Lesson plan
Fartsovka
Fartsovka (Russian: фарцовка) is a slang term for the black market profiteering, illegal in the Soviet Union, that consisted in resale of goods manufactured abroad, which were hard to find and inaccessible to an average Soviet citizen. Clothing and fashion accessories were the overwhelming majority of supply and demand for fartsovka. Also popular were audio media (vinyl records, cassette tapes, and reels), cosmetics, household items, and books. Fartsovka items, or the phenomenon itself, was generally called fartsa. The traders of this type were called fartsovshchiki. The phenomenon was widely active from the late 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Article summary
Fartsovka (Russian: фарцовка) is a slang term for the black market profiteering, illegal in the Soviet Union, that consisted in resale of goods manufactured abroad, which were hard to find and inaccessible to an average Soviet citizen. Clothing and fashion accessories were the overwhelming majority of supply and demand for fartsovka. Also popular were audio media (vinyl records, cassette tapes, and reels), cosmetics, household items, and books. Fartsovka items, or the phenomenon itself, was generally called fartsa. The traders of this type were called fartsovshchiki. The phenomenon was widely active from the late 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.