“A fresh take on the enduring problem of labor relations under socialism, this volume conceptualizes coerced and free labor, migration, gender, technology, empire, discipline, solidarity, and class. The authors raise important and provocative questions about the central role of workers during the last fifty years of the Soviet experiment.”

Diane P. Koenker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

“Workers, labor, and class matter for any comprehensive understanding of the history of the Soviet Union! This timely volume reveals both unexpected gains in the global history of twentieth-century labor and the challenges posed by state-socialist pasts for emancipatory class politics. Breathing vitality into a recently neglected realm of inquiry, it enlightens readers about the complicated and evolving experiences of Soviet workers in the world."

Andy Bruno, Indiana University, USA

“Labor history is back. Every chapter of this book brilliantly demonstrates how deeply we must rethink our images of socialism and planned economy, gender and class, state and enterprise, technologies and science – if we take labor as a focal point.”

Roman Gilmintinov, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia

“This compelling volume takes Soviet social and labor history in new and exciting directions. Its authors show how new technologies, spaces of informality and transnational encounters fundamentally revised relationships between citizen and state after the Second World War.”

Jeff Sahadeo, Carleton University, Canada