The Great Market Debate in Soviet Economics.

• Author: Pelzman, Joseph

This book is part of the M.E. Sharpe series on The USSR in Transition/Readings and Documents. The Great Market Debate provides an excellent collection of Soviet articles and round table discussions exemplifying the economic debate concerning the creation of a market economy in the former Soviet Union during the 1988-90 period. The 'Ryzhkov Plan,' the 'Shatalin Plan' and the 'Gorbachev Plan' are reproduced at the end of the collection of articles. This book will be useful to both graduate and undergraduate courses on the Post-Soviet economies.

To place this volume in some context one needs to remember that the Soviet revolution of Gorbachev did not follow exactly the Romanian, Czechoslovak, Bulgarian or East German models. In these East European countries popular pressure for democracy continued to build up until the communist regimes caved in. In the Soviet Union the transformation began as a revolution from above, engineered by the leaders of the old system such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Alexander Yakovlev and Edward Shevardnadze.

The political changes in the former Soviet Union have been followed by economic changes, although with a substantial lag. While some analysts have concluded that the August 19, 1991 coup was the last conservative attack on democratic change, attacks on the economic reforms are not yet over. At the writing of this review, Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar the architect of the implemented economic reforms in the former Soviet Union, moved to gain greater control over pricing systems and profitability ceilings on monopoly producers. The executive order "On State Regulation of Prices and Tariffs on Products and Services of Monopolist Enterprises in 1992-1993," signed on August 11, 1992 establishes the state regulation of prices on products manufactured by enterprises on the state register of industrial umbrellas and monopoly manufacturers. The methods envisaged include a set of price controls and ceilings on price changes, and maximum profitability levels. In effect, the reform is moving towards regulated markets.

On the financial side, an attempt to maintain a 'ruble zone' encouraged by international organizations, appears to be crumbling. Political developments as well as the progress of economic reforms in the former Soviet republics, (including the Russian Federation), suggest that the second half of 1992 can be viewed as a transitional period from a single ruble zone to a zone of multiple national...