On its publication in 1985, this book offered a fresh analysis of the problems faced by the Soviet economy by focussing on the key issues in the economic planning system. David Dyker considers the available options for reform during the 1980s and the most likely developments. Discussing the origins of the Soviet economic planning system and the theories which founded it, previous attempts to reform the organisational structure and the particular problem of agriculture, Dyker presents a picture of an increasingly bleak future for the Soviet economy. This is a comprehensive title written by a renowned expert on the Soviet economy, which will be of particular value to students and academics researching the political and economic development and history of the Soviet Union.

The ideas set forth in these pages matured in the authors mind during the early years of constructive communism in Petrograd. The communist government, intoxicated by its successes in the counter-revolution, had promised to deal promptly with all economic problems now that its hands where free to do so. It was at this moment of its greatest triumphs that the author put forward his contention that the system of Marxian communism, as then conceived, was-intrinsically unsound and must inevitably break down.

Originally published in 1981 and based on the authors’ own research, this book provides a comprehensive review of planning in the Soviet Union up until the early 1980s for both geographers and Soviet specialists. Planning was particularly important in the Soviet Union since not only most spatial change, but all economic planning was the product of a systematic socio-political ideology. Planning was therefore the key to understanding the Soviet economy, society and spatial change. When it was first published, this was the first study in which the focus had been directed specifically at spatial planning in the Soviet Union in any systematic way.

Although the Soviet Union's centrally planned economic system played a significant role in world economic growth and modernization, it ultimately failed to compete with market forms of economic organization. Despite unavailing efforts at reform, it has now been abandoned, as the republics of the former USSR move painfully toward the market. Robert W. Campbell, one of the most respected U.S. specialists on the economy of the former Soviet Union, probes the evolution, behavior, and fatal weaknesses of the Soviet administrative-command economy. His essays cover a broad set of perspectives--theoretical interpretation of the Soviet-type economy and the growth model that went with it, concrete analyses of individual sections and functions, evaluation of the microeconomics of Soviet decision making, and descriptions of attempts at institutional and doctrinal reforms. They provide instructive background on some of the biggest problems now facing the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as the monetary and fiscal collapse engendered by reform, the looming fuel and energy disaster, and the seemingly intractable task of transforming the military-industrial complex and integrating its resources into the civilian economy. Robert W. Campbell's outstanding work provides an indispensable resource for understanding what the Soviet economic system was and the problems it faced in the transition to the market model.

In Soviet Economy and the War the author presents a concise factual record of Soviet economic developments during a short period. This book outlines the economic planning and performance that accompanied the military training and preparation to meet the onset of Nazism. To some extent complementary to Dobb's Soviet Economy & the War, the author offers detailed studies of a few special aspects of the Soviet Economic System.

Study of economic policy, the economic structure and economic administration in the USSR - covers economic planning, price determination, industry, agriculture, trade, labour force, national accounting, monetary policy, budgets, socialist economic theory, etc., and includes a comparison of socialist and capitalist economic structures. Bibliography pp. 291 to 316.

Karl Scholz's translation of the study Mengenplanung und Preisplanung in der Sovijunion by Hans Hirsch reproduces the provocative thesis of the author in concise, lucid English. The need for such a book is made dear in Hans Hirsch's introduction: "The question of economic accounting under socialism has attracted much interest for a long time. This is primarily due to its key position in the controversy over the economic order. However, if understood correctly, it is just as important to pure economic theory. Here lies the best opportunity first to examine price theory statements and to perceive how far price theory has either general validity or is merely applicable to particular historical phenomena and, secondly, to separate out the items that are not determined by the logic of the theoretical system but by the incidental peculiarities of the empirical economy to which the theory is related. Hans Hirsch's treatise deals with the Soviet experience and difficulties. The treatise also shows the methods of economic guidance employed in Russia by considering the following significant theoretical economic series of topics: the principles determine quantities of product and the direction of their use; the distribution of authority and influence between higher and lower guiding agencies; the role of prices in the guiding process; and finally the operating forces and viewpoints, in setting prices. In the presentation the conflict between the system of material planning, which forms the basis, and the effects of the financial means of guidance, especially of prices, becomes clearly visible. This gives occasion to attempt a theoretical interpretation of the material guidance system, as such, and in its relationship to a financial guidance system. In so doing the author expresses views as to the basic compatibility of material and financial guidance methods, contrary to hitherto prevailing doctrine. The knowledge thus acquired will serve as renewed stimulus to further development of the theory of economic planning.

In Restructuring the Soviet Economic Bureaucracy, Paul R. Gregory takes an inside look at how the system worked and why it has traditionally been so resistant to change. Gregory's findings shed light on a bureaucracy that was widely considered the greatest threat to Gorbachev's efforts at perestroika, or restructuring.

Study in historical perspective of developments in economic policy in the USSR - covers economic structures and economic administration prior to and during the 1st world war, the position during the 50 years of the communist regime, political leadership of the country, the collective economy, industrialization, political problems, economic growth, etc. Bibliography pp. 389 to 391, and statistical tables.