[PEN-L:12] Re: Re: The Return to Fiefdoms in Russia?

[Gregory Schwartz <grishas@xxxxxxxx>]

True,

But under Brezhnev they were re-centralised. This was in fact why Khrushchev
got sacked (i.e. for trying to decentralise too much). Of course, there was an
impetus for the sovnarkhozy to stay in the union, because of the centrally
allocated investments. Until that was exchanged for khozrashchet (literally,
self financing) under Gorbachev, there was little impetus for the fiefdoms, as
they were, to stay, especially in the face of the continuing crisis associated
with the Soviet system of production.

Today there is nothing tying some (particularly the unsubsidised) republics to
the centre.

valis wrote:

> Quoth Gregory Schwartz:
>
> > As I mentioned in a previous post ([PEN-L:1] Re: Mark Jones's comments
> > on Russian crisis), the reaction might mean economic decentralisation
> > (into myriad fiefdoms or corporate-clan structures based on the regional
> > basis). I was surprised to find out - just minutes after I finished
> > writing the last message - the following post (from RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol.
> > 2, No. 171 Part I, 4 September 1998).
>
>       [Kommersant article more or less confirms this speculation]
>
> Did not the "sovnarkhozy" reform of Khrushchev in the late '50s already
> lay the groundwork for such a development?  Before this measure was taken
> each head of a federal production ministry ran a self-contained economic
> empire stretching from the Baltic to Bering Strait.  Khrushchev tried
> to break up these all-union (fsyesoyooznoye) laminae into a series of
> vertically integrated structures based on the then 16 republics.
> I don't know how well this reform succeeded, or whether a partial or total
> restoration of the old system occurred later.  Grisha would know.
>
>                                                                      valis



--
Gregory Schwartz
Department of Political Science
York University
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