Starting the Fall semester of 2006 Dr. Elena Osokina will be teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Russian history.

Publications include:

Our Daily Bread: Socialist Distribution and the Art of Survival in Stalin’s Russia, 1927-1941. This book is an abridged and edited version of a work published in Russian in Moscow in 1998 by ROSSPEN under the title Za fasadom “Stalinskogo izobilia”: Raspredelenie i rynok v snabzhenii naselenia v gody industrializatsii, 1927-1941.

Hierarchy of Consumption. Life Under the Stalinist Rationing System. 1928-1935. (In Russian)

Current Activities:

Dr. Elena Osokina is currently working on her new book entitled “Torgsin”. The study reveals the unknown story of Soviet industrialization and everyday life by exploring the role of the state stores, Torgsin (1931-36), which during the lean years of Stalin’s industrialization sold food and goods to the Soviet people at inflated prices in exchange for foreign currency, gold, silver and diamonds. Torgsin became an important source of gold for Stalin to finance industrialization and the major strategy for survival for people during those harsh times. The study enriches our understanding of Stalinism, the workings of the Soviet economy, the nature of Soviet everyday life and consumerism. In 2005 the National Endowment for the Humanities granted to Dr. Elena Osokina a fellowship to finish her work on “Torgsin”.

To see Dr. Osokina’s CV, click here. http://www.cas.sc.edu/hist/faculty/osokina.html