2016 Recipient

The Ed A Hewett Book Prize, established in 1994 and sponsored by the University of Michigan Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe, published in the previous year.

Winner: Douglas Rogers
Title: The Depths of Russia: Oil, Power, and Culture after Socialism (Cornell University Press)

Douglas Rogers’s masterful account of the oil industry in Perm’ region provides insights into the nature of governments and corporations, the connections between big business and cultural production, and the evolution of the Soviet and post-Soviet oil sector.  Based on close ethnographic field work and archival research, Rogers shows “the material lives of oil.” He traces the evolution of the Soviet oil industry through the eyes of planners, managers, and even environmental protesters who saw the smog hanging over Perm’.  Rogers is also able to explore the lives of surrogate currencies both before and after the end of the Soviet system.

In Parts II and III, Rogers takes the reader inside the relationships among the state, foreign NGOs, and LUKoil in their efforts to develop a regional civic identity.  He shows, first, that it was the corporation, rather than the other organizations, that came to lead this project over time, often in an attempt to counter negative impressions of its industry.  Second, he demonstrates the crucial role played by the notion of “depth” in these efforts.  Just as oil is extracted from the depths of the earth, LUKoil’s support for Perm city’s campaign to be a European cultural center focused on the deep cultural roots of the region and its inhabitants, seeking to link the company and the community in the minds of residents.

In tracing these processes, Rogers uncovers new links among corporations, the material nature of their businesses, and the communities in which they are located.  Those findings illuminate the course of the Russian political economy in the last two and a half decades, and they suggest paths for future research on state-business-society relations in other settings around the world.

Honorable Mention: Susanne A. Wengle