Practices of Exchange and Networking in Russia

Abstract

Western researchers studying the former Soviet Union first paid attention to the phenomenon of blat — to do with the use of informal contacts and networks to obtain goods and services or to influence decision making — in the 1950s. Yet although the importance of blat has been pointed to, there have been no attempts — and in fact no possibility — to study it. This article is based on original data gathered in 56 in‐depth interviews conducted during fieldwork in Russia in August 1994‐April 1995. The window of opportunity for such research occurred after people ceased being inhibited talking about blat, while still having a fresh memory of the Soviet period. These materials are unique. They enabled the author, first, to develop an ethnography of blat — that is to present it as a distinctive form of social relationship or social exchange articulating private interests and human needs against rigid control of the state; second, to record the daily problems which represent the ex‐Soviet system in a light not readily seen by an outsider; and third, to conceptualise the phenomenon of blat thus relating it to other informal practices. In this article focus will mostly be on the third angle of the research.

Citation

Ledeneva, A.V. (1999), "Practices of Exchange and Networking in Russia", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 218-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025886