The Disintegration of the Soviet Union

Abstract

Attempts to discover an internal logic in the high‐speed events taking place in the former Soviet Union. In addressing the problems of the country′s disintegration, examines the issue in its socioeconomic, political and territorial‐administrative aspects. Analyses, for this purpose, the nature of Soviet society prior to Gorbachev′s reforms, its present transitional stage and its probable direction in the near future.

Pre‐Soviet, Soviet and post‐Soviet models of economic growth and development

“…According to the author, it is the bureaucracy which did away with the system of totalitarian state capitalism. In one of his works (Raiklin, 1993, pp. 10‐11), this author characterizes in the following way the Soviet bureaucracy in its later years:In its totality, the bureaucracy is the capitalist owner of national wealth, which includes the means of production.…”

“…The reader is urged to read at least three of them where the following is discussed: (1) Raiklin (1988), the Soviet problems; on pp. 12‐23, the menu of available solutions; (2) Raiklin (1993), the four pillars of the Stalinist model and their weakening; on pp. 46‐48, the socioeconomic factors of the downfall of the Soviet system; on pp.…”

“…13‐16), etc. See also Raiklin (1993), where some basic directions in the behavioral motivation of various bureaucratic layers during a period of transformation from the Soviet to the post‐Soviet socioeconomic structure are discussed: the status‐quo bureaucracy, the bureaucracy striving to move from centralized to decentralized state monopoly, the bureaucracy willing to move from state monopoly to semi‐private monopoly, and the bureaucracy allowing the transfer from state monopoly to limited decentralized private monopoly and/or to decentralized private competition.…”

The Soviet and post‐Soviet allocation of land rent

“…With the collapse of the Stalinist economic model, turnover taxes as a form of land rent ceased to exist. In a new, post‐Soviet Russia, they have been replaced by value‐added taxes[13]. The latter became a form through which the post‐Soviet land rent now reveals itself[14].…”

On the short‐run allocation of economic resources by the Soviet and post‐Soviet enterprises

“…As a result, the short‐run difference (MRP VF ‐MRC VF ) is negative in the Soviet case while it is zero in the non‐Soviet case. This implies that the Soviet enterprise is inefficient as compared to its non‐Soviet counterpart[7].…”