BUSINESS HISTORY OF EASTERN EUROPE

In line with the learning objectives of the Master's degree program in Comparative International Relations, this course provides students with a clear and comprehensive overview of the business history of Central and Eastern Europe during the 20th century.
Students will become familiar with the primary approaches and methods of international business history and will have the opportunity to read and discuss recent research on the business history of Central and Eastern Europe.
The history of enterprises integrates the economic history of the region. Through the lens of the historical evolution of enterprises in the region, the course aims to develop students' ability to critically analyze, comment on, and debate the many political and economic processes in CEE countries, identifying the main historical actors and their interactions. The course focuses on three periods: the interwar years (1918–1939), the state socialist period (1945–1989/1991), and the transition period (1989/1991 to the present). It takes a thematic approach, considering literature on different countries in the region.
During the first lessons, students will become acquainted with the methods and frameworks of business history. Particular attention will be devoted to the history of international business, multinational corporations, and globalization. In the second part of the course, we will contextualize the historical experiences of enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe within the region's economic history and reference different case studies and countries. Several lessons will address the relations between Western European, U.S., and Japanese companies and socialist enterprises during the Cold War. Finally, we will observe and discuss the various business responses to post-socialist transformations.

1. Students evaluate different theoretical approaches to studying the economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), focusing specifically on the history of enterprises.
2. Students distinguish and evaluate the peculiarities of business evolution in Central and Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe and the US.
3. Students will recognize, describe, and contextualize the organizational trajectories of enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe from the early 20th century to the present.
4. Students comment and debate historical case studies, placing them in their historical context and critically discussing sources and methodologies. Students will comment on and debate historical case studies, placing them in their historical context and critically discussing sources and methodologies.
5. Students recognize different perspectives and critically discuss literature on the economic and business history of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Adequate knowledge of English and background knowledge in the history of Central Eastern Europe.

Part I Business History in CEE: Concepts, issues, and perspectives

1. Presentation of the course content, requirements, and of assessment methods. Basic conceptual distinctions.
2. Business History. Approaches and methods
3. Multinationals and firms in 20th and 21st century

Part II Multinationals and cartels in The Interwar Years

4. Business History in Central Eastern Europe in the Interwar Years (cartels and multinationals)
5. The Soviet Union. The firm in the planned economy from Tzarism to Stalinism
6. Ford (and the other Multinationals) in the Soviet Union (1920s-1930s)

Part III The Cold War and the East-West economic relations

7. The Soviet Model of Management and the Sovietization of CEE
8. COCOM, Sanctions and East-West trade: stages and channels
9. COMECON integration
10. Italian companies and Socialist CEE

Part IV, The 1989 and the post socialist transformation

11. The 1989 in CEE: privatization and industrial integration
12. The Economy of Favor in Russia
13. The transition Period in Russia. The emergence of the oligarchs
14. The transition Period. Post- socialist business transformation and Markets
15. Exam simulation

Reading unit 1: Morys, Matthias. 2021. “Introduction” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, Routledge. p. 5-11.
Reading unit 2: Amatori, Franco, Colli, Andrea. 2011. “Theories of the Firm” in Business History. Comparisons and Complexities, Routledge, p. 33-52.
Reading unit 3: Jones, Geoffrey. 2005. “Frameworks” in “Multinationals and Global Capitalism”, Oxford University Press, p. 4-35.
Reading unit 4: Morys, Matthias. 2021. “Economic Growth and Structural Change in Central, East and South East Europe in 1918-1939” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, p. 161-187.
Reading unit 5: Eloranta, Jari. 2021. “Between Disintegration and Convergence. 1918-39” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, p. 216-242.
Reading unit 6: Link, Steven, 2020. “The Soviet Auto Giant” in Forging Global Fordism, Princeton University Press, p. 90-130.
Reading unit 7: Yudanov, Andrei Yu.. 1997. “USSR: Large Enterprises in the USSR—The Functional Disorder,” in Alfred D. Chandler, Franco Amatori, and Takashi Hikino (eds.). Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, Cambridge, U.K., 395–432.
Reading unit 8: McGlade, Jacqueline. 2005. COCOM and the Containment of Western Trade and Relations in Eloranta, Jari and Jari Ojala, East-West Trade and the Cold War, JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO. p. 47-62 OR Canestrini (2021): Economic sanctions and new strategies in East-West economic relations in 1981–1982, The International History Review.
Reading unit 9: Richter, Sandor Economic Integration within Comecon with the Western Economy in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe. p. 324-351.
Reading unit 10: Fava, Valentina. 2018. “Between Business Interests and Ideological Marketing: The USSR and the Cold War in Fiat Corporate Strategy, 1957– 1972,” Journal of Cold War Studies 20, no. 4 (2019): 26–64.
Reading unit 11: Voskoboynikov, Ilya. 2021. Economic Growth and Sectoral Developments during the Transition Period. 1990-2008 in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, Routledge, p.383-412.
Reading unit 12: Ledeneva, Alena V. Russia's economy of favours: Blat, networking and informal exchange. Vol. 102. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Chapter 2: Understanding blat.
Reading unit 13: Guriev, Sergei and Rachinsky, Andrei. 2005. The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism. Journal of Economic Perspectives, p.131 - 150
Reading unit 14: Jones, Geoffrey; Comunale, Rachael and Kate Lazaroff-Puck. 2017. “Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Oligarchs” (Harvard Business School Case No. 317-005, Mar. 2017, rev. Dec. 2019)
Readings will be available in Moodle

1. Online forum: one memo per week to be posted by Tuesday evening. Write a post commenting on the most relevant or interesting concept that you have found in one of the previous week’s readings. The memos will be visible to your peers, and you are supposed to interact each other. Feedback and further discussion on the following class (5 memos on time for 1 extra point).
2. Final exam: for all students, oral exam covering all readings and the slides prepared by the professor for each class.

written and oral

With regard to grading (mode by which marks are awarded), whether present or absent:
A. Marks in the range 18-22 will be awarded where:
- sufficient knowledge and ability of applied understanding with reference to the syllabus; - limited ability to collect and/or interpret data and to exercise independent judgement; - sufficient communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific economic history language; B. Marks in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of
- adequate knowledge and ability of applied understanding with reference to the syllabus; - adequate ability to collect and/or interpret data, exercising independent judgement; - adequate communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific language relating to economic history; C. Marks in Bands 27-30 will be awarded in the presence of
- good or excellent knowledge and applied understanding in relation to the syllabus; - good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, exercising independent judgement; - fully adequate communication skills, particularly in relation to the use of specific language relating to economic history.
D. honours will be awarded in the presence of knowledge and applied understanding with reference to the syllabus, judgement and communication skills, excellent.

The course will be organized as a seminar, with guided discussion of the readings. Students who participate must read the readings for each class and be prepared to discuss them. There will be no frontal lectures. The instructor will answer questions posed by students before class and will moderate discussion. The seminar will not take place unless at least 7 students are enrolled.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development