Squalid Superpower

Steven Rosefielde; Stefan Hedlund

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511814846.008

5 - Squalid Superpower

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Steven Rosefielde and

Stefan Hedlund

Show author details

Steven Rosefielde: Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Stefan Hedlund: Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Muscovite tsars and communist leaders always promised that their martial police states would promote the greater social good. Autocratic rent-granting was presented not as a curse but as a blessing that would empower Russia to catch up with and overtake the developed West. It might be supposed that those taking the long view would summarily dismiss such posturing, but this wasn't the case. Economic historians tend to accept Muscovite claims of extraordinarily rapid industrial growth spurts both before and after the Bolshevik epoch. Table 5.1 presents Angus Maddison's comparative GDP (gross domestic product) and per capita GDP growth estimate for the tsarist period valued in 1990 U.S. dollars. Although, Russia's performance was subpar on both measures, its industrial component was much better. The consensus of the CIA, academics, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was that despite the Bolsheviks' criminalization of business, entrepreneurship, and private property, and Hitler's occupation, the USSR more than held its own vis-à-vis the developed West (1921–89).

Was this Soviet era consensus correct? And if so, does it imply that post-Yeltsin Muscovy may prosper and westernize?

Comparative Size: The Soviet Era Consensus

Economic historians estimate that tsarist GNP (gross national product) on the eve of the Bolshevik coup d'etat was approximately 30 percent of America's. Seventy-two years later, after tumultuous wars, and depressions both the CIA and official Soviet statistics reported that the gap had been dramatically reduced. Soviet GNP in 1989 had risen to 67 percent of the American level.

Type: Chapter
Information: Russia Since 1980 , pp. 78 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814846.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Maddison, Angus, The World Economy, Historical Series, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 2003, pp. 261–263CrossRef Google Scholar

Crisp, Olga, Studies in the Russian Economy before 1914, Macmillan Press, London, 1976CrossRef Google Scholar

Goldsmith, Raymond, “The Economic Growth of Tsarist Russia 1860–1913,” in Economic Development and Cultural Change, 9, Pt. 2(1961): 441–75CrossRef Google Scholar

Gregory, Paul, “Economic Growth and Structural Change in Tsarist Russia: A Case of Modern Economic Growth,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 3, 1972Google Scholar

Gregory, “Russian National Income in 1913 – Some Insights into Russian Economic Development,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1976CrossRef Google Scholar

Gregory, , “Russian Industrialization: A Survey of the Western Literature,” Jahrbucher fur die Geschichte Osteuropas, December 1976Google Scholar

Gregory, , “Russian Living Standards during the Industrialization Era,” Review of Income and Wealth, 1980CrossRef Google Scholar

Gregory, , Russian National Income, 1885–1913, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983Google Scholar

Gregory, , Before Command: The Russian Economy from Emancipation to Stalin, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1994CrossRef Google Scholar

Gershenkron, Alexander, “The Rate of Growth of Industrial Production in Russia Since 1885,” Journal of Economic History, VII-S, 1947Google Scholar

Gershenkron, , Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Belknap Press, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA., 1962Google Scholar

Blackwell, William, The Beginnings of Russian Industrialization 1800–1860, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1968CrossRef Google Scholar

Bergson, Abram, “The Comparative National Incomes of the Soviet Union and the United States,” in Bergson, , Productivity and the Social System – The USSR and the West, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978, pp. 47–67CrossRef Google Scholar

Hayek, Fredrich, “Socialist Calculation: The Competitive Solution,” Economica, Vol. 7, May 1940, pp. 125–49CrossRef Google Scholar

Hayek, , Collectivist Economic Planning: Critical Studies on the Possibilities of Socialism, George Routledge & Sons, London, 1935Google Scholar

Mises, Ludwig, Socialism, Jonathan Cape, London, 1936Google Scholar

Lionel, , Robbins, , An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, Macmillan, London, 1932Google Scholar

Rosefielde, Steven and Mills, Quinn, Masters of Illusion: American Leadership in a New Age, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007Google Scholar

Holzman, Franklyn, “Are the Soviets Really Outspending the U.S. on Defense?” International Security, 4, 4(1982): 78–101CrossRef Google Scholar

Rosefielde, Steven, Russia in the 21st Century: The Prodigal Superpower, Cambridge University Press, London, 2005Google Scholar

Aganbegyan, Abel, The Economic Challenge of Perestroika, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1988Google Scholar

Rosefielde, Steven, “The Riddle of Postwar Russian Economic Growth: Statistics Lied and Were Misconstrued,” Europe-Asia Studies, 55, 3(2003): 469–81CrossRef Google Scholar

Rosefielde, Steven, “Tea Leaves and Productivity: Bergsonian Norms for Gauging the Soviet Future,” Comparative Economic Studies, 47, 2(June 2005): 259–73CrossRef Google Scholar

Collier, Irwin, “The ‘Welfare Standard; and Soviet Consumers,” Comparative Economic Studies, 47, 2(June 2005): 333–45CrossRef Google Scholar

Book contents

5 - Squalid Superpower

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive