The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945

Abstract

Philip Hanson has written an erudite study of the Soviet economy from its creation until its demise in 1991. He proficiently mixes Soviet and Russian economic sources (including Soviet fiction and propaganda) with western conceptual and statistical analysis. The book's value is that it provides a comprehensive analysis of the Soviet system, the attempts to reform it, and the reasons for its collapse, written by one of its most eminent scholars. Hanson organises his material largely on a chronological basis using the usual periodisation of Soviet economic development: the 1930s, World War II, the Khrushchev years, the lengthy era of stagnation, and finally the collapse under Gorbachev's perestroika. Hanson brings forth a number of novel ideas: the most positive assessment is reserved for Khrushchev who made a number of logical improvements but rejected decentralisation. Hanson points out that the collapse of the Soviet system under Gorbachev was a massive unintended consequence of a policy that was designed to save, not destroy, the system. Hanson also argues that dissatisfaction with the Soviet system stemmed from a growing awareness of events in Eastern Europe, not from envy of western market economies. Hanson provides a valuable review of the foundations of perestroika in the form of the growing disenchantment by reform economists (Zaslavskaya and Aganbegyan and others), whose role has since been forgotten. Hanson cites literature on the inconsistency of true decentralisation reform and the maintenance of a planned economy, but his own position does not appear to be clearly stated. His book provides the most comprehensive such account yet of the most important experiment of the twentieth century. Given its comprehensive and authoritative nature, it will remain the most comprehensive account for decades to come. It has been written just as the first results of research on the Soviet state and party archives are being published. It remains to be seen whether they will significantly alter the conclusions reached by Hanson, but at least he provides a body of ‘received doctrine’, against which these results can be tested.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 78 citations exist upstream.