This book book brings together multiple generations of scholars, who investigate topics as varied as migration, gender, unfree labor, and automation, to understand a shockingly understudied topic: Soviet labor and working-class history. Soviet Workers in the World: Soviet Labor and Working-Class History in Global Context addresses Soviet labor and working-class history in a global context. The volume’s multigenerational collection of authors argues that, insofar as it relies on assumptions about the sui generis nature of Soviet socialism, scholarly understanding of Soviet labor and working-class history remains fundamentally flawed. Focusing on topics as varied as migration, gender, sports, unfree labor, automation, and many others besides, they demonstrate that, notwithstanding the specificity of the Soviet system, Soviet labor and working-class history is indicative of broader trends that affected working people all over the world. The result is an exciting collection of essays that is crucial reading for anyone interested in the history of socialism and labor in the twentieth century.
