(History) The Soviet Economic Model Was the Best in the World (CIA Documents)

[Russian Bear]

This is an American CIA study on the Soviet economy. A serious scientific report presented in the US Congress and recommended to congressmen for study and use in their work. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this analysis was published a year before the collapse of the Union. At that time, in the USSR itself, criticism of the socialist economy reached its climax. Only the lazy did not scold her. The people longed for market reforms. In this regard, it is especially interesting to understand the state of the economy according to the calculations of our overseas opponents. They certainly didn’t add or add anything to us.
Let me emphasize an important point: the report data ends in 1987, the middle of perestroika. It does not cover later and more difficult years. But this will be enough for us to quickly analyze the situation. The middle line shows the Gross National Product (the final indicator), and the lower and upper lines show its two most important components: industry and agriculture.

The agricultural sector in the post-war years was noticeably inferior to industrial development, and in the eighties agriculture stopped growing altogether. The country's population was increasing, and food production was stalled. This was not the only, but important problem of the famous shortage: half-empty food shelves.
But industrial production was at its best. It pushed the economy up. The slowdown can only be noted in the era of stagnation: from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Before this, the economy grew by 4-5% per year, and during stagnation the average growth was about 2% per year. Moreover, in the late 70s there was a period when the curve moved horizontally.

But this was not an economic downturn. Stagnation – yes, lack of growth (also an appropriate term), but there was no catastrophe even close. And this coincided with global trends, from which the country of the Soviets, no matter how much it wanted, could not isolate itself. In the USA and Europe, a similar picture was observed in those years: at the turn of the 70s and 80s, GDP growth slowed down, and in some years even decreased.

(The US economy. Stagnation is indicated by a rectangle.)

Let me give you another study. Its author is historian Andrei Markevich. He spent many years studying the Soviet economy and reconstructed the gross domestic product curve from the Russian Empire to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is a screenshot from the original.
(The Soviet Economy in the Long Run)


The carelessness of the drawing of the lines is the author's own. Markevich's figures differ from the CIA's calculations to a lesser extent, that is, he assessed the growth rate as weaker. I will voice his calculations. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire developed slowly but surely. The average growth rate of the economy was 1.8% per year. It is not for nothing that during the Soviet Union they liked to make comparisons with 1913, which was at that time the highest point of economic development.
But the First World War greatly crippled the production of material goods. Fierce criticism of the tsarist regime from numerous parties led to unrest among the masses in 1717. Nobody cared that the economy was developing before the war. Everyone wanted change, hoping that life would be better without the Tsar. The February Revolution occurred, the monarchy fell and Nicholas II abdicated the throne. During the next revolution, the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks came to power, and the country faced several more years of economic turmoil: civil war and intervention.
And only in the early 20s, already under the USSR, restoration began. GDP went up. I will mark several areas on this graph. 30s. The Great Depression in the USA and around the world. Despite the difficulties of collectivization and industrialization, the Soviet Union's GDP continued to grow steadily. On average, he gained 3.6% each year. In fairness, it must be said that it was much faster than under the empire. Then the war with Nazi Germany. Armaments and other military goods are also counted as part of GDP, so we do not see a catastrophic decline in these years. But after the war, they began to make fewer tanks and Katyushas, and the production of civilian goods was still weak, so at the end of the forties, GDP decreased. After that there were 23 years of growth as fast as during Stalin’s industrialization: 3.5% per year. Then stagnation began, also known as the Brezhnev stagnation, and this continued until the start of perestroika in 1985. But even in these years, objectively worse than previous ones, the Soviet Union's GDP continued to grow by an average of approximately 1% per year.

CIA document: https://goo.gl/BUUuhM

[Jaak]

Lol this made me laugh out loud .Thanks , a bit of humor is always nice but its sad you take this seriously . Only thing that kept soviet union from collapsing was foreign aid . Calling it the best economic model in the world is pretty hilarious.
Start reading from page 321 ¨American Aid to Soviet Union¨. Its a bit too much to copy-paste all of it here .
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-3kG.../n315/mode/2up

[Russian Bear]

I trust the CIA and their document. I don't understand what outside help you mean.

[Jaak]

Read from the book i posted. Do i really need to copy-paste all of it here ?
I understand you are trying to push certain kind of optics in this forum about soviet union but its largely bull**** from my perspective . So im wondering why are you doing it , because you believe it or you were assigned to do it ?

[Russian Bear]

I can't read this book because I don't know English. I can only translate through Google Translate. Besides, you question the CIA investigation. So you understand, the CIA are serious guys who know their job well. Their work doesn't raise any doubts in me personally.

[Jaak]

Translate the book from page 321 to russian with google translate.
CIA has pushed all kinds of bullcrap to the world as truth so im not inclined to believe them.
Also i was born in soviet union and i have researched all kinds of things about it for 20 years.

[Russian Bear]

I downloaded the book about the CIA from a Russian site where it was translated into Russian from English in full analysis. You sent me the book in pictures and not text. Better send me the site so that I can read it and answer you. Who helped? You can send me just the article of this fragment, and not send the whole book. And I do not agree with you about the CIA, the Americans are not stupid, their special services are very competent and if they take on something, they do their job well. This work was presented in the US Congress, a serious scientific report.

[Jaak]

You can choose between different formats to download it , maybe PDF version is better ?
https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/it...%282002%29.pdf

[Russian Bear]

You didn't understand me. Send me the article, not the book. Tell me what kind of help are you talking about? There is some article. I can't translate the pdf, this is a picture. Is there a name for this topic you are talking about? For example, help in World War II, the Lend-Lease topic. What do you want to tell me?