Open-access edition of "Stalin's Quest for Gold: The Torgsin Hard-Currency Shops and Soviet Industrialization" by Elena Osokina

FAIN: DR-292399-23

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14850-2820)
Mahinder Singh Kingra (Project Director: November 2022 to April 2025)

Stalin's Quest for Gold tells the story of Torgsin, a chain of retail shops established in 1930 with the aim of raising the hard currency needed to finance the USSR's ambitious industrialization program. At a time of desperate scarcity, Torgsin had access to the country's best foodstuffs and goods. Initially, only foreigners were allowed to shop in Torgsin, but the acute demand for hard-currency revenues forced Stalin to open Torgsin to Soviet citizens who could exchange tsarist gold coins and objects made of precious metals and gemstones, as well as foreign monies, for foods and goods in its shops. Through her analysis of the large-scale, state-run entrepreneurship represented by Torgsin, Elena Osokina highlights the complexity and contradictions of Stalinism.

Media Coverage

Book Review (Review)
Author(s): James Allen Nealy Jr.
Publication: Revolutionary Russia
Date: 1/28/2025
Abstract: Stalin’s Quest for Gold is a brilliantly argued and well-researched study that will be of interest to scholars of modern Russian and modern European history, and economic, business, and social history more broadly. Osokina and Cornell University Press have done the field a real service with the inclusion of more than two dozen beautiful photos as well as twenty-eight tables of data – compiled and organized by the author herself – presented over fifteen pages. Non-specialists need not be intimidated by Osokina’s byzantine topic. Written in clear, concise language, Stalin’s Quest for Gold is as accessible for undergraduates as it is invigorating for those, like the present author, who spend their professional time attempting to navigate the ins and outs of Soviet economics.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546545.2023.2204658

Associated Products

Single Publication (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Single Publication
Title: Stalin's Quest for Gold: The Torgsin Hard-Currency Shops and Soviet Industrialization
Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781501758539
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Author: Elena Osokina
Abstract: Stalin's Quest for Gold tells the story of Torgsin, a chain of retail shops established in 1930 with the aim of raising the hard currency needed to finance the USSR's ambitious industrialization program. At a time of desperate scarcity, Torgsin had access to the country's best foodstuffs and goods. Initially, only foreigners were allowed to shop in Torgsin, but the acute demand for hard-currency revenues forced Stalin to open Torgsin to Soviet citizens who could exchange tsarist gold coins and objects made of precious metals and gemstones, as well as foreign monies, for foods and goods in its shops. Through her analysis of the large-scale, state-run entrepreneurship represented by Torgsin, Elena Osokina highlights the complexity and contradictions of Stalinism.
Primary URL: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501758522/stalins-quest-for-gold/
Primary URL Description: This URL links to the book's webpage on the Cornell University Press website, which allows users to download the Open Access ebooks as either ePub or PDF files for free.
Secondary URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/255/oa_monograph/book/85583
Secondary URL Description: This URL links to the book's record on the Project MUSE site, indicating its status as an Open Access title. NB: Although updated files with changes to the copyright page indicating that Open Access publication has been supported by the NEH have been disseminated to our ebook partners like Project MUSE and JSTOR, these platforms may not have replaced the existing file with the revised file.
URL 3: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv1bxh5qj
URL 3 Description: This URL links to the book's record on the JSTOR site, indicating its status as an Open Access title. NB: Although updated files with changes to the copyright page indicating that Open Access publication has been supported by the NEH have been disseminated to our ebook partners like Project MUSE and JSTOR, these platforms may not have replaced the existing file with the revised file.
Type: Single author monograph

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