Making Socialism Work: Economic Reform and the Soviet Enterprise, 1960s-2000s

Focused almost exclusively on Moscow, scholars typically suggest that the Kosygin Reform of 1965 had little effect on the Soviet economy. But by looking instead at the level of the factory — in this case the Shchekino Chemical Combine, a large producer of chemical fertilizers located in the Tula Region — Title VIII Research Scholar James Nealy will demonstrate how the Kosygin Reform had a long-lasting influence on production in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. In doing so, this talk aims to demonstrate precisely how much we can learn about authoritarian regimes by simply looking outside of traditional centers of power.