Garazhniki: Gleaning, Trading, and Improvising in a Postindustrial Monotown

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore the everyday practices of a garazhnik , a type of contemporary socioeconomic actor characteristic of post‐Soviet Russia, where many garages are turned into spaces of production. On the basis of ethnographic data and secondary sources, I demonstrate that the phenomenon of garazhniki and the larger “garage economy” they take part in emerged at the intersection of Soviet urban forms and post‐Soviet economic realities. Then, I examine the practices of a particular garazhnik in a monotown—that is, roughly the Soviet equivalent of a company town—in Eastern Siberia. Through this example, I demonstrate that practices of gleaning and trade on the margins of postsocialist capitalism in this town are contingent on the material remainders of state socialism. Furthermore, I highlight the critiques implicit in the political imaginary that drives the practices of this particular garazhnik , who dismisses the state‐proposed postindustrial future as unsustainable and unappealing. This article is based on ethnographic data from fieldwork carried out in Eastern Siberia in the period 2019–22.