Russian revolution, "why Russian economic policies eventually failed" ?

Question

From 1917, Russia became a communist state under the direct control of Lenin, and then Stalin. The Politburo of Russia ruled absolutely - in much the same way as the Tsars had done - and opposition was suppressed (killed) or sent to “Siberia”. Paradoxically the ordinary worker was not allowed to contribute to decisions. This Russian command economy survived for 80 years and then began to collapse economically in 1990. It is now generally agreed that centrally controlled economies make bad economic decisions, but for a while Russia was a strong military power with atomic weapons. In 2008 it is trying to introduce market reforms in its economy but still has the tendency to want ‘central command’

-- my teacher gave this as an explanATion to my question but i dont quite understand really. can someone please elaborate.. thank you :)

Answer 1

Communsm -or any variety of socialism, really- is essentially an upside-down pyramid scheme.  It is all about the redistribution of wealth, without the understanding that wealth must be created at some point.  The system of redistribution itself becomes a consumer of wealth, but without enough new wealth going in to the system.  It fails essentially for the same reason any sort of perpetual motion machine does.

More specifically, it begins by taking wealth from the very top and cycling it downward, through the government.  Trouble is, that while free-er socialist economies, such as the European variety, allow that top layer to re-establish itself, hard-core Communism does not.  Those at the top are either re-assigned to a new status in life -the banker is arrested, stripped of all his property, and given a new job as a ditch-digger- or just imprisoned or executed.  So Communism then has to to take the next layer down, strips that one, passes it down.  Fairly quickly, you run out of sources of wealth creation, and have only wealth consumption--the chief of which is the government itself.  A totalitarian command economy can only stave off the inevitable for so long--the Soviets never learned this; it's possible the Chinese have; it's like a dying patient in the hospital pumped up on oxygen and adrenaline--it's a battle you must ultimately lose.

Answer 2

What you see in Russia, and really any communist state (you're kidding yourself if you think China is still a communist state) is the lack of Research and Development, or really anything to make it stronger. Granted, that is a GROSS oversimplification of the answer, but really, its a huge combination of things. The answer your teacher gave you is more less right, (I would personally disagree with their idea that the Soviet economy was "strong" until 1990, but that's neither here nor there.)

Answer 3

Your teacher has over-simplified the issues.

The USSR had a command economy - the state planing board (Gosplan) decided how many things were needed - it applied to everything, books, newspapers, shoes, coats, ships - everything - it did not state what quality things were to be - just the number.

The command economy was poor at many things - for example televisions, cars and other consumer goods, there is no competition to drive quality up and prices down.   But it was very good at big things, like power stations, tanks and military hardware - to some extent all countries use a version of it for big projects.

One of the big problems of a command economy is that it is very slow to react to a changing world.  The world changed enormously in the decades after WWII - the Soviet system didn't - it remained locked into producing things that no-one wanted - and were badly made if you did want them.

The market reforms began in the 1980s under the last Communist leader of the USSR - Gorbachev.  They carried on under his successor - Boris 'Eltsin, Russia still has a market economy.

Russia does not want a return to a command economy, but it does want to regain some of its influence, especially in areas it considers its backyard.

Answer 4

Bigredan gave a great answer , he should get best answer :-)

All I have to add is, Russia was never a 'communist state'. It was ruled by the Communist Party , yes , but Russia never even claimed to be a communist society - in all official documents , in all the state propoganda, the message was : 'Now we are socialist , hopefully one day we'll be able to build a communist society here'. All that was communist about Russia was the name of the party. The government never claimed , or pretended ,that Russia is a communist country. it was always seen by the whole country as a goal , an aim that everybody hoped to reach in the future. USSR = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Socialist , not Communist.