Our primary archival resources consist of the following collections: First, the secret “Red Files” (Liternye opisi, GARF fond 5446 — or “lettered files”) of the chancellery of the highest state body, the Council of People's Commissars, shed considerable light on the actual workings of the Soviet political and economic system of the 1930s. The relatively compact Red Files contain only documents classified as secret at the time of registration. The general criterion was to include all documents containing any mention of party, army, or police. Because local, regional, and national party leaders were typically involved in decision making, the Red Files cover the most sensitive issues of the period — monetary policy and finance, hard currency and reserve funds, foreign trade and foreign relations, the activities of Soviet representatives abroad, military affairs, the secret police (OGPU/NKVD), gulag operations, resettlement of ethnic minorities, catastrophes, and strategic commodities, including armaments and dual-use commodities like fuels and vehicles. From 1938 onward, the volume of Red Files increases because of increased demand for secrecy.

Second, the files of various industrial ministries and of their main industrial administrations located primarily in RGAE were used to study industrial ministries and their dealings with central authorities. Given that large collections exist for every ministry, we focused on the two dominant ministries: the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the Ministry of Light Industry.