 |
1988 “Law on State Enterprise” dealt a powerful blow to the
communist centralised managerial system before any viable
alternative was put in its place |
|
|
Curtailing the interference of the party
bureaucracy in economic management clogged the “blood vessels” of
the command-bureaucratic system |
|
|
Substantial reduction of the role and
functions of the central ministries accelerated the disintegration
of inter-regional ties between enterprises |
|
|
Relaxation of fiscal policy increased
Soviet foreign debt and inaugurated spiralling inflation |
|
|
The switch to hard currency accounting
within the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) caused
the collapse of trade links within the socialist bloc |
|
|
The system of central planning eroded
without adequate free-market mechanisms to replace it |
|
|
By 1990 the Soviet economy had slid into
near-paralysis: inflation, universal shortages, distribution through
rationing systems |
|
|
The Soviet model of socialism was pushed to its
final collapse |
