New losses, new opportunities: (Soviet) women in the shuttle trade, 1987-1998

Journal of Social History

Volumn 43, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 341-359

  Mukhina, Irina ^a  

^a ASSUMPTION COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 75949118223     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.0.0255     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. All of these points will be discussed in detail in the main body of the paper; refer to pertinent sections for references.
2. "Chelnoki", Delovaia Gazeta, no. 4-94, January 26, 2001.
3. E. Leontiev, "Chelnok ne professiia, a diagnoz, " Rossiiskaia Federatsiia, No. 11, 1997, pp. 50-51.
4. Gosudarstvennyi Komitet Rossiiskoi Federatsii po Statistike (further: GKRFS), Sotial'no-ekonomicheskoe polozhenie Rossii, 1993-1994 gg., (Moscow, 1994), pp. 162, 164. Statistics are given for 1994, though these numbers did not change substantially from year to year in 1991-1995.
5. "Ai da chelnoki," Izvestiia, March 7, 1997. Many sources offer similar statistics; e.g. the Institute of Transition Economies estimated the unofficial shuttle trade in 1995-96 at USD 2.5-3 billion each quarter; totaling 10-12 billion annually (in addition to USD 1.5 billion confirmed officially).
6. As cited in: Andrei Iakovlev, "Nepotopliaemyi chelnok," Special Report of the Center of Regional Applied Research (Tsentr regional'nykh prikladnykh issledovanii), September 2005.
7. G. Charodeev, "Nashi 'chelnoki' pokinuli bazary Stambula," Izvestiia, September 5, 1998.
8. E. Medvedeva, "Chelnoki pereimenovany v korobeinikov, " Izvestia, October 28, 1998.
9. For more information on the shuttle trade as an integral part of the grey market, refer to Paul Holtom, "Shuttle Trade and New Border Regimes, " Russian Regional Perspectives Journal, vol.1, issue 3, (2006), at www.iiss.org.
10. See, for example, Vadim Radaev, "Entrepreneurial Strategies and the Structure of Transaction Costs in Russian Business, " in Victoria E. Bonnell, Thomas B. Gold, eds., The New Entrepreneurs of Europe and Asia: Patterns of Business Development in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China, (New York, 2002), pp. 191-213.
11. See, for example, Holtom, "Entrepreneurial Strategies and the Structure of Transaction Costs in Russian Business, " in Victoria E. Bonnell, Thomas B. Gold, eds., The New Entrepreneurs of Europe and Asia: Patterns of Business Development in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China, (New York, 2002), pp. 191-213. op.cit.
12. Though all interviews were conducted in 2000s, the respondents were asked to reflect on their shuttle trading experiences back in the 1990s. Many of the respondents are no longer in the business; most left in 1998 (as discussed later in the article).
13. This number is based on the author's research, although a more precise number of women involved in this illegal, often clandestine, business is impossible to calculate. Similar estimates had been made in the following works and range from 72 to 85 percent: V.I. Il'in, M.A. Il'ina, "Torgovtsy gorodskogo rynka: shtrikhi k sotsial'nomu portretu, " no. 5, EKO, (1998).
14. D. Kandioti, "Pol v neformal'noi ekonomike: problemy i napravlenia analiza, ' in T.M. Shanin, Neformal'naia ekonomika. Rossiia i mir, (Moscow, 1999).
15. S.U. Barsukova, "Zhenskoe predprinematel'stvo, " Sotsiologicheskie issledovania, 1999, no 9.
16. It is only with great hesitation that i use the term " transition" in this work. The term has been criticized for implying a transition from the centrally planned economy to Western style free market capitalism with all its features nearly preordained. In fact, however, the changes did not imply a predictable and inevitable outcome in one form and shape only. However, keeping these reservations in mind, the term "transition" helps to bracket chronologically the era of economic, political, social, and other changes in much of socialist Eurasia in 1985(8)-1998.
17. See, for example, Alan Ball, "Lenin and the Question of Private Trade in Soviet Russia, " Slavic Review, vol. 43, no. 3 (Fall 1984), pp. 399-412.
18. A. Iu. Davydov, Nelegal'noe snabzhenie sovetskogo naseleniia i vlast', (Moscow, 2002).
19. See, for example, Julie Hessler, A Social History of Soviet Trade: Trade Policy, Retail Practices, and Consumption, 1917-1953, (Princeton, 2004).
20. Amy E. Randall, "Legitimizing Soviet Trade: Gender and the Feminization of the Retail Workforce in the Soviet 1930s, " Journal of Social History, vol. 37, issue 4, (Summer 2004), pp. 965-990.
21. See, for example, Alena V. Ledeneva, Russia's Economy of Favors: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange, (Cambridge, 1998).
22. Caroline Humphrey, "Traders 'Disorder' and Citizenship Regimes in Provincial Russia, " in Michael Burawoy and Katherine Verdery (eds.), Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (New York, 1999), pp. 19-52, here p. 20.
23. See, for example, Claire Wallace, Vasil Bedzir, Oksana Chmouliar, "Spending, Saving, or Investing Social Capital: the Case of Shuttle Traders in Post-Communist Central Europe, " East European Series, no. 43, (Vienna, June 1997).
24. Ewa Morawska, "The Malleable Homo Sovieticus: Transnational Entrepreneurs in Post-Communist East Central Europe, " Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 32 (1999), ppp. 359-78.
25. See, for example, Florence Babb, Between Field and Cooking Pot: The Political Economy of Market Women in Peru (Austin, Texas, 1998).
26. Gracia Clark, Onions are my Husband: Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women (Chicago, 1994).
27. Janet W. Salaff, Working Daughters of Hong Kong: Filial Piety or Power in The Family? (New York, 1994).
28. Linda Seligmann, ed., Women Traders in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Mediating Identities, Marketing Wares (Stanford, CA, 2001.
29. Diane Wolf, Factory Daughters: Gender, Household Dynamics, and Rural Industrialization in Java, (Berkeley, 1992).
30. Caroline Humphrey, "Traders "Disorder" and Citizenship Regimes in Provincial Russia, " in Michael Burawoy and Katherine Verdery (eds.), Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham, 1999), pp. 19-52.
31. also Pernille Hohnen, A Market out of Place? Remaking Economic, Social, and Symbolic Boundaries in Post-Communist Lithuania, (Oxford, 2003), p. 4.
32. O.S. Chudinovskikh, A.B. Zhulin, Ekonomiko-demographicheskie aspekty chelnochnogo biznesa v Rossii (Moscow, 2001), p. 14.
33. Though globalization is a multi-faceted process with many global emitters, i use the term Westernization here to underline the desire that emerged in the post-Soviet space to consume or approximate Western European and US brands, fashions, styles, everyday activities, and even lifestyles, though the diversification of consumer tastes has expanded in the 2000s.
34. Deniz Yukseker, "Shuttling Goods, Weaving Consumer Tastes: Informal Trade Between Turkey and Russia, " International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, volume 31, issue 1, (March 2007), pp. 60-72, here p. 60.
35. Though contestable on some arguments, S. Klimova, " Shuttle Tradesr: Escaping Poverty or Pursuing Opportunity, " Social Reality 2 (2006) presents a short discussion of the trade that might also be of interest to readers.
36. Similar estimates had been made in the following works and range from 72 to 85 percent: V.I. Il'in, M.A. Il'ina, "Torgovtsy gorodskogo rynka: shtrikhi k sotsial'nomu portretu, " no. 5, EKO, (1998).
37. D. Kandioti, "Pol v neformal'noi ekonomike: problemy i napravlenia analiza, ' in T.M. Shanin, Neformal'naia ekonomika. Rossiia i mir, (Moscow, 1999).
38. S. U. Barsukova, "Zhenskoe predprinematel'stvo, " Sotsiologicheskie issledovania, 1999, no 9.
39. The Public Opinion Foundation, Opinion Poll conducted in June 2005.
40. also Svetlana Klimova, "The Shuttle Trade: Escaping Poverty or Pursuing Opportunity? Social Reality, issue 2, 2006.
41. See, for example, "Russia" Neither Jobs Nor Justice: State Discrimination Against Women in Russia, " A Human Rights Watch Report, vol. 7., no. 5., (March 1995).
42. Zoya Khotkina, ed., Sexual Harassment at the Work Place (Seminar Material on Women's Rights in Russia, Moscow, 1996.
43. Human Rights Watch Report, "Russia: Neither Jobs nor Justice: State Discrimination Against Women in Russia, " Vol. 7, No. 5., (March 1995).
44. Human Rights Watch Report, "Russia: Neither Jobs nor Justice: State Discrimination Against Women in Russia, " Vol. 7, No. 5., (1995).Ibid.
45. Eva Busee, "The Embeddedness of Tax Evasion in Russia, " in Alena V. Ledeneva and Marina Kurkchiyan, eds., Economic Crime in Russia (London & Boston, 2000), p. 142.
46. Gendernye problemy v Rossii: po natsional'nym publikatsiiam, 1993-2003gg., (Moscow, 2004), pp. 88, 90, 92.
47. E.B.Gruzdeva, Zhenskaia bezrabotitsa v Rossii (1991-1994gg), (Moscow, 1995), pp. 29-30, 36. Overall, there is an abundance of research on feminization of unemployment and poverty in post-soviet Russia.
48. Research on this topic is exhaustive.
49. see, for example, I.N. Tartakovskaia, Gendernaia sotsiologiia, (Moscow, 2005), pp. 171-189.
50. M. Buckley, Post-Soviet Women form the Baltic to Central Asia, (Cambridge, 1997).
51. J. Peterson, "Traditional Economic Theories and Issues of Gender: The Status of Women in the United States and the Former Soviet Union, " in J. Peterson, D. Borwn, eds., The Economic Status of Women Under Capitalism: Institutional Economics and Feminist Theory, (Cheltenham, 1994).
52. Historians also identified the specific gender setup of Soviet families as contributing to women's exodus from official employment into "dishonorable" businesses like trade. For further discussion, refer to Sarah Ashwin, ed., Gender, State and Society in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, ( London, New York, 2000), pp. 90-105.
53. Gendernye problemy v Rossii: po natsional'nym publikatsiiam, 1993-2003gg., (Moscow, 2004), pp. 83-84.
54. Numbers range from region to region and from urban to rural locations. For example, the numbers are 21% for Moscow and 26% for Saratov. Iu. V. Arutiunian, Transformatsiia postsovetskikh natsii: Po materialam etnosotsiologichesskikh issledovanii, (Moscow, 2003), p. 139.
55. O. Kopylov, "Kupit' po-russki, " Svobodnyi kurs, June 8, 2007.
56. Vadim Volkov, Violent Entrepreneurs: the Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism, (Ithaca and London, 2002), pp. 30-31.
57. For some of the underlying reasons for this choice.
58. See, Ashwin, Violent Entrepreneurs: the Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism, (2002), pp. 30-31. op. cit.
59. Marta Bruno, "Women and the culture of entrepreneurship, " in Mary Buckley, editor, Post-Soviet Women: from the Baltic to Central Asia, " (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 56-75, here p. 69.
60. There is a long and well documented history of Soviet women using bargaining and petitioning as effective survival strategies.
61. see, for example, Lynne Viola, "Bab'i bunty and Peasant Women's Protest during Collectivization, " in Russian Peasant Women, eds. Beatrice Farnsworth and Lynne Viola, (Oxford, 1992).
62. Golfo Alexopoulos, Stalin's Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926-36, (Ithaca, 2003).
63. [name suppressed for publication], an interview by the author, 2007.
64. In the interviews, nearly universally women-respondents complained that they were "real victims" of their life circumstances whereas males in app 60% of all cases indicated that all it took to solve the problem is sending a woman there ("da poslat' tuda babu, i vse dela!").
65. Interview with Elena Samoilova, Moscow, May 2007.
66. also Deniz Yükseker, "Trust and Gender in a Transnational Market: The Public Culture of Laleli, Istanbul, " Public Culture, vol. 16, no. 1, (Winter 2004).
67. G. Charodeev, "Nashi chelnoki pokinuli bazary Stambula, " Izvestiia, September 5, 1998.
68. Interview with Galina, Krasnodar, February 2008.
69. For example, interview with Nadezhda Aleksandrovna A., now a successful entrepreneur, Khabarovsk, 2007; for similar comments.
70. see N. Anfalov, "Kapkan dlia chelnoka, " Gorodskaia gazeta (Berezniaki, Perm oblast'), March 25, 2006.
71. "Istoriia chelnochnogo predprinematel'stva v Rossii, " Sotsial'naia real'nost', April 18, 2007.
72. Interview with Tatiana, Krasnodar, February 2008.
73. Interview with Emma, Moscow, May 2007.
74. "Togovat' po-russki", a documentary by NTV channel, aired on November 15, 2006.
75. Interview with Nina Ostrovskaia.
76. Zdorovie i zdravookhranenie v usloviyakh rynochnoi ekonomiki (Moscow, 2000), pp. 67-83.
77. Rossiiskii statisticheskii ezhegodnik, p. 250.
78. See, for example, Zdorovie i zdravookhranenie v usloviyakh rynochnoi ekonomiki (Moscow, 2000).
79. Zhenshchiny v SSSR. Statisticheskie materialy, (Moscow, 1990).
80. Gendernye problemy v Rossii: po natsional'nym publikatsiiam, 1993-2003gg., (Moscow, 2004).
81. V. Koldak, "Odinokoi zhenshchine predostavliaetsia obshchezhitie. Gde nedorog perenochevat' provintsialu?" Rossiiskaia gazeta, January 10, 2007.
82. Istoriia chelnochnogo predprinematel'stva v Rossii, " Sotsial'naia real'nost', April 18, 2007.
83. Interview with N. [name suppressed for publication].
84. Interview with Nadezhda K., May 2007.
85. On the lack of desire among trader to have children.
86. see Rossiiskii statisticheskii ezhegodnik, 2002, pp. 125, 253-55.
87. On poor prenatal care and a massive increase in numbers of children born with preventable health problems and disabilities.
88. see Gendernye problemy v Rossii: po natsional'nym publikatsiiam, 1993-2003gg., (Moscow, 2004), p. 78-79.
89. On abortion rates and the adverse effect of abortion for the reproductive system.
90. see Rossiiskii statisticheskii ezhegodnik, p. 246.
91. also J. .C. Wilke, Abortion: Questions and Answers, Cincinnati, Hayes Publishing Co, 1985.
92. J. .C. Wilke, Abortion: Questions and Answers, 1985. Ibid.
93. Zhenshchiny v SSSR. Statisticheskie materialy, (Moscow, 1990), p. 55.
94. Zhenshchiny v SSSR. Statisticheskie materialy, (1990), p. 55. Ibid.
95. Interview with Tatiana Nikolaevna B., Khabarovsk, 2007.
96. Galina, age 35, Krasnodar, February 2008.