Katherine Zubovich, "The Art of Soviet Statistics," March 25

Katherine Zubovich is Assistant Professor of Russian History at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She received her PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 2016. She is the author of Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin’s Capital (Princeton University Press, 2021).

“The Art of Soviet Statistics: Data Visualization and the Soviet State” explores the history of the USSR’s Institute of Pictorial Statistics (Institut izobrazitel’noi statistiki sovetskogo stroitel’stva i khoziaistva). Known by its acronym “Izostat,” the institute was founded in November 1931 with the goal of bringing the so-called “Vienna Method of picture statistics” to the Soviet Union. In examining the history of Izostat, the paper explores early Soviet efforts to visualize data and cultivate new ways of seeing among Soviet citizens.