The Right to Be Helped: Deviance, Entitlement, and the Soviet Moral Order

The Right to be Helped: Deviance, Entitlement, and the Soviet Moral Order, by Maria Cristina Galmarini-Kabala, DeKalb, Northern Illinois University Press, 2016, xiii + 301 pp., US$55.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-875-80497-2This meticulously researched monograph is the most comprehensive study on the Soviet social welfare system published since 1964. In that year, Bernice Madison published the groundbreaking work Social Welfare in the Soviet Union (Stanford University Press), written at a time when Western scholars had few opportunities for extended research in Soviet archives. Madison's 1968 work discussed the efforts made by Soviet professionals to understand social problems "scientifically," an approach which was associated with mushrooming bureaucracies. Galmarina-Kabala confirms that while Soviet leaders had ambitious goals for improving the standard of living of citizens, the system that they created was very fragmented. The result was a broad yet shallow social safety net, marked by a preoccupation with classifying groups. Indeed, "net" is a very appropriate word here: the Soviet system had multiple ways of exposing people who were not "typical" (such as homeless young people), but was still porous enough to leave many people unable to access assistance from the state.Social welfare is a vast subject for a single book - particularly in the Soviet Union, where the state monopolized labour, education, housing, and health. Recognizing this, the author chose to focus on state provision of services and subsidies to the needy. Soviet authorities defined those in need of assistance as single and widowed mothers, the vulnerable elderly, people with disabilities, and children with special needs. The needy did not include members of the capitalist classes, or people considered unwilling to work within the Soviet state's regimented model of employment. As Galmarina-Kabala points out, the definition of those who could receive assistance shifted constantly throughout Soviet history. These boundaries sharply contracted under Stalin, when harsh policies were enacted towards suspected malingerers and loafers; but expanded again during and after World War II. In the 1940s, a space emerged in society to allow professionals (some of them very dedicated) to care for the many millions affected by war.Galmarina-Kabala's work contributes two significant innovations. The first is her attention to Soviet discourses, which intricately (yet not always consistently) pursued the goals of alleviating poverty, helping marginalized people to become self-sufficient, and enabling children at risk to have a healthy upbringing. …