Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 7: The Soviet Economy and the Approach of War, 1937-1939 (eBook)

R. W. Davies is Emeritus Professor of Russian Economic Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. Mark Harrison is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, UK, a Research Associate of Warwick’s ESRC Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy, and a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for European, Russian, Eurasian Studies, University of Birmingham. Oleg Khlevniuk is Professor of History at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation, and Leading Research Fellow of the HSE International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and its Consequences. Stephen G. Wheatcroft is Professor of History at Deakin University, Australia, and a Professorial Fellow and Associate of the University of Melbourne.

Preface 6
Contents 11
About the Authors 14
List of Tables 16
Chapter 1 The Repressions of 1937–1938 and the Soviet Economy 25
1 The Nomenklatura Purge 26
2 The Mass Purge 36
3 The Effect of the Repressions on the Economy 43
Chapter 2 The Political Context of Economic Change: 1937 to the Spring of 1939 46
1 The Advance of German and Japanese Aggression 46
2 The Revised Political Ideology 55
3 Politics and Society in 1937 and 1938 60
Chapter 3 The Economic Slowdown of 1937 69
1 The 1937 Plan: The Shift Back to More Balanced Growth 69
2 Plans and Purges 77
3 The First Half of 1937 88
4 The Second Half of 1937 96
Chapter 4 1937 in Retrospect 101
1 Capital Investment 101
2 The Gulag Economy 105
3 Industrial Production 110
4 The Defence Industries 115
5 Labour and Labour Productivity 122
6 Agriculture: Plans and Policies 123
7 Agriculture: Operations and Outcomes 131
8 Internal Trade and Consumption 140
9 Foreign Trade 148
Chapter 5 The Soviet Population and the Censuses of 1937 and 1939 151
1 The Much-Delayed Census of 1937 151
2 Carrying Out the 1937 Census 155
3 The 1937 Census Outcomes Suppressed 158
4 1938 and Preparations for the 1939 Census 165
5 Popov’s Warning 167
6 Outcomes of the 1939 Census 170
7 The Two Censuses in Retrospect 175
Chapter 6 The Partial Recovery of the Economy in 1938 178
1 The Temporary Collapse and Revival of Planning 178
2 The Gulag Economy 189
3 Industrial Growth 196
4 The Defence Industries 205
5 The Railway Crisis 214
6 Internal Trade 216
7 Foreign Trade 218
Chapter 7 Agriculture in 1938 and 1939 224
1 The Agricultural Officials 225
2 The Private Sector After 1937 230
3 Plans and Policies, 1938 237
4 Operations and Outcomes, 1938 243
5 Plans and Policies, 1939 249
6 Operations and Outcomes, 1939 253
Chapter 8 The Drive for Growth and the Eighteenth Party Congress, January–March 1939 259
1 The Third Five-Year Plan 261
2 Current Economic Planning 275
3 Managing the Industrial Worker 277
4 The Eighteenth Party Congress 286
Chapter 9 The Economy in 1939: Further Moves to a War Economy 293
1 The Growth of Industry 294
2 The Defence Industries 298
3 The GULAG Economy 306
4 Internal Trade and Consumption 314
5 The Soviet-German Accord 320
Chapter 10 The Soviet Economy: The Late 1930s in Historical Perspective 331
1 Forced Industrialisation 334
2 The Measurement of Economic Performance 340
3 Militarisation: A War Economy in Peacetime 347
4 The Emergence of the Soviet Union as a World Power 351
5 The Reformability of the Soviet Economy 356
6 The Nature of Soviet Economic Development 359
Afterword: The History of the Soviet Union 364
Appendix A: All-Union People’s Commissariats and Other Agencies of the USSR, 1937–1939 366
Appendix B: Tables 370
Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Technical Terms 422
Bibliography 428
Index of Names 441
Index of Subjects 447