This book is about the use of oil money in the Perm region to subsidize cultural activities, particularly during the governorship of Oleg Chirkunov (2004–2012). Its originality lies in its field work (mainly in 2009–2012), in a region remote from Moscow (the capital of which was a closed city in Soviet times), and its combining an anthropological/ethnographic approach with a business-studies one. Previous studies of Russian corporate social responsibility (CSR) in English are probably non-existent (or at any rate unknown to your reviewer), as are previous studies of the impact of oil production and refining on the cultural life of a Russian region. In addition to what he learned by extensive on-the-spot discussions with the people involved, Rogers has a thorough knowledge of the relevant literature in Russian and English. He has also used the material available in the Perm State Archive of Contemporary History. On the basis of his case study, the author makes a striking, unfashionable, and decidedly non-mainstream generalization: that the Russian state is one in which “regions are just as often the driving force as the federal center” (6). The author stresses the close relationship between the process of (regional) state development and (regional) corporate development. In the 2000s, “this state-corporate collaboration replaced the civil society-building initiatives sponsored by international aid agencies in the 1990s” (14).

A lot of the book is devoted to art, and readers interested in modern art in general, or its development in the Russian provinces, will find much information on it. Not only does the author draw attention to the role of cultural producers at the regional level, he also draws attention to their role at the national level. In contrast to the standard stress on the number of siloviki at the highest levels of power, the author draws attention (19) to a number of influential figures at the center with backgrounds in the creative sector, such as literature and the theatre.

Chapter 1 sets the scene. It is about the social role of the oil industry in the “Second Baku” during the Soviet era. It explains that the oil industry was not a prestigious sector in Soviet times, and those who worked in it not a prestigious group, despite oil’s importance for the war effort in WWII and for the Soviet balance of payments in a later period. Chapter 2 provides a well-informed account of the situation between the end of the Soviet system and the emergence of a privatized capitalist economy. It shows how regional actors survived, using new institutions, barter, and personal contacts, and combines empirical knowledge with sensible and relevant theoretical categories. The author is keen to show, here and elsewhere, the limited relevance of mainstream economics for understanding Soviet and Russian realities. Chapter 3 details the intricate process by which the oil industry in the Perm region came to be part of the integrated oil corporation Lukoil. His main argument is that the relationships, networks and possibilities in the Perm region played an important part in Lukoil’s emergence as an international oil corporation.

A major theme of Chapters 4–8 is how, in the oil-boom years of the first decade of this century, the international oil corporation Lukoil collaborated with the regional state authorities to sponsor social and cultural activities in the region. In this way, the author supplements the standard story of how the state re-established control over the oil industry with one of how, at the regional level—in an oil-producing and refining region—the state and an oil corporation cooperated to provide the populations with social and cultural benefits. An interesting point made is how the western system of grant applications and awards was adopted but transformed into a means of state-building, and a part of the intertwining of the oil industry and the regional state administration that existed in the period considered.

Lukoil was also involved in national/ethnic policy. Yuri Slezkine’s “communal apartment” was replaced in the Perm region in the first decade of the twenty-first century by a tourist bazaar, and the USSR by a “corporate-state alliance centered on the oil industry” (247). In the Perm region in the period studied, however, Lukoil was not alone in CSR (corporate social responsibility), and in fact was to some extent in competition with the CSR program of the gas industry.

The author draws attention to the semiotics of CSR. Oil’s CSR program was linked with depths (both geological and historical), while gas’s was linked with connectivity. There are also useful comparisons between the situation in the Perm region and in the capitalist world, which draw attention to the specific features of the former.

The cultural boom during the governorship of Chirkunov (2004–12) was intended to form the basis of a post-industrial and post-oil future for the Perm region. It was hoped that it would fundamentally transform the image of the region and attract tourists, their money, and central government finance. Like in many other cities in old industrial regions throughout the world, the Perm leadership in this period hoped that stimulating the cultural sector would go some way toward providing an alternative focus for life to the outdated industries of the Fordist era. This policy failed to have Perm named as a European Capital of Culture in 2016, which was an official plan of the governor in 2010. Apparently, Chirkunov and his associates thought “it was much cheaper and more realistic to develop culture than to attempt to rehabilitate industry” (300). We do not learn how successful this was, however. How many jobs did culture generate? Did the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art generate a rich stream of tourist money, infrastructure financing from Moscow, or an influx of art galleries, collectors, and artists? The final pages give the impression that the cultural boom just petered out under a new governor who had other ideas. Furthermore, because of the period of the research, the reader does not get any information about the effect of the collapse of world oil prices in 2014–16 on the income and activities of the cultural sector.

Rogers is part of a group of authors, such as Katherine Verdery, David Stark, and Caroline Humphrey, who reject the standard vision of “transition” imagined by western financial institutions and many NGOs, and replace it by one based on detailed local studies. This reveals many unexpected nuances that the standard story did not catch. In Perm, in place of an imagined civil society, seeded by western grant money, we see a close alliance of the dominant corporation with the local state administration that pursues a paternalist vision of what is good for the population and for its own image. In place of the “power vertical” we see local initiatives. We also observe the importance of regional governors in determining developments in their regions.

Although the anthropological/ethnographic approach has important advantages (detailed analysis of the local situation based partly on interviews with the people concerned and attention to relevant non-monetary factors), it also has drawbacks when compared, for example, with standard economic analysis. There is no detailed data in the book on consumption, employment, and inequality (although some of these issues are briefly mentioned). Inability for some to buy refrigerators and VCRs is a way that inequality was felt in some districts in certain periods, and the attention to the social exclusion aspect of inequality is important (216). Accurate Gini coefficients of the Perm region at various points in time, however, would provide more information about income inequality, at any rate for periods when the economy was monetized. Nor is there any demographic data, although accurate demographic data would also provide important information about welfare and its changes over time. The author’s lack of interest in numbers is shown, for example, by the sloppy way he has included (224–25) a “translation” that gives the annual oil production of just one district in Perm region in 2004 as 600 million tons! Hence, it is impossible, on the basis of this book, to form a reliable picture either of the development of living standards, or of the economy, in Perm region in the postsocialist period.

This book is concerned with just one region. The extent to which its conclusions are applicable to other regions is uncertain. It is concerned with just one aspect of life in that region and many others (from changes in the abortion rate to changes in access to foreign tourism) are left unexamined. Nevertheless, it does provide a mass of information about CSR in a Russian region. It also shows how a detailed anthropological study of a region far from Moscow and St. Petersburg can reveal new and unexpected information about developments in Russia. These results make this a book well worth reading and pondering over. It is an important contribution to anthropology/ethnography, business studies, and the understanding of postsocialist Russia.