Protest in the Provinces: Coming to Terms with Capitalism in Russia's Company Towns

In the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, Russia entered "shock therapy": a series of neoliberal and seemingly democratizing reforms that sought to quickly undo the decades-old communist planned economy, fused Party-State autocratic political system, and highly centralized government. Russians were indeed shocked—by the resulting runaway inflation, political chaos, declining living standards, rising unemployment, and persistent wage arrears.

Protest in the Provinces examines...