RABOTYAGI. Perestroika and After Viewed from Below.
Interviews with Workers in the Former Soviet Union.

Acknowledgments

This book was a true labor of love. I feel it is a rare privilege that I can honestly say I deeply enjoyed virtually every minute I spent on it. For that I have to thank the people whose interviews appear in this book, many of whom are my friends.

I would also like to thank the following people, who, in one way or another, helped me in making contacts for these interviews : Dan Benedict, Sasha Buzgalin, Boris Ikhlov, Kolya Preobrazhenskii, Galina Rakitskaya, Galina Rogovina, Anna Temkina. Thanks also to Susan Lowes and Ethan Young of Monthly Review Press for their encouragement and help.

Finally, I especially want to express my gratitude to my wife Sonia for her understanding and long-suffering patience with my extended absences from home while I was doing this work.

The work that went into this book was funded by a Canada Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.