The Alexander Nove Award for Distinguished Scholarship for 'The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, Vol.1-7'

BASEES is delighted to announce that the Alexander Nove Award for Distinguished Scholarship goes to the seven-volume economic history of Russia The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, which has come to the end with the publication of the seventh and final volume: The Soviet Economy and the Approach of War, 1937-1939 (Palgrave, 2018). The pivotal role in the series has been played by R. W. (Bob) Davies (b. 1925), a mighty figure in Soviet (Russian) and East European Studies, and a founding member of this association, serving on the precursor NASEES committee from 1963-1977.  The final volume of the series, is co-authored by Mark Harrison, Oleg Khlevniuk, & Stephen G Wheatcroft and  Stephen Wheatcroft also co-authored volume 5.

The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia was a continuation of  E.H. Carr’s project to write a history of the Bolshevik revolution. Between 1950 and 1969 Carr published 14 volumes of his History of Soviet Russia, covering the period from 1917 to 1929. To help with the final set of volumes, entitled Foundations of a Planned Economy, he recruited a co-author, the young economist R. W. Davies of the University of Birmingham. When he got to 1929, Carr stepped back from his project citing the increasing secrecy of the Soviet regime in the 1930s and the lack of primary documentation as his reason. Where Carr stopped, Davies took up the work. The seven volumes of his own series, entitled The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, cover the period from 1929 to 1939.  In what must be a record, the project was funded continuously by the Economic and Social Research Council from 1973 to 2010.

While the project continued, the world changed. The Soviet Union opened up, and then collapsed. Its archives became available to the world, solving the obstacle that had defeated Carr. Davies became a leading figure among many who made the Soviet state the best documented authoritarian regime of modern times.  The topics embraced by the seven volumes include forced industrialisation and collectivisation, famine, the emergence of the command system and how it worked, the limited scope for reforms, mass killings and forced labour, the path of consumption and living standards, the militarisation of the economy and war preparations, and the character of Soviet economic growth and development. 

Davies, Robert William. The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 1: Socialist Offensive: The Collectivisation of Soviet Agriculture, 1929-30. Harvard University Press, 1974

Davies, Robert William. The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 2: Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-1930. Harvard University Press, 1980

Davies, Robert William. The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 3: The Soviet Economy in Turmoil. Harvard University Press, 1989  

Davies, Robert William. The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 4: Crisis and Progress in the Soviet Economy, 1931-1933. Palgrave Macmillan, 1996

Davies, Robert William, and Stephen G. Wheatcroft. The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 5: The Yeas of Hunger 1929-1933. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2004.

Davies, Robert William, The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 6: The Yeas of Progress -1934-1936. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2014.

Davies, Robert William., Mark Harrison, Oleg Khlevniuk, & Stephen G Wheatcroft, The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 7: The Soviet Economy and the Approach of War, 1937–1939 (Vol. 7). Palgrave, Macmillan, 2018.