The Systemic Bed-Rock of Transition

Social science in general and peace research in particular have developed only insufficient tools with which to analyse Soviet-type societies. The confusing diversity of regions and nation-states on the territory of the former Soviet Union requires a meticulous analysis of its foundations, as a free discourse has become possible. The Soviet economy and the behavioural marks it burdened its people with will codetermine the transition towards a market-oriented economy. It is therefore most welcome that a number of recent publications highlight the mechanisms and institutional arrangements, some of which will last for a long time. Jacques Sapir's approach interpreting the Soviet economy as a cyclical spiral of priority regulation, `l'économie mobilisée or permanente Kriegswirtschaft', is a powerful analytical instrument with which to capture the essence of the system. Unfortunately the successors of the old `Sovietology', the `big bang' consultants, have so far paid little attention to the historical strings attached to their subject. Returning to Gerschenkron's analysis of economic backwardness dramatically highlights the dangers of `ignoring the basic peculiarities' of Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet Union.