RUSSIA Fall of the USSR 1985-91- ECONOMICS Flashcards
When was Gorbachev elected General Secretary of the Communist Party?
1985
What did Gorbachev’s appointment seem to offer the communist regime?
A chance of revival and renewed strength
When was there an attempted coup by the conservatives in the Party?
August 1991
How did the attempted coup affect Gorbachev?
Seriously undermined his position as Soviet leader
When was the Soviet Union dissolved by the republics as a sovereign state?
December 1991
When did Gorbachev give a message about the fall of the USSR and leave the Kremlin for good?
25 December 1991
What had highlighted the weaknesses in the Soviet economy?
Novosibirsk Report of 1983
Who compiled the Novosibirsk Report?
Leading economic sociologist, Tatyana Zaslavskaya
Who was the Novosibirsk Report distributed to?
Politburo
How did the Politburo react to the Novosibirsk Report?
Most of its ageing members did not understand its conclusions or simply chose to ignore them
Who was the only person who realised that the Novosibirsk Report meant that reform was needed?
Gorbachev
What did the Novosibirsk Report state?
Drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture caused by state inefficiency and inflexibility
What were Gorbachev’s initial cautious steps in economic reform?
Put like-minded reformers in key positions
Who did Gorbachev bring into the committee to help him carry out economic reform?
Yegor Ligachev; Nikolai Ryzhkov
Who did Gorbachev promote to the Central Committee in 1986 to help him carry out economic reform?
Boris Yeltsin; Alexander Yakovlev
How did Gorbachev’s initial approach to economic reform echo that of his mentor, Andropov?
Launched a campaign to attack problem of rampant alcoholism
Why did Gorbachev try to tackle the problem of alcoholism straight away?
To improve health and productivity of the population
How did Gorbachev try to curb drinking?
Raised drinking age to 21; reduced number of retail outlets where alcohol could be bought; destroyed vineyards; closed distilleries
How was the price of vodka affected by Gorbachev’s reforms?
Tripled
Why did Gorbachev’s attempts to enforce prohibition backfire?
Tax revenues that the government gained from alcohol fell markedly and caused a serious shortfall in the budget; drinking levels rose again as illegal moonshine was produced in large quantities
What was the focus of the investment of the 12FYP intended to be?
Science and research, especially in engineering
What were the key weaknesses of the 12FYP?
Heavy investment in construction projects; old equipment; agricultural sector was swallowing vast sums of investment with little success; focus remained on quantity over quality
Why was Gorbachev’s policy of economic acceleration so problematic?
Did little to address fundamental weaknesses of the Soviet economy; opposition to real change from Party and state economic planning apparatus
When was the 12FYP?
1986-90
What did Gorbachev set up under the 12FYP to achieve better co-ordination of economic activity and reduce waste?
‘Superministries’
What also opposed Gorbachev’s changes to investment priorities?
Military
How did the deficit of the Soviet Union increase between 1985-86?
Rose from 2.4% of GDP to 6.2%
What was also draining a lot of the Soviet Union’s resources in the 1980s?
Afghanistan War; increased defence spending in response to USA’s Strategic Defence Initiative programme
When did Gorbachev decide that more fundamental restructuring of the Soviet economy was needed?
1987
Perestroika
Restructuring
When did Gorbachev launch his proposal for economic perestroika?
January 1987 Plenum of the Central Committee
What were Gorbachev’s different policies of economic perestroika?
Encouragement of joint ventures, January 1987; Law on State Enterprises, June 1987; Co-operatives were legalised in 1988
When did Moscow get its first McDonalds?
1990
What did Gorbachev hope that joint ventures with foreign businesses would do?
Open the USSR to more modern technology
What did the Law on State Enterprises do?
Allowed a loosening of state controls over wages and prices; weakened the authority of Gosplan; allowed an element of election in the choice of managers
How was Gorbachev able to partly disguise the move to a more market-based economy?
Legalising ‘co-operatives’
How did perestroika affect food production?
It showed a small increase in its growth rate from 1-2% during the period 1986-87- still inadequate
What were the impacts of perestroika?
Enterprises were still subject to state interference; co-operatives produced inflation and denied poorer cities food; profit of co-operatives attracted corrupt government officials; panic hoarding; steep rise in wages; reforms undermined by officials; foreign companies put off investment by endless bureaucracy
Where was meat rationed in 1988?
26/55 regions of Russia
How did urban wages rise in 1989?
By 13%
How many joint foreign ventures were there in the USSR by the end of 1990?
Nearly 3,000
What is an example of a city that suffered especially with sabotage of economic reforms by officials?
Leningrad
What made the Soviet economic situation much worse during Gorbachev’s attempts to enforce perestroika?
Fall in the price of oil
When was the Soviet economy massively in debt and approaching crisis point?
By the end of 1989
How did the government respond to the increase of strikes?
Quickly increased wages- only a short-term measure
What issued the report that concluded a more radical solution was needed after the failures of perestroika?
State Commission on Economic Reform, July 1989
What did the State Commission on Economic Reform’s report call for?
A move to a market-led economy
What did one of Gorbachev’s economic advisers put forward in October 1989?
500 Days Programme- recommended a rapid move to a market economy
How did Soviet output change between 1990-91?
Declined by 1/5
How did the Soviet leadership respond to the 500 Days Programme?
Rejected by the Soviet government but accepted by the Russian Parliament
How did the Politburo react to the State Commission on Economic Reform’s report?
Split- reformers wanted to implement the recommendations quickly; others called for a more gradual transition
Why did Gorbachev hesitate about the State Commission on Economic Reform’s report?
He was trying to maintain unity in the Party leadership
Who put forward the 500 Days Programme?
Stanislav Shatalin
What were co-operatives?
Small-scale private businesses
Why did the co-operatives make impressive profits?
More productive than the state sector
Which workers went on strike about unpaid wages and food shortages?
Miners in the Don Basin
