This book explores the history of private internal trade in the USSR during the NEP of the 1920s. Private traders operated in a politically hostile but economically promising environment. Their contribution to post-war reconstruction was a crucial one. An exhaustive portrayal of the markets and dimensions of private trade is contrasted with the felt anxieties of Bolsheviks concerning traders' destabilising intentions and abilities. Retrospectively, many of these apprehensions were misplaced.

List of Tables - Preface - Acknowledgements - List of Abbreviations - Glossary of Russian Terms - Weights and Measures - The Background: Private Trade before the NEP - PART 1: MERCHANTS AND COMMISSARS - Traders and the State - Taxation: Policies and Levies - Credit and Private Traders - PART 2: MERCHANTS AND MARKETS - The World of Private Trade: as through a Glass Darkly - Private Trade in Industrial Products - Private Traders and the Zagotovki - The Demise of Private Trade - Statistical Appendix - Bibliography - Index