The main goal of the book “The Economy of Stalin” is to explain in an accessible language everything that happened in the country during the reign of Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. The practice of teaching at the university prompted Valentin Yurievich Katasonov with great regret to make sure that the young generation did not have economic knowledge. In particular, important facts from the history of the USSR.
The book "The Economy of Stalin" is not the finale of Katasonov’s economic investigation. It is supplemented by the second work of the author, entitled "Economic war against Russia and Stalin's industrialization." This book focuses on the events of recent years. Especially on the so-called economic sanctions against the Russian Federation.
The target audience of the second book is “not students.” According to Valentin Katasonov, those people who are now constructing the economic policy of Russia have little knowledge of the experience of Stalin's industrialization. Therefore, not taking a breath, it was for them that he sat down to write "our answer to Chamberlain" - his second book, which is more opportunistic.
About the personality of Stalin
In his book, Valentin Katasonov notes that in parallel with industrialization, Stalin tried to create an economic theory. However, according to the author, it would be more efficient to first create something, and only then to implement it.
Stalin had a desire to prepare a textbook on political economy back in the 1930s, during the period of industrialization and the building of the foundations of socialism, for which he called the leading economists of the USSR. This happened when he realized that it was practically impossible to realize the ideas of Marxism in a country with a special culture, such as the USSR. Therefore, Stalin draws attention to the political economy, popular at that time in England.
Reviews on the book "The Economy of Stalin" are mostly positive. Many note the depth of the work done, the reliability of the data given, the simplicity of the material presented.
What is she talking about?
In his book, Valentin Yurievich intently studies the following periods:
- The period of industrialization of the USSR.
- The period of the Great Patriotic War.
- Post-war economic recovery (until about the mid-50s).
This time period, which does not exceed 30 years, became the main subject of Valentin Yurievich. Back in the 70s, the author asked himself: why did this efficient machine begin to malfunction?
Are you also interested? You will find the answer to the question in the book of Valentin Katasonov “The Economy of Stalin”.
Summary. Chapter 1
In chapter 1, “On the Stalinist Economy and Higher Goals, ” the author introduces us to the subject of discussion. And already in the title of the first chapter, as if hints at the solution of the task.
According to Valentin Katasonov, the main minus of the “efficient machine” is that all the goals set before the society were purely economic. Absolutely everything was closed on the material and technical basis of communism, on satisfying the material needs of man. But for a peaceful period of the existence of countries, like wartime, you need your own “holy” goal.
Of course, the list of priorities of the Stalinist economy also included something high. In addition to creating the material and technical base, improving production relations, the task was set to create a new person. But what is he like? It has not been decided. According to Valentin Yurievich, this became the Achilles heel of Stalin's economy.
Chapter 2
The second chapter of the book “The Economy of Stalin” talks about the “economic miracle” of the USSR. The author admits that in it he does not bring anything new to society. In addition to systematic statistics, which indicate that the USSR in the post-war period showed miracles. Compared with the West, our country has accomplished the practical impossible - in a few years, it has gotten off its knees, started working, earning and building! The West has made every effort to prevent the development of such violent activity. The tricks of the special services, information and other methods of the Cold War were used.
One of the "miracles of Stalin" - lower retail prices. And it was a real system, not a pre-election PR campaign. The first wave of price reductions was timed to coincide with the monetary reform of December 1947. The latter was carried out after the assassination of Stalin in April 1953. In total, 6 consecutive retail price cuts were organized.
It is no secret to anyone that such a policy cannot be implemented without a serious economic background - a consistent reduction in production costs. Under Stalin, an unknown cost-effective mechanism now worked for us.
Chapter 3. “Dismantling the Stalinist economy”
The author formally limits the period to 1956 or to the XX Congress of the CPSU. It was after this that the branch principle of economic management began to collapse. A significant contribution to this matter was made by Nikita Khrushchev.
Chapter 4. Interesting both historians and economists
In chapter 4, the author talks about Stalin's industrialization as an economic miracle. He admits that he was literally forced to write about it, since many modern textbooks on economic history contain distorted facts. The period of the new economic policy in the book "The Economy of Stalin" is disclosed in sufficient detail. Therefore, it will be interesting to both historians and economists.
The author begins to study the topic with a financial issue. Because neither economic nor historical sources contain information about how the industrialization was carried out. The author tried to reproduce the formulation of its formula. He made an analysis of the main versions of the sources of foreign exchange cover for the costs of industrialization, but did not find an answer to his question.
Based on this, Valentin Katasonov in Chapter 5 analyzes 7 versions of the sources of industrialization coverage.
About the sources of Stalin's industrialization
- Soviet export. But when you consider that in the conditions of the economic crisis it fell significantly, it was simply impossible to secure the economy at the expense of these funds only. There was not enough money to keep existing enterprises afloat, not to build new ones. In total, about 1000 new enterprises were erected per year during the Stalin era.
- "Operation Hermitage." The author borrowed the screaming name from Zhukov. This version is associated with the "dispossession" of cultural heritage sites. However, Valentin Katasonov notes that the maximum estimate of the foreign exchange earnings from looting in museums was about 25 million gold rubles, which is equal to about half of the Stalingrad plant (equipment worth 50 million was purchased).
- Gold reserves. Here it is worth recalling that the treasury was empty by 23-25 of the last century. After industrialization, about 100 tons of gold remained. And even the confiscation of precious metals could not help carry out the transition process throughout the country. Of course, after the 30s there is an increase in the foreign exchange shop. By the end of the first third of the century, we reached an indicator of 150 tons of gold per year. However, the question arises: was this gold used for industrialization? After all, Stalin did not get it in order to buy something from him, but in order to save.
- Foreign loans and investments. However, do not forget that in the days of credit blockades, long-term loans were not given, only installments. In 1936, the external debt of the USSR was approaching 0. They built enterprises, accumulated gold - there were no debts. So, there were no loans.
- Geopolitical project of the West. However, here, according to the author, there are no “documentary ends”.
- A spoiled telephone, or what Walter G. Krivitsky said. He was a scout and fled to the West, after which he wrote a book in which he said that Stalin launched the production of counterfeit dollars (about 200 million a year). The author believes that such a development is possible. If dollars were printed, then for special services and operations on the line of the Comintern. But not for industrialization. In those days, they did not like to pay in cash, and any production of money, and even on such a huge scale, would immediately be direction-finding.
- The author considers version 7 to be the most delicate and complex. Back in the 70s, Valentin Katasonov heard versions that Stalin was carrying out dispossession. However, not domestically. Joseph Vissarionovich encouraged offshore aristocracy. This topic rarely pops up in the media, there are practically no sources other than eyewitnesses and their stories. Therefore, the issue of version 7 remains open.
Further on chapters. Chapter 6
Stalin's economy and state monopoly of foreign trade. In this chapter, the author devotes particular attention to all-union foreign trade associations that specialized in their export and import group.
Valentin Yuryevich admits that he was faced with a lack of knowledge among students on such concepts as “state monopoly of foreign trade” and related ones. Therefore, the book will be useful to both historians and students, because it considers not only the Stalinist model of the economy, but also provides a lot of useful theoretical information.
Chapter 7
This chapter is about money and credit. In it, the author observes how the monetary system of the USSR was arranged. It is worth noting that it was reformed several times and in its final form has existed since the 60s.
Valentin Yurievich notes that she was single-level and very effective. There was a state bank - Central, an institution that implements the function of a state currency monopoly - a foreign trade bank, and a bank for long-term lending to investment projects - Promstroibank. Each of them had a powerful branch system. The same Promstroibank had thousands of outlets, and Vneshtorgbank had social foreign financial institutions that helped to realize the foreign exchange monopoly.
