Krugavaia Poruka Case Study

The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business
Krugovaia Poruka: Sustaining the Ties of Joint Responsibility
Mahmoud Alaa Mahmoud Ibrahim
Matriculation Number: 37789
Introduction
Krugovaia Poruka is a Russian term which is translated to English in many ways including surety, collective responsibility, Solidarity, Circular control. This means that the community is being treated as a group and the citizen is being treated as a member of this community; every citizen is sharing responsibilities and obligations with the all community members. Every member is responsible for the outcome of the whole community and the whole community is responsible for the actions of its individuals, which means that the fates of the community
In the seventeenth century Krugavaia Poruka was carried out in a new way which was mainly in the fiscal affairs. Taxes were taken collectively from the community, not every individual was responsible for paying his own taxes, which meant that the tax that cannot be fulfilled by an individual must be burdened by the other community members. This was thought unfair as an individual may have paid additional costs even after they fulfilled their tax obligations already. The entire community was responsible for collecting the taxes and sending them to the authority which was considered as kind of enslavement to the citizens who carried out the administrative jobs instead of the authority and handled responsibilities that government should have tackled. Although the community was collectively responsible for collecting taxes and sending them to the government, there was a mediator between the authority and community members who was responsible for the collective action; collecting the taxes and submitting them to the authority. This person who used to be one of the community
The collective administrative form was officially delegalized in January 1907 but practically it was deeply embedded in the Russian daily social and administrative behavior which shaped in a way the Russian politics. Although Russia witnessed huge political transformation by the time such as the Russian revolution and collapse of the Soviet Union, Krugovaia Poruka survived all these changed and kept the most common administrative and social form in the Russian community.
Krugovaia Poruka in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics
It was very oppressive for the Russian community and the Russian citizens to be treated as parts of a group that follows the same way, has the same motive, fight for the same goal and aspire to the same aim as people did not have the option to be treated on individual basis where they can have their own dreams and passion. Many songs and stories had been written in that era describing how much are the lives of the community members directly linked and how are they tied with the same