Blat

The word blat (блат) entered Russian slang in the early twentieth century, initially associated with criminal argot, where it referred to connections within the underworld. By the Stalinist period, the term had migrated into mainstream usage, describing the networks of mutual obligation through which Soviet citizens obtained scarce goods, services, and opportunities that the planned economy could not reliably supply. The sociologist Alena Ledeneva, in her study Russia's Economy of Favours (1998), documented blat as a pervasive social institution distinct from both bribery and corruption, operating through personal relationships rather than monetary exchange.

Blat functioned through reciprocity. A factory manager who could provide building materials might exchange that access for the services of a doctor whose waiting list was months long. A teacher might use connections to secure a place at a desirable school for a friend's child, understanding that the favor would be returned in some other form at some future time. The system required trust, social memory, and a tacit understanding that no single transaction would be balanced immediately. Unlike bribery, which involved payment for a specific service, blat operated within relationships that were ongoing and mutual.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, blat did not disappear. The networks adapted to market conditions, evolving into what Ledeneva described as a broader economy of favors that continued to operate alongside formal institutions. The word acquired a negative connotation it had not always carried during the Soviet period, as post-Soviet society began to distinguish more sharply between informal networking and corruption. In contemporary Russian, blat retains its core meaning of getting things done through personal connections, a practice that persists wherever formal systems remain unreliable.