По сталинским лекалам: экономическая стратегия коммунистического строительства в программных установках хрущевского руководства

Abstract

The article is timed to the 60th anniversary of the XXII CPSU Congress, which has become an important milestone in the history of the late Soviet period. The 3rd programme of the CPSU was adopted on the Congress, which proclaimed that "the current generation of Soviet people will live under communism." The strategy for achieving this goal was justified as well. This article is devoted to the analysis of its economic aspects. The paper has four sections. In the first, the authors substantiate the need to identify the doctrinal continuity of the economic policy of late Stalinism and the time of Khrushchev’s “Thaw”. In the second section of the article, the authors note that traditional methodological approaches have many limitations in studies of this kind. Their non-critical use makes it difficult to find a response to the question of why the Khrushchev leadership failed to realise its ambitious plans. The authors see the solution of this issue in a comprehensive comparative analysis of the promotional ideologemes and practical policy. The main section outlines the results of the study. They are based on a detailed comparison of the main directions of creating a “material and technical basis” of communism contained in the Stalinist projects of the 3rd party programme and in Khrushchev’s version. As underlined, they are determined by a variety of dominant political myths and ideologemes in the public consciousness. At the same time, the practical policy was guided by completely different ideas and interests. In conclusion, it is stipulated that, with all the nuances, the economic “visions” that were reflected in the 3rd party programme were designed in accordance with patterns of the "Communist projections", formulated in Stalin’s epoch. They promised to build a society of universal benefits in the foreseeable future. However, in practice, the development of the economy, as before, was primarily focused on the expansion of military-industrial might. All other needs could be satisfied only in accordance with the "residual principle." This turned into a gap between the declarations of "steady increase of material well-being" of the population and reality. As a result, the strategy of the “communist construction” was discredited, and the authority of those in power was undermined.