Harrison, Mark (2009) Whistleblower or troublemaker? How one man took on the Soviet Mafia. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. Warwick economic research papers (No.890).

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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.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Whistle blowing -- Soviet Union, Mafia -- Soviet Union, Corruption -- Soviet Union, Soviet Union -- Economic conditions -- 1945-1955, Soviet Union -- Economic conditions -- 1955-1965
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Official Date:	26 January 2009
Dates:	Date Event 26 January 2009 Published
Number:	No.890
Number of Pages:	16
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)

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