Andrei Sokolov, 1941 - 2015

On 13 September 2015 Professor Doctor Andrei Sokolov passed away in Moscow. A prominent labour and social historian, and a renowned expert in the field, Andrei Sokolov had been a longstanding contact of the International Institute of Social History. Andrei Sokolov was a partner in the three consecutive research projects carried out by the International Institute of Social History in Moscow between 1999 and 2006.
The first of these projects looked at work incentives in Russian industry from a longer-term perspective. Andrei and his team produced a solid factory-based study of the Moscow Hammer and Sickle metallurgical plant from its pre-revolutionary origins to the present. Subsequent projects dealt with household strategies in twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union, and social and economic practices in the change-over from Soviet to post-soviet society. Besides his work in research Andrei Sokolov was a founding member of the editorial committee of the Social History Yearbook, set up by the International Institute of Social History and its Russian partners in 1997. In 2008 he wrote the chapter on Russia for the volume Global Labour History - A State of the Art.
His solid knowledge and intuitive understanding of the past, as well as his inimitable wit and cheerful presence will be sorely missed.