People could not get basic goods such as food, housing and clothing. Command economy: Economic system where decisions pertaining to production and investment are decided by the central government. User’s policy of command economy showing signs of inefficiency as people’s needs not met. Why was the command economy inefficient? I. Poor and slow decisions by the Central Government C. G. Did not always make the right decisions. Did not know local conditions in factories in dif. Parts of US – dif. , as USSR was ignoramus Factory managers had to wait for the C. G. To set quotas Had to wait a long time for decisions People waited even longer b/c of that Local conditions all However, factory managers in the west made decisions w/o the gobo breathing down their necks.
Western consumers did not have to wait as long for products it. No quality control Focused on targets easy to measure Easy to check if targets had been met C. G set the targets for factories No targets for quality US goods were Shiite Customers unhappy wit iii. No incentive to work hard All workers given same benefits Guaranteed Jobs for life Subsided healthcare, housing, education Less efficient that capitalist West as Westerners had incentives to work hard I. E. Meritocracy lb. Overspending on military, few consumer goods C. G spent most of its money on military.
Certain years, 50% of revenue on military s they wanted to be a superpower and beat USA- Not enough to make consumer goods that the people were in desperate need of v. Alcoholism Cheap and easily available (VODKA) Few consumer goods available. People Just spent money on alcohol since there was nothing to buy – Workers went to work drunk, produced Shiite goods Caused men to be unhealthy, lowered life expectancy VI. Did not improve farms and factories CGI did not use tech to improve farms and factories Could not catch up to better tech of the west They could produce more than Soviet farms but with lesser manpower and money vii.
Inefficient transport and distribution system Factories located far away from the resources Time wasted transporting materials Farms also not organized Good harvest meant that crops would rot as transport system could not handle that amount of crops viii. Basic needs of people not met Command economy could not provide for the people Black market developed Officials who controlled the supply became corrupt Took bribes from people and sent goods to those who bribed them -Gobo also lost revenue Ineffective Gobo I. Not willing to change Politburo was full of commie hardliners Did not accept new or different ideas
Saw these ideas as a threat to their power People could not criticize as it was a challenge to commie rule change things in US Made it hard to Conservative and corrupt leaders Politburo did not pick leaders by ability but by bias Led to conservatism and corruption iii. People not interested Felt they couldn’t do anything as they could not say anything against gobo policies Could not improve the system as they could not speak out Citizens decided not to get involved Gobo did not get feedback which could have helped them improve External Reasons I.
Ronald Reggae’s Star Wars program OR began large scale military spending knowing USSR would not catch up Initiated Strategic Defended Initiative (SD’) or Star Wars programmer Wanted a way to deflect Soviet missiles Alarmed USSR. Decided to improve R/s with USA I’. Anti-Soviet feelings in republics Countries different in ethnicity and culture Controlled with troops Resented USSR Cost US much resources iii. Increased spending Led Warsaw Pact. USSR had to spend millions on troops to support allies invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Increased spending Provided support to East Europe countries through COMMON All this undistributed to User’s debt 2. Cockroaches Reforms Perestroika: Economic restructuring I. Central planning ended Law of State Enterprise USSR Farmers and factories could decide what they wanted to produce and set own quotas – Private trade (Capitalism) Ended state monopolies I’. Market Economy Reduced role of Gobo in economy Encouraged people to form small enterprises, run small businesses companies welcomed Tried to change US economy to market economy iii.
Military spending reduced Foreign Arms race let S Reduce spending of money on military Channel resources to more important areas to improve economy roofs from Afghanistan Did not interfere in East E. ‘s affairs anymore Worked to slow arms race Glasnost: Openness I. Open to new ideas Hoped he could get input from citizens Encouraged new ideas to change communist system it. Less censorship Allowed media to report on problems of US Religion allowed Legalized banned publications Removed US Hoped to gain support and embarrass gobo. Officials who did not support Perestroika iii. More freedom To show that he was sirs boss, put corrupt officials on trial Set political prisoners free Gave satellite states more freedom Fall of the Soviet Union I. Cockroaches failures Ђ Perestroika and Glasnost did not solve problems of the US Communist hardliners did not want to implement changes or only did so partially Trying to run USSR in both capitalist and commie ways Could not succeed No improvement.
Lines for basic goods grew even longer Factories didn’t produce consumer goods, they produced luxury goods to increase profits. One way capitalism did not benefit Russia Shortages made people organize protests (legal now because of Glasnost) Workers lost Jobs because they were retrenched by state-owned companies to cut costs Unemployed people protested Prevented work from being done I. Loss of Communist Party authority Glasnost allowed people to criticize COG’S policies, go on strike, vote for dif. Arties Weakened communist party Changes made Pl less secure in their lives as they were constantly changing their way of life Lost confidence in Communist party Pl used Glasnost to criticize CGI iii. Years tot old C War competition bankrupted Arms race with USA Struggling to pay from late asses ‘ass: USSR was the leader in tech 12 April 1961: First man in space By ‘ass, Western countries caught up. USSR lagging USA tried to weaken USSR icon. Prevented sale of computers and tech to them
Collar w/ Saudi Arabia to reduce oil prices so that Russia could not gain an edge in economy- Stopped USSR from earning the money they would have gotten – Also tried to pressure Western EX. countries from building pipeline that would bring natural gas from USSR to West Thus in asses USA prevented Russia from earning USSR forced to spend more money on Afghanistan invasion and Star Wars programmer 1985 when Geographer gained power, he knew they had to stop spending on military, which had been trying to be a superpower for 40 years lb. Rise of Nationalism US loosened control on republics Republics called for independence, break up of US
Gorky not willing US troops sent to prevent them from declaring independence 7 Jan 1991 continued Union Treaty CGI would make decisions on UP and national security The rest would be up to republics v. The 19-21 August 1991 coup Hardliners afraid Union Treaty would break up US Members of Gorges gobo Protests Wanted to overthrow Gorky before he could sign Union Treaty 19 Jug 1991, Gorky on holiday in Crimea Hardliners announced that military took control of SO, Gorky not leader anymore Wanted to bring back Commie power, complete control over USSR President Boris Yielding called them traitors
People protested against coup as well Surrounded Yuletide’s building in a show of support Some revolutionaries even Joined them Failed coup Hardliners weakened Commie party banned by Yielding Gorky failed to control his own party members, so he looked weak have support of commies or anti-commies Resigned 25 Deck 1991 Commies blamed him for destroying US Anti-Commies blamed him for slow changes US broke up. Formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CICS) Gorky did not CICS Members: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Beleaguers, Georgia, Astrakhan, Kirk Transmitter, Ukraine and Uzbekistan Nazi, Moldavia, Atkinson,