“In the National Economy, Processes, to which we Cannot Close Our Eyes, are Aggravated”: Problems of USSR in the First Half of the 1980s (Materials of the N. I. Ryzhkov Foundation)

Abstract

The question of the crisis of the USSR economy on the eve of “perestroika” is considered. Attention is paid to archival documents, which are introduced into active scientific circulation for the first time. The question of political and ideological support for the transformation of society and economy in the late USSR is raised. The results of a comparative analysis of documents of the official authorities and the expert community are presented. The research focuses on declassified archival materials deposited in the fund of the former chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers N. I. Ryzhkov (F. 653 — Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov) of the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGA SPI). The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the analyzed documents allow shedding light on unknown crisis phenomena in the economic life of the USSR. In the course of the work, a circle of institutions was identified that monitored the socio-economic situation in the USSR in the first half of the 1980s. The relevance of the study is due to the problems of building a welfare state in modern Russia, improving the relationship between the center and regions in the Russian Federation. Analytical letters of representatives of the academic community and government agencies are studied. The theoretical basis of the work is connected with the ideas of M. A. Beznin and T. M. Dimoni about protobuzhuisia and state capitalism in the USSR, G. G. Popov about the latent conflict in the USSR between the power of experts and political functionaries.