Author: Chris Miller Publisher: UNC Press Books ISBN: 1469630184 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
For half a century the Soviet economy was inefficient but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China? Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.
Author: Philip Hanson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317885376 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 302
Book Description
Why did the Soviet economic system fall apart? Did the economy simply overreach itself through military spending? Was it the centrally-planned character of Soviet socialism that was at fault? Or did a potentially viable mechanism come apart in Gorbachev's clumsy hands? Does its failure mean that true socialism is never economically viable? The economic dimension is at the very heart of the Russian story in the twentieth century. Economic issues were the cornerstone of soviet ideology and the soviet system, and economic issues brought the whole system crashing down in 1989-91. This book is a record of what happened, and it is also an analysis of the failure of Soviet economics as a concept.
Author: Robert William Davies Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521457705 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 420
Book Description
Leading scholars in the field analyse the Soviet economy sector by sector to make available, in textbook form, the results of the latest research on Soviet industrialisation.
Author: Paul R. Gregory Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 440
Book Description
Textbook on economic structure and the performance of planned economy in the USSR - reviews the evolution of the Soviet economic system and economic administration; covers industrialization, trade development, economic integration and CMEA, resource allocation, economic policies, growth rate trends, etc.; and includes historical background. Bibliography, diagrams, statistical tables.
Author: Gur Ofer Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674801806 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
Comparison of the service sector in the USSR and abroad - maintains that the small share of the service sector in the soviet economy is due chiefly to the socialist economic system and to its economic growth strategy, covers theoretical aspects, industrial aspects, the industrial structure, service labour force, the service gap in commerce, etc., and relies primarily on data for the period up to 1968. Bibliography, references and statistical tables.
Author: Alec Nove Publisher: IICA ISBN: Category : Soviet Union Languages : en Pages : 420
Book Description
Study in historical perspective of developments in economic policy in the USSR - covers economic structures and economic administration prior to and during the 1st world war, the position during the 50 years of the communist regime, political leadership of the country, the collective economy, industrialization, political problems, economic growth, etc. Bibliography pp. 389 to 391, and statistical tables.
Author: Peter J. Boettke Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 940173433X Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
This book presents a narrative of one of the more interesting utopian experiments in comparative political and economic history: the first decade of the Soviet experience with socialism (1918-1928). Though historical and textual analysis, the book’s goal is to render this experience intelligible, to get at the meaning of the Soviet experience with socialism for comparative political economy today. The book examines the texts of Lenin, Bukharin, and other revolutionaries, as well as the interpretations of contemporary historians of the revolution and the writings of more recent interpreters of Soviet political and economic history. Arguing that the first three years of the Bolshevik regime (1918-1921) constitute an attempt to carry out the Marxian ideal of comprehensive central planning, and that the disastrous results, which all commentators agree occurred, were the inevitable outcome of this Marxian ideal coming into conflict with the economic reality of the coordination problem that all economic systems face, the book draws clear conclusions and elucidates the air of mystery that often surrounds the subject. Offering a radical challenge to contemporary comparative political economy at the level of high theory, applied research, and public policy, this book is appropriate for students and scholars interested in Marxism, economic history, political economy, and Austrian economics.
Author: Nikolaĭ Petrovich Shmelev Publisher: Doubleday Books ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
Two leading Soviet economists explain the Soviet economic crises from the perspective of thorughly informed insiders and the obstacles as well as the potential to perestroika.
Author: Vladislav M. Zubok Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300262442 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 468
Book Description
A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union—showing how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms led to its demise “A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart.”—Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times “[A] masterly analysis.”—Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal In 1945 the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong with five thousand nuclear-tipped missiles and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the twentieth century. Thirty years on, Vladislav Zubok offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Instead, Zubok reveals how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms, intended to modernize and democratize the Soviet Union, deprived the government of resources and empowered separatism. Collapse sheds new light on Russian democratic populism, the Baltic struggle for independence, the crisis of Soviet finances—and the fragility of authoritarian state power.
Author: Nataliya Kibita Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135047235 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
The Sovnarkhoz Reform of 1957 was designed by Khrushchev to improve efficiency in the Soviet economic system by decentralising economic decision making from all-Union branch ministries in Moscow to the governments of the individual republics and regional economic councils. Based on extensive original research, including unpublished archival material, this book examines the reform, discussing the motivations for it, which included Khrushchev's attempt to strengthen his own power base. The book explores how the process of reform was implemented, especially its impact on the republics, and analyses why the reform, which was reversed in 1959, failed. Overall, the book reveals a great deal about the workings, and the shortcomings, of the Soviet economic system at its height.