Marginalized for a lifetime: the everyday experiences of gulag survivors in post‐soviet magadan

Abstract

Over the past decade notions of social capital have become embedded in the social development lexicon, often presented as the 'missing link' within development theory. Much social capital-based research takes Robert Putnam's theorization of the subject as its starting point. Putnam's work argues that social capital can be measured by a region's levels of trust and civic engagement. While its use, and conceptualization, has undergone much academic debate, often formal institutions still employ this very narrow, and arguably Western-centric, reading of the subject. This paper argues that while at the micro-level social capital has little to do with the civic engagement and trust theories posited by Putnam, it still has relevance to the lives of marginalized individuals and is an important factor in their continued survival. To explore this, drawing on extensive qualitative research conducted in Magadan, Moscow and St Petersburg, I critically examine the construction of everyday survival strategies among Gulag survivors living in Russia's far northeast city of Magadan. Denied a return to their 'homeland' upon their release, this group experienced considerable marginalization in the post-Stalin period. This was exacerbated when the collapse of the Soviet Union saw pensions in the far northeast of Russia fall to below 50% of the state-set subsistence minimum. The paper demonstrates the importance of social capital to this group by showing how their survival is based on far more than interactions with formal and informal organizations.

Nuclear Borders: Informally Negotiating the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

“…These passes let him enter the 30 km 'Zone of Alienation' which surrounds the exploded reactor, and contains some of In Ukraine, the route through post--socialism is no longer planned by neoliberal ideas of 'transition' from A to B, or mapped out by a super--imposed Washington--consensus cartography; in fact, there is no 'route' at all (Buraway, 2002;Ledneva, 2004;Stenning, 2005). Instead, cop--ing mechanisms such as economies of favours (Kuehnast and Dudwick, 2004;Pavlovskaya, 2004;Polese, 2008), informal/undeclared work (Stenning, 2005;Round, 2007, 2010), 'social acknowledge--ment' (Morris, 2011: 629), gift exchange (Mauss, 2002), social capital (Moran, 2001;Round, 2006), blat (Onoshchenko and Williams, 2013), social networks (Grabher and Stark, 1997;Lonkila, 1997Lonkila, , 1999Walker, 2010) and memory (Buyandelgeriyn, 2008), have all helped circumvent the challenges of post--Soviet everyday life.…”

“…This has parallels with previous research in extremely marginalized areas of the former Soviet Union, such as Magadan in Russia's Far East. Here, individuals who face extreme economic and climatic conditions reject relocation to more affluent areas due to the threat of damaging their informal survival techniques and social networks, on which they so completely depend (Round, 2006).…”

Informalidad y supervivencia en Chernóbil: etnografía de un espacio nuclear

“…Esto presenta un paralelo con investigaciones previas realizadas en áreas muy marginalizadas de la antigua Unión Soviética tales como Magadan, en el Extremo Oriente de Rusia. Aquí, los supervivientes del Gulag que tuvieron que enfrentarse a condiciones económicas y climáticas extremas, rechazaron ser reubicados en zonas más prósperas, debido al riesgo de cortar con sus redes sociales y con las tácticas de supervivencia informal de las que dependían completamente (Round, 2006). Para un forastero, la marca nuclear alrededor de Chernóbil es un "espacio anti-terapéutico" (Gesler & Kearns, 2002: 132).…”

The Role of Domestic Food Production in Everyday Life in Post-Soviet Ukraine

“…Of course, as noted earlier, those with incomes below the SSSM have had to develop or rework tactics to ensure the survival of their households. In post-Soviet regions a broad spectrum of practices can be observed, including informal work (see Busse 2001;Humphrey 2002;Pavlovskaya 2004;Round 2005), turning to nonstate actors for assistance (Caldwell 2004), or informal exchange (Seabright 2000;Borén 2003).…”

“…We argue, however, that such econometric approaches struggle to reveal the intrinsic processes that surround such production and the ephemeral moments of everyday life (Burawoy 2001). For example, the qualitative work of Pallot and Moran (2000), Pickup and White (2003), and Round (2006) on the role of domestically produced food in Russian households demonstrates the multitude of "roles" that the food can play, ranging from consumption to a means of sustaining social networks. Such practices are also used to illustrate the relationships among societal change, the state, and everyday coping tactics.…”