The phenomenon of corruption in post-war Soviet Union: theoretical approaches and research practices

The paper analyzes the cognitive capabilities of modern interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of corruption. Six main contours of self-sufficient, identifiable corruption and shadow phenomena, the origins and Genesis of which can be found in the late Stalin period, are distinguished. The “optimistic” and “pessimistic” directions in historiography devoted to the understanding of the corruption phenomenon in the post-war USSR are revealed. According to the first, for such a phenomenon as corruption in the country there was no social and economic Foundation, since the key features of the socialist model were welfare for all members of society, national ownership of the means of production, income exclusively for labor, the planned nature of the economy, centralization of management of the national economy, the command position of the state in the economy, public consumption funds, the limited nature of commodity-money relations, etc. According to the second (“pessimistic”) interpretation, the totalitarian regime established with the coming to power of Stalin, only modified the forms of corruption, drove them “deep” into the social space. The differences in the assessment of the depth and consistency of corruption manifestations in the postwar period are shown.