La restructuration agricole soviétique : accélération politique - récession et blocage économique

Abstract

Restructuring Soviet agriculture : political acceleration — economic freeze and recession. In the spring of 1990, the quasi stagnation of the three previous years developed into characteristic recession, both in the agricultural sector and in the overall economy. The break-up of the old Party State hierarchical pyramid and its replacement by elected regional authorities led to the decomposition of the old system of centralized administrative allocation of food and agricultural produce, at a time when the conditions for the development of an overall regulation through the market are still a long way from being met. The result is a general fall, (drastic in certain of the peripheral republics) in plant and animal procurements and allocations, to the disadvantage of the towns, and of deficit areas. In this climate of general destabilization of the command economy, the relentless pursuit of ever more radical rules of agricultural restructuring seems to come too late. The actual application of these laws and their economic effects continue to be severely inhibited, or nullified, by growing uncertainty about the future, and, while there has been no emergence of market-money relations (the financial crisis is still waiting for a solution), by a still persistant and very marked dependence by the basic producing units on the bodies responsible for allocation of resources and production tasks. It is always possible, however, that under the mounting pressures of the food crisis, the recently-elected republican and regional authorities may actively exploit their new legal powers in the pursuit of totally new policies on structures and distribution. But it seems reasonable to conclude that in the months, and possibly the years, that lie ahead, the negative effects of the general breakdown in the command economy may nullify the productive and economic effects of such regional initiatives, in agriculture, as elsewhere... so long as there is no sign of a logical reconstitution of the system along market-money lines. However, this avenue is still blocked by the monetary and financial crisis to which a solution is yet to be found.