(Putin Art) Russian economy

[Alina Israeli]

Yes, it was. However, there are several problems with this concept:

1. The whole country was working for the Military-Industrial Complex.  
The word was already coined by Eisenhower, we just did not know it in  
the Soviet Union. Everybody and his brother was working in the so- 
called почтовый ящик. Not the blue box that collects mail,  
but an organization whose name is secret. It helps GDP, no question  
about it.

2. The statistics were collected and delivered by Soviets, and it was  
in their interest to look good. BTW, the honest statistics in the  
Soviet Union were usually classified.

3. The calculation of GDP was obviously done in rubles and converted  
into dollars based on the official exchange rate 1ruble = $ 0.59. The  
black market rate in the 70's was 3 rubles = $1.

At the same time there were shortages, shortages of food and all kinds  
of goods, even in big cities. Provinces suffered a lot more. Empty  
shelves there was a norm. In mid-seventies we were not hungry in  
Leningrad, there was enough food, we just did not know what we were  
going to find in the store, but there was always something. One could  
not plan a meal, certainly not a fancy meal, but one did not go  
hungry. In 1979 the situation in Moscow was already such that American  
embassy was providing one meal a day to all American students in Moscow.


On Sep 2, 2013, at 5:32 PM, Robert Orr wrote:

> Ø  Russia never was "second economy in the world”
>
> Not even from the immediate post-war period until the  late(ish)  
> 1970’s?
> In any case, its image as such lingered on far after it ceased to be  
> true.
>
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Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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