Soviet Electric Power After Chernobyl': Economic Consequences and Options

A review of the role of nuclear power in Soviet electricity production and of economic and design factors that may have contributed to the accident at the Chernobyl' Atomic Power Station sets the stage for analysis of its economic and other impacts on the USSR and Eastern Europe. The paper outlines methods for estimating direct costs stemming from lost generating capacity, agricultural output, and plant infrastructure; clean-up and relocation; and medical care. Longer-term costs in the form of environmental and public health problems, reexamination of energy development strategies, and effects on international trade will be greater but more difficult to determine. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 124, 723.     

The Soviet Periphery: Economic Development of Belorussia

This paper analyzes the development of Belorussia, focusing upon its industrialization in the post-war period. Belorussia has changed from a lesserdeveloped part of the Soviet periphery to one of the USSR's more developed regions. This has been the result of a number of locational advantages for certain types of industry, particularly machine-building and chemicals. Its experience is similar to the U.S. periphery, and in conformity with Western regional development models, but apparently a typical of most of the Soviet periphery. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 940.     

从政党政治的缺陷看苏共必然灭亡

政党政治是人类有史以来民主政治的高级形式,是现代民主政治的典型形式,是人类政治文明的积极成果。政党政治首先形成于现代资本主义社会。最先发展资本主义商品市场经济的国家,如英、法、美等国,新兴资产阶级是在夺取政权后的议会斗争中才组成政党,经由多党竞争,选民投票,实现政党轮流执政或联合执政。后发资本主义国家,如德、意、俄等国以及广大被压迫民族国家,则是先组成各类政党,由政党领导或推进革命斗争,到斗争胜利后才形成完全的政党政治。政党政治依据长期     

苏联解体原因再探

苏联解体的原因是综合性的和多方面的。本文对四个方面的因素进行了探讨和论述。一,制度性因素:它是苏联解体的根本原因。二,领导人因素:他们发起的改革瓦解了现存的制度并开启了苏联解体的闸门。三,民族问题因素:毁灭联盟的火药桶。四,阿富汗战争因素:解体的重要外部原因之一。     

普京对苏联解体和叶利钦时代的评价

多年来俄罗斯各界对苏联和叶利钦政权的评价争论不休。对此普京提出自己的看法:“谁要是不为苏联的解体感到遗憾,他就是没有良心,而谁要是希望恢复苏联,他就是没有头脑。”普京对苏联所作的某种肯定并不意味着要走回头路,而对叶利钦时代的某种批评也不意味着对叶利钦8年改革的否定。肯定苏联是出于争取和团结大多数俄罗斯人的需要,以利局面的稳定,而批评叶利钦则是为了纠正过去的不足,继续叶利钦开创的事业。     

Soviet Union and the Third World: The Economic Dimension

This paper surveys some of the outstanding issues and changes in the economic dimension of Soviet involvement in the non-communist Third World over the last 30 years. It attempts to identify and integrate salient features of current knowledge about Soviet economic policy toward the less developed countries. After a survey of the evolution of Soviet arms transfers and economic aid and trade relations, the paper concludes with some reflections on the effectiveness of Soviet policy and prospects for future change. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 420.     

Gorbachev's Economic Reform: A Soviet Economy Roundtable

The proceedings of a panel of American specialists devoted to the recent economic reform are summarized. The panelists noted that the most substantial changes to date have accompanied efforts to restructure the decisionmaking hierarchy—in particular, a recentralization of authority through the creation of biuros and state committees and legislation on individual economic activity. Changes in the systems of economic planning and incentives, on the other hand, have been minor, suggesting a continuing debate over the extent to which price reform and various economic incentives should be implemented. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113, 124.     

Panel on the Economic and Political Consequences of Chernobyl'

This article summarizes a discussion by a panel of leading experts on Soviet energy analyzing the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl' nuclear plant in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986.

The near-term economic costs associated with clean-up, relocation, and compensating for losses to electricity supplies are significant but manageable. The longer-term effects will focus on likely modifications in Soviet strategies for the nuclear industry, which may shift emphasis back towards conventional fuels and conservation.

The political consequences were managed fairly well by the leadership. Consistent with Secretary Gorbachev's policy of glasnost' (openness) more information has been available on this event than was the case in previous analogous situations. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 124, 723.     

Soviet Assessments of Economic Reforms in Other Socialist Countries

A prominent American economist pieces together and analyzes Soviet assessments of economic reforms in other socialist countries. Included in the author's analysis are studies of Soviet specialists investigating changes in the administrative organization of the state sector, planning, pricing, banking, labor, agriculture, nonstate activity, and foreign economic relations, within the framework of a socialist planned economy. Also covered are more recent Soviet studies focusing on privatization, marketization, and government regulation in the transition to a capitalist market economy—work that influenced decisions about economic reforms in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P21, B20.     

Economic and Strategic Position Of the Soviet Far East

The role of the Soviet Far East in the Soviet regional system is conditioned by its remoteness from the country's commanding center, its harsh physical environment, and strategic importance. The region is weakly integrated into the mainstream of the Soviet economy. At the same time, its most powerful economic links are with the distant metropolis—a strongly dependent, parasitic relationship made more dominant by the cost of the massive military build-up. Huge Soviet efforts to accelerate the growth of the Far East are proving largely unsuccessful, despite the construction of the BAM. Economic priorities are shifting to West Siberia, while Far Eastern resource projects are proving increasingly unattractive to Japan. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 731.     

Budget Deficit,Market Disequilibrium and Soviet Economic Reforms

Problems within the present fiscal and monetary system of the USSR are examined (a) as a function of both past systemic shortcomings and of fiscal developments caused by economic reforms enacted to date and (b) as obstacles that must be overcome during the transition to a more market-oriented economy. Major sources of disequilibrium in the present economy are identified through analysis of Soviet budgets from both the reform and pre-reform periods, and a concluding section presents policy options for the period of transition to a more radical economic reform. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 124, 300.     

An Empirical Analysis of Soviet Economic Relations with Developing Countries

Soviet trade with the developing countries is analyzed using formal statistical techniques. Soviet imports of primary products are found to grow more rapidly but to be no more stable than imports of these products by market economies. Evidence is found of Soviet price discrimination in trade in favor of LDC members of the CMEA and against LDCs with which it has bilateral clearing agreements (BCAs). BCAs are correlated with greater trade volumes, relatively diverse export structures and more stable LDC exports to the Soviet Union. No evidence exists that Soviet aid deliveries are linked systematically with later Soviet imports. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 421, 443     

Approaches to the Politics of Systemic Economic Reform in the Soviet Union

Political support for economic reform in the USSR is evaluated at five different levels of Soviet society, or more properly, of the political-administrative hierarchy: the top leader (Gorbachev himself), the collective leadership (Politburo), the bureaucracy, knowledge specialists (intelligentsia), and the population at large. Attitudes and motivations within each group are examined in order to demonstrate how interest group relations in the Soviet Union have made and will continue to make basic economic change a protracted, complex, and unpredictable process. journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113.     

Comment on the Economic Dimension of Soviet Interaction With the Third World

This article looks at collective memory formation—the study of monuments, memory, and public space—through a political science lens. An explicit theoretical focus on power relations in "monumental politics" and a methodological approach featuring large-N comparative analysis are combined to examine the process of monument creation, destruction, and alteration. Using a new database on monuments in 26 post-communist states over a 25-year period, patterns of monument transformation are identified, and official and private efforts to transform monuments are systematically compared across different regime types. The complex implications of private provision and alteration of monuments is also discussed.