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Whistleblower or Troublemaker? How One Man Took on the Soviet Mafia

Author

Listed:
  • Harrison, Mark

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick ; Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham ; Hoover Institution onWar, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University.)

Abstract

The paper tells the story of a pensioner’s fight against a local mafia of Soviet party and government officials and farm managers in a remote rural locality in the 1950s. To Moscow, he was a whistleblower. To the leaders of his local community, he was a troublemaker. Working together, the local people went to extraordinary lengths to suppress his criticisms. Eventually, Moscow intervened to vindicate him. The story illustrates vividly the political and economic issues that arose when a centralized dictatorship that relied on mass mobilization over a vast territory with sometimes poor communications tried to contain local rent seeking while moving away from mass terror as its chief instrument of control.

Suggested Citation

  • Harrison, Mark, 2009. "Whistleblower or Troublemaker? How One Man Took on the Soviet Mafia," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 890, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:890
    as

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    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/workingpapers/2009/twerp_890.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Markevich, 2011. "How Much Control is Enough? Monitoring and Enforcement under Stalin," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(8), pages 1449-1468.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption ; Mafia ; Soviet Economy ; Whistleblowing.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • P3 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions

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