Awards

• Winner of W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize 2022 (United States)

Overview

A new history shows that, despite Marxism's rejection of money, the ruble was critical to the Soviet Union's promise of shared prosperity for its citizens. In spite of Karl Marx's proclamation that money would become obsolete under Communism, the ruble remained a key feature of Soviet life. In fact, although Western economists typically concluded that money ultimately played a limited role in the Soviet Union, Kristy Ironside argues that money was both more important and more powerful than most histories have recognized. After the Second World War, money was resurrected as an essential tool of Soviet governance. Certainly, its importance was not lost on Soviet leaders, despite official Communist Party dogma. Money, Ironside demonstrates, mediated the relationship between the Soviet state and its citizens and was at the center of both the government's and the people's visions for the maturing Communist project. A strong ruble-one that held real value in workers' hands and served as an effective labor incentive-was seen as essential to the economic growth that would rebuild society and realize Communism's promised future of abundance. Ironside shows how Soviet citizens turned to the state to remedy the damage that the ravages of the Second World War had inflicted upon their household economies. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, progress toward Communism was increasingly measured by the health of its citizens' personal finances, such as greater purchasing power, higher wages, better pensions, and growing savings. However, the increasing importance of money in Soviet life did not necessarily correlate to improved living standards for Soviet citizens. The Soviet government's achievements in ""raising the people's material welfare"" continued to lag behind the West's advances during a period of unprecedented affluence. These factors combined to undermine popular support for Soviet power and confidence in the Communist project.

Full Product Details

9780674251649

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Reviews

A masterful account of Stalin's and Khrushchev's lost battle to bring prosperity to the Soviet people and state through the strengthening of the ruble.--Elena Osokina, author of Stalin's Quest for Gold The Torgsin Hard-Currency Shops and Soviet Industrialization

A masterful account of Stalin's and Khrushchev's lost battle to bring prosperity to the Soviet people and state through the strengthening of the ruble.--Elena Osokina, author of Stalin's Quest for Gold: The Torgsin Hard-Currency Shops and Soviet Industrialization

A masterful account of Stalin's and Khrushchev's lost battle to bring prosperity to the Soviet people and state through the strengthening of the ruble. -- Elena Osokina, author of <i>Stalin's Quest for Gold: The Torgsin Hard-Currency Shops and Soviet Industrialization</i> As Ironside shows so convincingly in this highly original account, Soviet leaders and experts saw the politics of the ruble and the role of money as crucial to their efforts to engineer a better society. An excellent, exciting contribution to the new history of political economy, with implications for other welfare states and the history of inequality far beyond the Soviet Union. -- Vanessa Ogle, author of <i>The Global Transformation of Time: 1870-1950</i> How should socialists deal with money? In A Full-Value Ruble, Kristy Ironside examines the dilemmas posed by money in the postwar Soviet Union. Though Bolshevik leaders promised that communism would produce universal abundance, the postwar Soviet Union faced severe scarcity. So money decided who got what. From prices to pensions, from bread allowances to savings bonds, Ironside shows how monetary debates were fundamental to defining the Soviet social and economic order. A Full-Value Ruble revolutionizes our understanding of Soviet political economy. And in doing so, it poses profound questions about the meaning of money in our society, too. -- Chris Miller, author of <i>Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia</i>

Author Information

Kristy Ironside is Assistant Professor of Russian History at McGill University.

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