ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the distinctive features of economic history in Russia during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. It focuses on the impact of Russia's modernization process which covers one hundred years starting from the middle of the nineteenth century. 'The Great Break Through' of 1929 meant a transition to collectivization and forced industrialization, to strengthening of the 'class struggle' and to rigid Communist Party control over all social and political processes. Economic history in post-Soviet Russia can be characterized first of all as a field that is not dominated by any unique theory/methodology. Cliometrics methodology is developing at several universities although it is definitely not in the mainstream in Russian economic history. Business history which was an underdeveloped research area in the Soviet period is now flourishing. The chapter emphasizes the important role of the 'archival revolution' which has radically changed and expanded the source base for researchers of the Soviet economy.
