DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_1_85

M. D. Novikov. Deviations in the process of conducting internal government loans in the USSR
in 1946–1957 // Petersburg historical journal, no. 1, 2025, pp. 85–95

Abstract:

The present article investigates the problem of deviations during the state domestic loan
campaigns of 1946–1957 in the USSR. Existing studies have not considered this subject as an independent one. To address this lacuna, an extensive array of documents from federal and regional archives was analysed. A comprehensive analysis was conducted, encompassing both positive and negative manifestations of deviant behaviour. Additionally, the study delved into the intricacies of criminal activities within the Soviet financial sector. The study revealed that deviations were caused by organisational imperfections in loan campaigns, where the state itself, by establishing a norm, prompted citizens to engage in positive deviations, using informational influence as means to this end. In instances where these measures proved ineffective, recourse was headed to methods that, while not always fully legal, did not constitute a breach of criminal law. The necessity to accomplish the designated objectives necessitated a degree of persistence from the actors responsible for implementing state directives, which can be conceptualised as deviant behaviour. Furthermore, the article provides a detailed exposition of criminal activities that were prevalent during the mass-political campaigns under scrutiny. The documents of law enforcement agencies demonstrate a variety of methods of violating socialist legality, as well as an extensive list of citizens from different socio-professional groups who resorted to criminal methods of interaction with Soviet security forces. However, these materials pay little attention
to the reasons that motivated citizens to commit such acts, thereby emphasised the problematic nature of the practice of state borrowing in the USSR.

Key words: state loans, deviations, bonds, USSR, mobilization economy, normative behavior, crime, social history.

Author:

Novikov, Maxim Dmitrievich — PhD in History, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: maximnovikov3-@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-4831-4063

References:

Forestier-Peyrat É., Ironside K. The communist world of public debt (1917–1991): The failure of
a countermodel? In Barreyre N., Delalande N. (eds.). A World of Public Debts. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. P. 317–345.

Khlevnyuk O. V. Korporatsiia samozvantsev. Tenevaya ekonomika i korruptsiya v stalinskom SSSR
[Corporation of impostors. The shadow economy and corruption in Stalin’s USSR. In Russ.]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2022. P. 146–148.

Kozlov V. A., Kozlova M. E. Prinuzhdenie k dobrovol’nosti: svagovtsy i poslevoennye zaimy [Coercion to voluntariness: Svagovtsy and post-war loans. In Russ.] In Malen’kii SSSR i ego obitateli. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2021. P. 113–126.

Klinova M. A. “Segodnia igraiu s ministrom finansov Zverevym v 1-i tirazh 1-go zaima”: problematika vyigrysha po zaimam v ego-dokumentakh 1946–1957 gg. [“Today I’m playing with finance minister Zverev in the 1st edition of the 1st loan”: the problems of winning loans in ego documents 1946–1957. In Russ.] In Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2023. No. 486, pp. 137–146.

Sukharev A. N. Poslevoennye obligatsionnye zaimy SSSR: finansovaia konstruktsiia i osobennosti
primeneniia [Post-War bonded loans of the USSR: Financial design and application features. In Russ.] In Finansy. 2020. No. 7, pp. 57–64.

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