The new century has revealed that the barriers between Socialist economies and the Free World were more porous than expected (Dobson; Cain; Segreto) and that enterprises and businessmen played an important part in East-West interaction (Autio-Sarasmo and Miklossy; Eloranta and Ojala; Jensen-Eriksen). Nevertheless, a serious analysis of trade is clearly lacking from Cold War historiography.

Discovering the economic dimension to that highly ideological era, can help to explain why accessing the capitalist system has not meant a “heal-all” for each of the transitions. Analysing role of foreign trade in Socialist systems, will enable scholars to better understand economic and political transitions. Secondly, focusing on businessmen and on business operations, will add to the debate on economic globalization, integrating different social sciences from economics to history and political science.

The idea for the present workshop has been shaped by the efforts of a number of scholars, who – from different perspectives – have chosen to study the role of world economic exchanges in command economies. The workshop will offer the opportunity to coherently discuss the activities of individuals involved in everyday trade practices in Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe and Mao’s China, as well as in their capitalist counterparts. The ultimate aim is to kick-start a fruitful debate about the place of the Communist countries in the world economy, particularly as it pertains to the Cold War and the beginning of globalization. The workshop welcomes papers on Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe, China from various approaches. Especially appreciated will be to those linking business history and international history.

Please send an abstract of maximum 300 words to: v.zanier@lse.ac.uk
before February 15th 2015.

Jointly organized by LSE Department of International History, and LSE IDEAS. With the support of the European Union 7th Framework Programme and Confucius Institute for Business London.