Was Stalin Really Necessary? (Routledge Revivals)

Some Problems of Soviet Economic Policy

Alec Nove

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415684965
• eBook ISBN: 9781136629471
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

First published in 1964, Was Stalin Really Necessary? is a thought-provoking work which deals with many aspects of the Soviet political economy, planning problems and statistics. Professor Nove starts with an attempt to evaluate the rationality of Stalinism and discusses the possible political consequences of the search for greater economic efficiency, which is followed by a controversial discussion of Kremlinology. The author goes on to analyse the situation of the peasants as reflected in literary journals, then looks at industrial and agricultural problems. There are elaborate statistical surveys of occupational patterns and the purchasing power of wages, followed by an examination of the irrational statistical reflection of irrational economic decisions. Professor Nove's essay on social welfare was, unlike some of his other work, used in the Soviet press as evidence against over-enthusiastic cold-warriors, among whom the author was not always popular. Finally, the author seeks to generalise about the evolution of world communism.

INDEX

Accord premium system, 195

Accounting prices, in Planning, 58

Aeroflot, 92

Agriculture:

State Committee on (see State Committee)

‘Campaigns’ in (see Campaigns)

Collectivization of, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 41, 54, 143, 144, 212

farm prices, 59, 150, 173, 183, 188, 190

machinery, 153, 157

off farm surplus, 22, 23, 58

organization, 162–70, 147

private sector in, 160, 161, 139, 140, 146–7

prospects, 81

size of farms, 162–3, 169

See also

Kolkhoz peasants

Kolkhozy

Party

Procurements

Prices

State farms

Land rent

Ministry

Incentives

Agrogorod, 233

Alliance with the peasants, 23

Allocation certificate (see Naryad)

Anti-Party group, 41, 62

Armed-forces statistics, 262

Autarky (‘localism’), 46, 59, 72, 95, 101, 111–12, 129, 136

Avansy, 192

Bachelor tax, 180,249

abolition of 182, 250

Bank (see Gosbank)

Bankruptcy, 134

Black-market transactions, 189, 211

Bonuses, 87, 211, 213

Budget, allocations, 221

Building industry (see Construction)

Campaigns, economic, 53, 55, 61, 120, 155

in agriculture, 153–8, 164, 203

Ca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• I Political Economy
• II. Industrial Growth and Planning
• III Agriculture
• IV Labour, Welfare
• V. Statistics
• VI. Ideology
• Glossary
• Index