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Decentralizing Dictatorship: Soviet Local Governance during World War II
Author(s) -
KHLEVNIUK OLEG
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the russian review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9434
pISSN - 0036-0341
DOI - 10.1111/russ.12190
Subject(s) - decentralization , dictatorship , corporate governance , documentation , world war ii , public administration , state (computer science) , central government , political science , local government , business , political economy , economic system , economics , democracy , law , finance , algorithm , politics , computer science , programming language
Based on new archival documentation, this article investigates the process of localization (the decentralization of authority down to local actors) in the USSR during World War II. Local authorities managed the economy of some regions as a unified complex. They allocated the workforce, equipment, and materials among enterprises that reported to different commissariats (economic and state ministries) and determined production plans. In so doing, local party authorities challenged departmental interests and violated the planned centralization standards. The localization of governance is interpreted in this article as the result of interactions between several related processes. On the one hand, after the terror of the 1930s, the composition of regional managers became increasingly stable. On the other hand, during the critical conditions of war the center restructured its relationships with the regions. The overall contraction in manufacturing and the break‐down in cooperation between enterprises forced the government to rely on the initiatives of lower level management, which then acquired significant authority. Under the influence of these factors, many practices of formal and informal localization spread at the regional level. This article examines and categorizes these practices, their reasons, and their consequences.