Introduction

This book is concerned with a series of issues that lie at the heart of contemporary Soviet economic problems and policy. According to western press assessments, since Mikhail Gorbachev has come to power his central concern has been the need to modernise and reform the Soviet economy. However, these concerns and the efforts they have engendered are not particularly new. The necessity for reform has been long recognised within the USSR and, furthermore, many of the initiatives that have been either implemented or discussed by Gorbachev have their roots in similar experimental initiatives undertaken by his predecessors from the late sixties onwards. This book seeks to explain why these experimental initiatives were necessary and will provide an assessment of a number of them, concentrating especially on the Shchekino experiment. The necessity for such experimentation and the longer-term experience of the experiments, will be utilised as an illustration of the distinctive nature of the political economy of the USSR. Furthermore, the impact of these older experiments indicates the possibilities of success for Gorbachev’s reform initiatives and illustrates the potential problems which ultimately they will have to address.