SUMMARY:

This essay is a contribution to the book forum “Soviet Departmentalism” discussing the edited volume put together by the Tyumen historian Igor Stas’ that introduces departmentalism, or vedomstvennost’, as a vital framework for understanding Soviet history. The volume argues that vedomstvennost’ fundamentally organized the daily lives, urban spaces, and social hierarchies of citizens. Nikolay Mitrokhin criticizes the book, noting that while it highlights the tension between the “departmentalism” of central agencies and the “localism” of municipal authorities regarding urban development and housing, it also tends toward the ideological rehabilitation of the Soviet state. He expresses concern that several contributors rely on abstract discourse analysis and Soviet “Newspeak” rather than rigorous archival research, effectively ignoring the brutal realities of the party apparatus and mass terror. Mitrokhin calls for a more prosopographical and empirical approach to “departmentalism studies” that would investigate the actual people, networks, and internal structures of Soviet ministries. Mitrokhin concludes that while a few chapters offer valuable historical insights, the volume largely fails to provide a comprehensive conceptual breakthrough for understanding the complex power dynamics of the Soviet bureaucracy.