In the 1970s, pioneering work on everyday life under Communism was undertaken in the field of social history, the rapid expansion of which was tied to a growing focus on revisionism. Moshe Lewin at the University of Pennsylvania and Sheila Fitzpatrick at the University of Chicago were among the first to initiate this shift in Soviet studies by examining history “from below.” Meanwhile, through studies of the informal economy and identity construction, anthropologists and sociologists working on Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated the importance of favor trading and resourcefulness to the way Communist regimes functioned.
