Open research questions in Russia and Soviet political economy
112 gap statements mined from Russia and Soviet political economy papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 793 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
The lack of cross-border education and labour market. The development of cross-border rail connections. The impact of mutual interest and migration on railway connections.
Fluctuating passenger railway offers between Poland and Ukraine (1991-2025) against the background of rebordering and debordering processes · 2026 · DOIThe issue of connections between Poland and Ukraine has gained prominence but barely attracted scholars' attention. The lack of cross-border education and labour market hinders the development of commuter networks and metropolitan regions.
Fluctuating passenger railway offers between Poland and Ukraine (1991-2025) against the background of rebordering and debordering processes · 2026 · DOIThe paper highlights the need to explore the effectiveness and consequences of Russia's soft power mechanisms in Georgia's political-economic landscape.
Russia’s “Soft Power” in Georgia’s Political-Economic Sphere: Historical Dynamics and Contemporary Realities · 2026 · DOIThe paper suggests further research on the implications of the experiments' results for modern Russian economic innovations. The paper discusses the potential applications of the experiments' techniques in various industries. The paper notes the need for further research on the development of new economic policies and practices.
The paper notes that the experiments' results were inconsistent with the economic theory of the time. The paper discusses the need for further research on the implications of the experiments' results for modern Russian economic innovations.
Further research can examine the impact of hyperinflation on other economic sectors. The study's findings can inform future research on the development of efficient payment systems during economic crises.
The paper highlights the need for further research on the transformation of the banking document 'aviso' during economic crises.
The article contends that the concept of managed pluralism (defined by Harley Balzer in 2003), which has not yet been used in the analysis of Moscow's international behaviour, is a useful tool that can address the gap in the literature and shed light on important mechanisms behind Russia's foreign policy-making.
Although the broad outline of American-Russian relations of the beginning of the twentieth century has been well documented, including the evolution of American attitudes from anti-Russian to Roosevelt's mediation in ending the Russo-Japanese War some of the aspects of American-Russian relations during the war remain unclear.
The Imperial Russian Response to American Contraband during the Russo-Japanese War: Controversy and Effects · 1997The precision of macropolitical predictions is limited to a range of decades, but state breakdown and revolution occur in a much narrower time period.
CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was trying to overcome the general stagnation in which the Soviet Union found itself, and the outcome of his increasingly dramatic effort remains uncertain.
The study aims to address this gap by analyzing the Soviet definition of national income and comparing it to the System of National Accounts (SNA) definition.
In other words, although the GDR has recently put much more emphasis on technology and development, to some extent these issues are insufficiently connected at the level of industrial policy.
The lack of effective control over the global arms trade. The emergence of new suppliers in the arms trade.
There has been no systematic attempt to investigate the degree of Soviet market power and Soviet pricing behavior on Western markets. The existence of a state monopoly of foreign trade is thought to enable the USSR to earn monopoly profits in East-West trade, but its impact on market power is unclear.
The diversity of approaches in Soviet management theory can lead to disagreements among specialists. The lack of a unified approach to management theory can hinder the development of a socialist theory of management.
The gap is due to the lack of a unified approach to management theory in the USSR.
The economic growth of the USSR in the remaining years of this century will probably be greatly diminished by the existence of two major structural problems. The first of these concerns the external economic relations of the Comecon, as well as the foreign economic policy of the USSR itself. As is well known, the total debt of the Comecon countries to the West is about $100 billion.
The paper notes that the Soviet claim of 30 billion rubles in economic aid remains an enigma. The study suggests that the Soviet apologists could not have included military aid in their claims.
The role which foreign, and particularly American, technology and industrial expertise played in the Soviet economy during the interwar period is still inadequately understood and is a subject of some controversy, with implications not only for an understanding of Soviet history and society but for the study of international technology transfers.
The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to the Soviet Union, 1917–1941 · 1981 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in understanding the role of residual orality in contemporary Russia. The study aims to fill this gap by examining the connection between residual orality and war propaganda.
The paper identifies a gap in understanding how earnings from foreign trade enter Soviet statistics on national income. The author aims to clarify and add to Alec Nove's note on Soviet foreign trade gains.
Further analysis of Soviet economic aid claims. Comparison of Soviet aid to other countries' aid. Examination of the impact of Soviet aid on the Soviet economy.
The paper identifies a gap in the discussion of the Soviet financial crisis - The paper suggests that monetarist economic theorists would find comfort…
Future research could explore the labor movement in other cities in Russia, - Future research could also examine the relationship between the trade unions and other political…
Trade Unions, Parties, and the State in Tsarist Russia: A Study of Labor Politics in St. Petersburg and Moscow · 1980 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Russia and Soviet political economy
- The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2005 · 272 citations
- The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians* · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2012 · 265 citations
- Promoting the National Interest · Foreign Affairs · 2000 · 218 citations
- A Normal Country: Russia After Communism · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2005 · 169 citations
- Russia's Virtual Economy · Foreign Affairs · 1998 · 168 citations
- Laws for Sale: Evidence from Russia · American Law and Economics Review · 2005 · 135 citations
- "Your Eyes Are Green like Dollars": Counterfeit Cash, National Substance, and Currency Apartheid in 1990s Russia · Cultural Anthropology · 1998 · 108 citations
- Russia as a great power, 1815–2007 · Journal of International Relations and Development · 2008 · 91 citations
- The Transition to the Market and Corruption in Post-socialist Russia · Political Studies · 1997 · 74 citations
- Coloured markets in the Soviet Union · Soviet Studies · 1977 · 73 citations
Most recent work
- Foreign agents law in Georgia: policy transfer from Russia or the West? · Central Asian Survey · 2026
- Labor Market Supply and Geopolitical Shock: Does Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Disrupt Inflows of Migrant Workers Into Visegrad Four Countries? · Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies · 2026
- Fluctuating passenger railway offers between Poland and Ukraine (1991-2025) against the background of rebordering and debordering processes · Geographia Polonica · 2026
- The Problem of the Varna–Ruse Railway Sale (1878–1888): Economic, Political, and Diplomatic Dimensions · Bulgarian Historical Review · 2026
- Institutional drift in post-soviet political economy: the case of Georgia · East European Politics · 2026
- Russia’s “Soft Power” in Georgia’s Political-Economic Sphere: Historical Dynamics and Contemporary Realities · Theory, Methodology, Practice · 2026
- Fuel and Power: Energy, Trade, and Russian Foreign Relations from Lenin to Putin , by Jeronim Perović · The English Historical Review · 2026
- Accounting for a Soviet republic: Lithuanian GDP time-series, 1940–1995 · Cliometrica · 2026
- Scream of rage The Descent: Witnessing Russia’s Spiral Into Madness Under Putin, by BennettsMarc (Bloomsbury Continuum, pp272, £25) · British Journalism Review · 2026
- “Canceling” Russia as a Strategy: a New Logic of Confrontation · Journal of International Analytics · 2026
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