corruption
could be the most important of all the understudied topics in Soviet history,
but James Heinzen has found a way to illuminate this dark terrain with
brilliant research. His cogent analysis built upon startling archival finds
enlarges the pioneering work of the great Gregory Grossman, and provokes a
rethinking of Soviet legal machinery, the state, and the society.”-Stephen
Kotkin
“A
magnificently researched, archivally based study of bribery and corruption
under high Stalinism in the Soviet Union. The analysis is carefully drawn,
fully persuasive, and makes an important contribution to the historiography of
the Soviet Union and the comparative study of corruption and bribery.”-Norman M.
Naimark
“Stunning
…. Bribery was not peripheral or alien to the Stalinist command economy but an
essential consequence…. Heinzen's study is bigger than its ostensible subject,
for it gives a deeply textured view into how Soviet society actually
worked.” -Ronald Grigor Suny
“In
Stalin’s Russia, where the party ruled every aspect of life, to give or take a
bribe was to be human. Heinzen’s fascinating study shows how and why it was
done.” -Mark Harrison
"This
deeply researched and thoughtful book sheds new light on corruption in the late
Stalin years, newly illuminating the limits to Stalin’s power and the Soviet
legal system." -Deborah Kaple
More
information is available here.
