The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy

The economic system forged by Stalin had many faults-the abuse ofworkers and the waste of resources on a massive scale among them. But forhalf a century the Soviet economy was stable. Why, then, did it suddenlycollapse in the late 1980s, only a few years after Mikhail Gorbachev cameto power? In this [...]
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The economic system forged by Stalin had many faults-the abuse ofworkers and the waste of resources on a massive scale among them. But forhalf a century the Soviet economy was stable. Why, then, did it suddenlycollapse in the late 1980s, only a few years after Mikhail Gorbachev cameto power? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that althoughGorbachev and his allies sought to learn from China's economic reformsunder Deng Xiaoping, their efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism provedmuch less successful. Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburoand other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the SovietUnion and China-and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse-was noteconomics but politics. The Soviet government was riven by bitter conflict,and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, found himself unable tooutmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by economic reform.Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economicsof perestroika, transforming our understanding of how Soviet policymakersmight have prevented economic collapse.