Abstract
University of Oxford and Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration The adoption in the USSR of the Stalinist centrally planned economic system, and the industrial policy of unbalanced growth in favour of heavy industry, generated the rapid industrialization in the 1930s that enabled the country to catch up with other leading economic powers and to support a militarized economy during both peace-time and the Second World War.1 Throughout the post-war period from 1945 to 1980, the Soviet Union maintained the fundamental features of its historically novel economic system, although industrial policies and priorities deviated from those of the Stalin era. The Soviet model and strategy produced uninterrupted positive industrial growth from 1950 to 1980, with its index (1970=100) increasing from 22 to 158, and some significant technological advances in heavy industry and defence. The USSR became the leading industrial country in Europe. However, over the post-war decades, Soviet industry experienced growing performance problems related to quality of output, efficiency and international competitiveness, which contributed to the ‘stagnation’ of the economy in the 1970s and beyond, and to the eventual systemic crisis that led to the demise of the USSR.
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Davis, C.M. (2014). Industrial Performance in the USSR: Influences of State Priorities, Economic System, Industrial Policies and Hidden Processes, 1945–1980. In: Grabas, C., Nützenadel, A. (eds) Industrial Policy in Europe after 1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329905_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329905_16
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