The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 2004 - Business & Economics - 308 pages
This book uses the formerly secret Soviet state and Communist Party archives to describe the creation and operations of the Soviet administrative command system. It concludes that the system failed not because of the 'jockey'(i.e. Stalin and later leaders) but because of the 'horse' (the economic system). Although Stalin was the system's prime architect, the system was managed by thousands of 'Stalins' in a nested dictatorship. The core values of the Bolshevik Party dictated the choice of the administrative command system, and the system dictated the political victory of a Stalin-like figure. This study pinpoints the reasons for the failure of the system - poor planning, unreliable supplies, the preferential treatment of indigenous enterprises, the lack of knowledge of planners, etc. - but also focuses on the basic principal-agent conflict between planners and producers, which created a sixty-year reform stalemate.
 

Contents

The Jockey or the Horse?
1
Collectivization Accumulation and Power
22
The Principles of Governance
49
Investment Wages and Fairness
76
Visions and Control Figures
110
Planners Versus Producers
126
Creating Soviet Industry
153
Operational Planning
183
Ruble Control Money Prices and Budgets
213
The Destruction of the Soviet AdministrativeCommand Economy
243
Conclusions
268
Archival Sources
273
The Structure of the State
275
Bibliography
289
Index
301
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