Center for Strategic Assessment and forecasts

Autonomous non-profit organization

Home / Politics and Geopolitics / On the national idea / Articles
Cooperation from Gorbachev to Putin vertical
Material posted: Publication date: 28-05-2012

May 26, 1988 was the law of the USSR of 26 may 1988 N 8998-XI "On cooperation in the USSR". In his tenth article of the "principles of activity of the cooperative" it has been said that "Intervention in economic and other activities of the cooperatives by public and cooperative agencies (unions, associations, cooperatives) is not permitted". And the 25th Chapter on "Labor and its pay" States that "the Cooperative determines the form and system of remuneration of members of the cooperative and other employees". Before that was the law on state enterprise (Association), adopted at the seventh session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR eleventh convocation of June 30, 1987, and entered into force on 1 January 1988.

In fact, the era of free enterprise in the Soviet Union, and without any legal processing. History has shown the complete absurdity of this decision. Note, currently in the State Duma about 80 thousand bills, and entered into force more than 50 thousand Federal laws, rightly considered that the legislative framework of the new Russia is still far from covering all aspects of the activity. Good or bad, but many disputes and conflicts are now resolved in the courts. Then people were invited to live and work on concepts. And the country is healed.

It was a desperate and ill-conceived step to prevent the bankruptcy of the country. Oil exports in 1998 amounted to 144 million tons out of 624 million tons mined that year. However, the real currency took a little more than half, about 80 million tons. The rest is sent to countries of the socialist camp, is "ridiculous" prices, although barter has purchased their products with high added value. At a price of$ 17 per barrel (from$ 125 per tonne) at that time for a country with a population of 285 million people, it was very little, given that we had to import 40 million tons of grain at the price of 176 $ per ton. As a result, the budget deficit exceeded 25%, or 80 billion.

It is important to understand the causes of this imbalance. The Soviet Union was in a state of "cold war", which at any moment could turn into a third world.

American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is hard to catch in the sympathy for Russia, in the book "the Grand chessboard" has led the preconditions of economic problems of the USSR: "it is Impossible to exaggerate the horrors and suffering endured by the Russian people during this century: the first world war, 1914-1917 that caused millions of victims and numerous violations in the economy; the civil war of 1918-1921, which claimed several million lives and devastated the country; the creation of the Gulag system in the early 20-ies, including the destruction of the elite of the pre-revolutionary period and their mass Exodus from Russia; "the great purge and terror" in the middle and the end of the 30-ies, when millions were prisoners in labour camps, more than a million people were shot, several million died as a result of merciless treatment; the second world war of 1941-1945, which brought multi-million military and civilian casualties and heavy destruction in the economy; 44-the summer arms race with the United States, which started in the late 40's and lasted until the late 80-ies, was the cause of the ruin of the state."

Cooperative Bank of Dvina in Vitebsk, 1989. This sign will attract many business people. Photo by A. Tserlukevich (photo TASS)

 

It is clear that in these conditions, the country simply had no strength for the sustainable socio-economic development. As a consequence, the imbalance of economic development in the direction of the military-industrial complex, too tragic were the consequences of war. The Soviet Union worked for the defense, preferring to buy socially important products and products abroad.

The arrival of March 11, 1985 to power the years of Gorbachev broke the previous course of development of the economy of the USSR. The West flirted with the Soviet leader, flattering compared his wife with a unique Eleanor Roosevelt, with another – strongly hit by the oil price and sneer at the overly broad views of Mikhail Gorbachev.

In this regard, American economist, Nobel laureate Wassily Leontief gentle warning "of perestroika" that increase the income of the country is possible only through increased productivity. For Soviet leader they were empty words – he was enjoying world attention to the person. As a result, began to rise sharply the budget deficit of the USSR, which caused, ultimately, a panic in the upper echelons of power. The same restless Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up the "perestroika" - "Roosevelt was able, Gorbachev could not".

At first glance, the idea of free enterprise in a socialist state seemed good: let people create new material resources and earn a living. The embodiment was terrible and incompetent, as the devil hiding in the details of law to which no one paid attention. For capitalism private-ownership psychology is to maximize profit any way possible in "exceptional the belief that the actions of the worst of the scum, driven by the most ignoble motives, somehow will bring universal benefit." The last quote belongs to the classics of capitalism and the father of macroeconomics j. Keynes. The only constraints are the laws governing all spheres of activity. And in 1988, was not. Therefore, nobody produce not become, began selling the first commercial products of socialist enterprises, and then the businesses themselves. It was a real economic phantasmagoria.

The Krasnodar territory. Station "Novorossiysk". Echelon, which is industrial equipment, specified in the accompanying documents, were modern tanks belonging to the cooperative "ANT", 1989. Photo by Vladimir Velengurin /Photokhronika TASS/

 

In pursuit of profit, have included even the KGB. In his "roof" was organized by the cooperative ANT (Automation, Science, Technology), headed by Vladimir Ryashentsev, a former employee of the Ninth Main Directorate for the protection of the first persons of the state. Through this company under the guise of smuggling trucks tried to sell 12 T72 tanks in exchange for computers. How many tanks actually gone so unknown. It is only one transaction that was inadvertently disclosed in Novorossiysk in January 1990. Corruption threads were at the top, in the Ministry of defence, KGB and even higher.

People's Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet Anatoly Sobchak (who subsequently was accused in doubtful cases) alleged complicity in the case of the Chairman of the Government Nikolai Ryzhkov and his Deputy Vladimir Gusev. Despite public outcry, the case has bogged down, and he Russian Prosecutor General Valentin Stepankov asked for a written forgiveness from Ryashentsev for the inconvenience.

But it was nothing compared to other abuses. In 1990, Gorbachev ordered to sell 234 tonnes of gold, bringing the price down to$ 350 per ounce. The following year, was secretly sold another 315 tons. About this and other actions of the then government, which was taken by secret channels abroad 1500 tons of gold, said the working group on the fight against corruption in the higher echelons of power, which submitted a special report dated 25 November 2011. # BK-17113.

When Yeltsin came to power, the gold in the country was not. The price of oil fell even lower, to the area 13$ per barrel. It then began a "reform Gaidar-Chubais", doctor of Economics Stanislav Menshikov wrote "the newest feature of Russian capitalism and that private enterprise was created almost exclusively as a result of privatization of state property that was accompanied by numerous abuses by both the newly-born capitalists and officials, possessed of this property." Summing up the "capture of state property in the dashing 90's, the leader of LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the program "Historical process", which was 26 October 2011, said about Chubais that he was "the worst man in the history of Russia". The doctor only smiled.

Corruption since the beginning of voucher privatization was growing like a snowball, so in 1989 in the list of corrupt countries, compiled annually by Transparency International, Russia is on the level of perceived corruption in the public sector was on the 76th place. After two decades, after mortgaging auctions, the construction of Putin's vertical of power, Medvedev's Declaration on the fight against corrupt officials, the Russian Federation is on 143rd out of 183 places in this list...

Sociologists have long noted that the exact criterion of social change is retrospective demographic indicators. The figures speak for themselves: between 1970 and 1990 the Russian population increased from 130 million to 148 million, and in 2011 it declined to 143 million. At the same time, subject to growth rates typical for the 70's and 80-ies, in this Russia would need to accommodate about 156 million. Thus, the approximate decline in the population, including immigration, seven million people from 2000 to 2011 amounted to 20 (twenty) million people.

This is the fee for a voluntaristic approach to social and economic change, which in the country, according to American Magazine Forbes in 2011 appeared more than a hundred of dollar billionaires, and the phrase "Russian oligarch" in many languages has become as much a household word as "Russian mafia".

Upper photo: Photo: Yury and Alexandra Lizunova Chumicheva /Photokhronika TASS/.

Source: http://svpressa.ru/society/article/55682/Author: Alexander Sitnikov


RELATED MATERIALS: Politics and Geopolitics