Faulty Foundations : : Soviet Economic Policies, 1928-1940 / / Janusz M. Szyrmer, Holland Hunter.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton Legacy Lib. eBook Package 1980-1999
• VerfasserIn: Hunter, Holland,; Szyrmer, Janusz M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©1992
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 196
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (356 p.)

Could the USSR have been prepared for World War II more humanely and efficiently? In this first integrated evaluation of Stalin's economic goals and actions, Holland Hunter and Janusz Szyrmer reconstruct and test Soviet results annually and by sector. Addressing historians, political scientists, and economists, the authors build a new, internally consistent, twelve-sector annual record of output and capital growth (assembling and reconciling Western reconstructions of Soviet data) to assess Soviet policy and test how alternative policies might have worked. They point out lessons from the 1930s that can be applied today. The authors analyze the basic steps marking the prewar Soviet drive: agricultural collectivization, head-long investment in heavy industry, autarkic foreign trade, and rearmament. They conclude that the economy's growth potential was misused, that collectivization was a mistake, and that with a slower drive to build heavy industry, living standards could have been higher throughout the 1930s while the ability to withstand invasion would have been stronger. A related implication for the 1990s is that correct prices, small-scale production, and individual initiative are key requirements for an effective Soviet economy.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- PART I: Introductory Background -- CHAPTER 1. The Nature of Our Work -- CHAPTER 2. Soviet Economic Policy Alternatives in the 1920s -- CHAPTER 3. Overall Trends in Output and Final Use, Capital, Labor, and Population -- PART II: The Charge of the New Bolsheviks -- CHAPTER 4. Operational Issues in Administering Rapid Output Expansion -- CHAPTER 5. New-Bolshevik Policies outside Agriculture -- CHAPTER 6. New-Bolshevik Agricultural Policy and an Alternative -- CHAPTER 7. Foreign Trade Developments -- CHAPTER 8. Identifying the Role of Defense Outlays -- CHAPTER 9. Keeping Track of Capital Growth -- CHAPTER 10. An Appraisal of New-Bolshevik Economic Policies -- PART III: Testing Alternative Economic Policies -- CHAPTER 11. The KAPROST Model: Logic and Structure -- CHAPTER 12. Insights Derived from the KAPROST Model -- CHAPTER 13. Tracing the Consequences of Alternative Policies -- CHAPTER 14. Lessons from Soviet Economic Experience -- APPENDIX A: Statistical Foundations for Our Analysis -- APPENDIX B: Dealing with the Index Number Problem -- APPENDIX C: Model Equations -- References -- Index