Khrushchev’s Perestroika: The Sovnarkhoz Reform in Soviet Dnipropetrovs’k, 1957-1965
| dc.contributor.advisor | Hessler, Julie | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ko, Kwangyeol | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-02-24T20:21:58Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-02-24 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation examines the 1957 Soviet economic reform that created regional economic councils, called “sovnarkhozes,” in place of central industrial ministries, many of which were simultaneously abolished. This reform represented a significant restructuring (in Russian, “perestroika”) of the system of economic management that had developed during Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan. It had both economic and political ramifications. Although the reform lasted only until 1965, its abandonment was neither inevitable nor a sign of the nonviability of the socialist economic system. Rather, it represented the potential for the Soviet system to adapt and change in light of new conditions and concerns. The Sovnarkhoz reform was not a failed reform to move toward a market economy and liberalism, as claimed in previous studies, but rather an attempt to make the planned economy more efficient and to advance Soviet society towards the communist future. The dissertation discusses the origins of the Sovnarkhoz reform in conjunction with a remarkable public discussion. Soviet people were invited to present their perspectives on the problems of the centralized system and their thoughts for reform. Although it is impossible to map the comments of the tens of millions of citizens who participated in the discussion onto the actual reform, the dissertation argues that the discussion illustrated participatory politics in the Soviet setting. A big question concerned the balance between centralized, sectoral decision-making and administration, or departmentalism, and regionalism. The dissertation argues that the seeming conflict between these two organizational principles was non-antagonistic, not a zero-sum game, and their relationship was continuously reexamined in subsequent years. Third, contrary to scholarship that holds that recentralization was already apparent in the Sovnarkhoz system as early as 1960, the dissertation shows that the personnel, structure, and work of the Sovnarkhoz continued to expand up until the dissolution of these councils. Finally, the dissertation examines the surprising role played by the Sovnarkhoz in foreign economic relations, arguing that it served as a middle ground connecting the local economy with foreign states. The dissertation rests on a vast source base, including the archives of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast’, central Soviet archives, and newspapers. | en_US |
| dc.description.embargo | 2026-10-30 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/30478 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | Cold War | en_US |
| dc.subject | Departmentalism | en_US |
| dc.subject | Khrushchev | en_US |
| dc.subject | Nikita Khrushchev | en_US |
| dc.subject | Regionalism | en_US |
| dc.subject | Sovnarkhoz | en_US |
| dc.title | Khrushchev’s Perestroika: The Sovnarkhoz Reform in Soviet Dnipropetrovs’k, 1957-1965 | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of History | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |