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Bike-Sharing, Soviet-Style: Cycling in Urban and Rural Areas after WWII

Sun, November 8, 10:00 to 11:30am, Virtual Convention Platform, Room 2

Abstract

So long as the mass production of automobiles remained beyond Bolshevik aspirations, the bicycle continued to be the most widely available means of personal transportation. Beginning with the 9 thousand vehicles produced in 1924, the Soviet Union reached a landmark 1 million bicycles manufactured in 1956, the year of the XX Communist Party Congress, production peaking at 5.8 million in 1988. The distribution of bicycles was nothing spontaneous. Planners and other institutions of the state-regulated marketing, favoring industrial areas over agricultural ones and privileging designs catering to the adult male body over those tailored for women and children. Nevertheless, after WWII, the bicycle proliferated in small cities and villages rather than in large cities. The modern Soviet city offered scant space for bicycle parking, had no bike lanes, while the multistory buildings had no dedicated bike storage.

Sparse, still expensive, and of poor quality, bicycles were as a rule used and maintained communally. In rural areas, family members and neighbors all used a bike for work and leisure. Urban sports clubs and colleges offered bicycles for physical training and competitions, with an obligation to return the vehicle after an event. A few city parks had rental stations, which, however, proved unsustainable. This paper discusses Soviet practices of cycling with regard to Soviet conceptions of ownership and communal assets. It shows that pre-war debates regarding whether a bicycle was a bourgeois privilege or a worker’s tool as well as wartime experiences of mobility had a substantial impact on post-war developments.

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