Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II

Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism is the first study of labour and labour policy during the critical period of the Soviet Union’s postwar recovery and the last years of Stalin. It is also the first detailed social history of the Soviet Union in these years available to non-Russian readers. Using previously inaccessible archival sources, Donald Filtzer describes for the first time the tragic hardships faced by workers and their families right after the war; conditions in housing and health care; the special problems of young workers; working conditions within industry; and the tremendous strains which regime policy placed not just on the mass of the population, but on the cohesion and commitment of key institutions within the Stalinist political system, most notably the trade unions and the procuracy. Donald Filtzer’s subtle and compelling book will interest all historians of the Soviet Union and of socialism.