(Putin Art) Russian economy
Alina Israeli
aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU
Mon Sep 2 22:27:19 UTC 2013
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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