Central Bank Says Russians Overwhelmingly Want to Return to Soviet-Style Economy

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 21 – According to a new study by the Russian Central Bank, a large share of the population of its country want to restore a Soviet-style economy with tight controls over prices, the development of Russia’s own national resources, the production of all necessary goods at home, and the re-industrialization of country.

            The 44-page study says that “many respondents describe the ideal economy as self-sufficient and not dependent on external support, analogous to the USSR or present-day China” so that prices won’t grow faster than incomes and so factories will once again dominate the landscape (cbr.ru/StaticHtml/File/187618/wp_166.pdf).

            Achieving these goals, most Russians believe, requires the active intervention of the state in order to compensate for the greed of producers. The report, however, does not mention the shortages for which the USSR was notorious or the fact that many Soviet plants produced things no one wanted or needed, major reasons for the rejection of the Soviet model at the end of the 1980s.