This work provides an in-depth case-study of decision-making in the Soviet Union in the Stalin era. It focuses on the development of rail transport policy, upon which the entire economy as well as the country's defence were so crucially dependent. It analyses the role of institutional lobbies in shaping policy, and sheds new light on the Stakhanovite movement, and analyses for the first time the impact of the Great Purges on the railways. The work provides a critical examination of the adequacy of existing conceptualisations of the Stalinist state.

Acknowledgements - Introduction - The Years of Forced Development 1928-30 - The Transport Crisis 1931 - Rail Transport under Strain 1932-33 - Steady Recovery and Future Prospects 1934 - The Year of Advance 1935 - The Watershed Year 1936 - The Year of the Purge 1937 - Rail Transport and War Preparations 1938-41 - Glossary of Russian Terms and Abbreviations - Appendices - Bibliography - Index