On the forest front

This article explores the shaping of seasonal labour migration practices in the region of Transcarpathia, acquired by the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the Second World War. In the analysis of migration from that region to the lumber camps of Western Siberia between the late 1950s and the 1970s, the article focuses on the interaction between the state’s migration policies – which attempted to manage and stream labour mobility from the region – and the local migration initiatives that developed contrary to the state’s aspirations and bypassed the state labour distribution agencies. I argue that the migrant workers’ attitude to labour was the key to their outstanding productivity, to the building of longstanding relationships with managers, to the construction of the migrants’ self-image and, indeed, to their identity. Situated in the general context of labour relations characteristic of the Soviet Union, the migrant workers’ labour practices constituted an alternative to the overall functioning of the labour process in the USSR. Eventually, migrant workers came to represent a cultural paradox within the Soviet axiological system: the value of their labour performance could hardly be denied, but their acquisitive motives and their evading the official employment channels turned them into scapegoats rather than ‘heroes of labour.’

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Distribution (mathematics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Front (military · Geography · Identity (music · Labour economics · Political economy · Political science · Productivity · Situated · Sociology · State (computer science · World War II · European history and politics · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law · Soviet and Russian History

• Comrades in theory, outsiders in practice

  Csaba Sándor Horváth, Lőwi Ildikó•Labor History•2025

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• Introduction

  Open Access•Robert Archer, Sara Bernard et al.•Labor History•2023

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• The object of labor

  Martha Lampland•The object of labor•1995

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• The Soviet economic system

  Alec Nove•The Soviet economic system•1977

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• The Development of Siberia

  Open Access•Christian R Thauer, Helen Routledge et al.•Development of Siberia•1989

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• From Peasants to Labourers

  Vadim Kukushkin•From Peasants to Labourers•2007

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• Designing Tito's Capital

  Brigitte Le Normand•Designing Tito's Capital•2014

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• Lesniki and Leskhozy

  Dominique Moran•Environment and History•2004

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• Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–1985

  Eren Tasar•Europe Asia Studies•2014

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• Exile in the Soviet forest

  Open Access•Dominique Moran•Journal of Historical Geography•2004

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• The manpower problem in Siberia

  S G Prociuk•Soviet Studies•1967

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• Migration and the Social History of Modern Europe

  James H Jackson, Leslie Page Moch•Historical Methods A Journal of…•1989

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• Soviet Workers and Stalinist Industrialization

  T Anthony Jones, Donald Filtzer et al.•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1987

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• The Passport Society

  Linda J Cook, Mervyn Matthews et al.•The Russian Review•1996

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• The Myth of Managed Migration

  Open Access•Cynthia Buckley•Slavic Review•1995

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• The Little Deal

  Open Access•James R Millar•Slavic Review•1985

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• Population Redistribution in the USSR

  Robert A Lewis, Richard H Rowland•Population and Development Review•1980

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