Publisher's Synopsis
Long before the Soviet Uniion admitted its economy was a disaster, Igor Birman challenged conventional appraisals of Soviet productivity. In the first comprehensive review of Soviet trends on almost a generation, the author concluded that productivity growth, which had accelerated in the 1930s and 1960s, collapsed in the 1970s and may have become negative by the early 1980s. Assessing the factors that stifled the econcomy of the USSR, Birman reveals that problems that impelled Gorbachev to perestroika and that may forestall its success.;A former insider to Soviet economic planning, the author uses Soviet figures with the care they require and presents his own adjusted data and calculations. His conclusions are carefully documented, with almost one hundred illustrative tables.
