The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Soviet Secret ArchivesThis 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. |
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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 |
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The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives Paul R. Gregory No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
administrative-command economy administrative-command system agriculture allocation annual plan approved archives Bolshevik budget capital Central Committee Chapter collectivization Command Economy commercial credits commission construction consumption control figures decisions decree deputy dictator dictator's dictatorship economic enterprises factories fair wage finance five-year plan force fulfill GARF glavks Gosbank Gosplan grain growth Gulag Gump Hayek Heavy Industry Ibid industrial ministries investment plan issue Khlevnyuk Kuibyshev kulaks leaders leadership Letters to Molotov Main Administration managers metals Mikoian million rubles minister Ministry of Heavy Molotov Moscow NKLP NKTP NKTP's OGPU orders Ordzhonikidze organizations output Paul Gregory peasants percent Perepiski planned economy planners planning department Politburo meeting Politburo members political quarter quarterly plans R. W. Davies regional RGAE rubles Russian Rykov September Sergo Ordzhonikidze socialist Soviet Economy Soviet Union Stakhanovism Stakhanovites Stalin i Kaganovich Stalinskoe Politburo stationary bandit steel subordinates supply targets tion transactions transport University Press USSR workers