Point of no return: Soviet paper reuse, 1932–1945

Birgitte Beck Pristed

Business History, 2022, vol. 64, issue 5, 946-962

Abstract: The article examines Soviet paper reuse as an ideological, economic daily practice, implemented through the advanced, but hitherto undescribed Soiuzutil’waste collecting system by the early 1930s as the reverse side of Stalinist industrialization. It argues that Soiuzutil’waste paper handling attempted to form a new socialist collective by reworking old print while cultivating citizens as classless scrap-collectors, for the sake of an (ir)rational resource optimization. While World War II intensified recycling efforts among the Allied and Axis powers, invasion and evacuation damaged Soviet waste collection to a point where no return of paper into a centralized system was possible. War forced printers and consumers to retreat to local self-supply networks, as paper remained a crucial, yet scarce resource. By analyzing technical-educational literature and correspondence of the reutilization offices, the article demonstrates the changing attitudes in the Stalinist war economy, the industries, and the population towards mobilizing and saving paper.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1842875

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