Eva,
I did not say that the Russians produced no consumer goods. Indeed they
produce fridges. The one in the dormitory I stayed in kept things
luke-cold. They also produce cars, washbasins, brooms, toilets and many
other things in daily use. However, ever so many of the things you see in
the GUM department store are imported. I spent half a day going to various
shops trying to find a T-shirt with MOCKBA on it for my daughter. All I
could find was shirts with e.g. Oakland Raiders or Los Angeles Dodgers
logos.
During the Communist era, consumers goods were affordable, but getting them
required hours of standing in line. Now consumers goods are available,
often foreign and unaffordable for most people. The domestic capacity to
produce them on a sufficient scale and cheaply enough simply isn't there.
Brad,
I would agree that the cold war, and pre-war hostility toward the Soviet
regime put pressure on the Soviet system. However, the general development
plan followed by the regime was in considerable part a product of Russian
paranoia. Russia trusted no one, and with good reason from its historic
experience. It had been invaded from the east (Mongols), the west (Poles,
Swedes, Germans) and the south (Turks). During the Stalin era, the Soviet
regime attempted to build a strong, industrialized, militarily independent
state, able to withstand any threat. The problem was that this was done
much too quickly and imposed from the top by an unwieldy central planning
apparatus. It could not be done very efficiently and used up a very large
proportion of the resources available. The more complex the industrial
structure got, the more difficult it became to operate and regenerate. It
simply began to collapse of its own weight. The new Russia has inherited
that system, and has tried to subject it to the discipline of the market,
not giving sufficient recognition to the fact that a market system needs
time to grow and evolve and cannot be imposed on something that it simply
does not fit.
Ed Weick
