Illegal financial and economic activities of Lenmyasorybtorg during the years of «Khrushchev reformism»

A diverse array of materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, and examines the shadow financial and economic activities of the Leningrad meat and fish retail trade (Lenmyasorybtorg) during the «Khrushchev thaw» were analyzed in the article. The measured liberalism in the economic sphere, characteristic of the period of «Khrushchev reformism», contributed not only to the improvement of the economic situation in the country, but also to the development of the shadow economy. The illegal financial and economic activities of the management of «Lenmyasorybtorg», as well as employees of subordinate institutions, in the absence of proper control from higher party and state organizations of Leningrad, who often used the services of trade and stores, contributed to the establishment of a new social category – «Khrushchev's rich» from among trade workers. «The workers of the counter», using the privilege of free access to material and commodity values and financial and economic resources, openly demonstrated the desire for a better life, which they provided for themselves and their loved ones using various fraudulent schemes. The purpose of the article is to concretize the assertion in the post-Stalin period of shadow practices implemented by trade organizations for the purpose of personal enrichment, when underground profit was obtained due to the secret implementation of various types of economic and financial machinations. The conducted research allowed us to reveal that in the era of N. S. Khrushchev, when the idea of consumerism gradually began to spread in Soviet society, trade organizations were a kind of Eldorado for earning illegal money. They developed and used various schemes that made it possible to extract unearned income, gradually undermining the foundations of the planned socialist economy.

shadow economy, Khrushchev thaw, trade, planned economy, Leningrad, Leningrad region, Lenmyasorybtorg, food products, fraud, Soviet Control Commission