Women and the birth of Russian capitalism : a history of the shuttle trade / Irina Mukhina ; Yuni Dorr, design.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mukhina, Irina, 1979- author.

Contributor:

Dorr, Yuni, designer.

Series:

NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women merchants--Soviet Union--History.

Women merchants.

Businesswomen--Soviet Union--History.

Businesswomen.

Small business--Soviet Union--History.

Small business.

Black market--Soviet Union--History.

Black market.

Soviet Union--Commerce--History.

Soviet Union.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (183 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

DeKalb, Illinois : NIU Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Little has been known, acknowledged, or studied about the shuttle trade, one of the major manifestations of new Russian life of the 1990s. The term itself seems to suggest something of a rather small scale. Indeed, the amount of each transaction in this trade was miniscule. Individual peddlers traveled to near-abroad with their bulging bags and brought back home for resale only as many goods as they could personally carry in their enormous suitcases. The phenomenon hidden behind the term "shuttle trade" was by no means insignificant or small in scale. By the mid-1990s, it constituted the backbone of Russian consumer trade and was a substantial source of revenue.The primary participants in the shuttle trade were women, and in this enlightening study Mukhina assesses the reasons why women were attracted to this business, the range of the personal experiences of female shuttle traders, and the social impact of women's involvement in this sort of economic activity. By analyzing the social and gendered dimensions of the shuttle trade, the reader can begin to understand more broadly how gender shaped the "transition" period associated with the end of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Moreover, the difficulties that these women faced highlight the gap between the rhetoric of free market economy and the actual market practices. These women-traders had to create and shape the physical market (an open-air space) for their goods without the basic legislative and other provisions of market economies. The shuttle trade became an avenue of female suffering but also of survival and even empowerment during the time that most Russians now call "the wild 1990s."

Contents:

Origins of the shuttle trade, 1987-91

The "golden age" of the shuttle trade and its structure

Women traders: success in numbers

The price of success

Where did all the women go?

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501758157

1501758152

9781609091521

1609091523

OCLC:

890674614