Gleaning for Communism The Eurasian Knot



What did “socialist property” mean in the Soviet Union? It’s a vexing question. “Property” in the capitalist sense did not exist. Individual Soviet citizens could not buy or sell, invest or profit from property. At the same time, “socialist property” came with use access. A person didn’t own their apartment but could use and even transfer its use to family. Use rights could also pertain to the commons of socialist property–that is the practice gleaning excess material for individual or collective use. Legitimate and illicit use of property was infused with Soviet ethics and moral economy. There were no inalienable property rights–a notion that continues to haunt Russia today. The Eurasian Knot sat down with Xenia Cherkaev to talk about her book, Gleaning for Communism, to get a better sense of property, its relationship to Soviet household and national economies, and its ethical and legal legacies today.

Guest:

Xenia Cherkaev is a visiting scholar at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She writes about non-market modernity, present-day Russia, Soviet socialist property law, and the problem of Russia’s legally “ownerless” dogs. She’s the author of Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice published by Cornell University Press.

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