North Korea’s parallel economies: Systemic disaggregation following the Soviet collapse

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Habib
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Central Planning ◽  
Command Economy ◽  
Great Famine ◽  
The Soviet Union

This article aims to introduce the concept of parallel economies to explain the transformation of North Korea’s command economy during the 1990s. The article summarises North Korea’s pre-1991 command economy, before identifying the collapse of the Soviet Union and the great famine (1994–1998) as causes for the splintering of the old command system into parallel economiesdthe official, military, illicit, court and entrepreneurial economies—separated from the central planning matrix. It concludes that the existence of parallel economies makes system-wide economic reform unlikely and increases the importance of foreign aid in maintaining the viability of the regime’s political architecture.

Cybernetics for the command economy: Foregrounding entropy in late Soviet planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-51
Author(s):  
Diana Kurkovsky West
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Central Planning ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Command Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Face ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Soviet Planning

The Soviet Union had a long and complex relationship with cybernetics, especially in the domain of planning. This article looks at Soviet postwar efforts to draw up plans for the rapidly developing, industrializing, and urbanizing Siberia, where cybernetic models were used to develop a vision of cybernetic socialism. Removed from Moscow bureaucracy and politics, the various planning institutes of the Siberian Academy of Sciences became a key frontier for exploring the potential of cybernetic thinking to offer a necessary corrective to Soviet planning. Researchers there put forth a vision of a dynamic Soviet economy managed through partially automated subsystems, which, while decentralized, would grant the central planning apparatus flexibility, a capacity for emergence, and overall solvency in the face of increasingly complex factors that required consideration.

scholarly journals From private memory to the collective image of the Ukrainian Holodomor

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Great Famine ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Individual Memory ◽  
The Subject

The article discusses a wide range of aspects concerning the Holomodor – the Great Famine in the Soviet Union in the years 1932–1933. The author focuses on examining the processes of creating a collective image of the Great Famine and the role of individual memory of its survivors in building this image. Analyzing the memories of the survivors the author deals with distortions and myths which has grown up around the Holomodor. The significance of this disaster for the Ukrainian identity is also the subject of the analysis.

scholarly journals Non-Soviet Perspectives on the Great Famine: A Comparative Analysis of British, Italian, Polish, and German Sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Fonzi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Great Famine ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe present contribution analyzes systematically diplomatic reports written by German, Italian, British, and Polish representatives in the Soviet Union at the time of the Great Famine. Based on both published documents and unpublished archival sources, the article examines comparatively the perception of the Great Famine in these four countries. After providing a short overview of the diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the four countries at the time of the famine, this article examines how German, Italian, British, and Polish diplomats explained three key issues for understanding the Great Famine: (1) the role of the conflicts between state and peasantry in unleashing the famine; (2) the issue of whether the Soviet government intentionally caused the famine; and (3) the role of intentions in the development of the famine and the relationship between the nationalities policy of the Soviet government and the famine.

The Soviet Defense Industry: Conversion and Economic Reform. By Julian Cooper. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1991. 111 pp. Index. Figures. Tables. Paper. - Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union. By Pekka Sutela. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. 197 pp. Index. Paper. - Ko-ops: The Rebirth of Entrepreneurship in the Soviet Union. By Anthony Jones and William Moskoff. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. xvii, 154 pp. Index. Tables. Paper. - The Planned Economies and International Economic Organizations. By Jozef M. van Brabant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. xv, 318 pp. Index. Hard bound. - The Order of Economic Liberalization: Financial Control in the Transition to the Market Economy. By Ronald McKinnon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. xii, 200 pp. Index. Tables. Figures. Hard bound. - 500 Days: Transition to the Market. By G. Yavlinsky, B. Federov, S. Shatalin, N. Petrakov, S. Aleksashenko, A. Vavilov, L. Grigoriev, M. Zadornov, V. Machits, A. Mikhailov and E. Yasin. Trans. David Kushner. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. Index. Figures. Tables. Hard bound.

Slavic Review ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-336
Author(s):  
Robert W. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Economic Organizations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Johns Hopkins University

Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union

1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Gertrude Schroeder ◽  
Pekka Sutela
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The Soviet Union

Government Rulemaking as a Brake on Perestroika

1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Huskey
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Government

The Soviet political system is made up of three major institutions: the Communist Party, the parliament, and the government. Whereas the first two have changed dramatically under perestroika, the government has continued to function in more traditional ways. Most worrying to reformists, the government–the Soviet Union's “executive branch”–has used its broad rulemaking authority to impede the transformation of Soviet politics and society. This essay examines the role of governmental rules in the Soviet political and legal system. It concludes, following the lead of Soviet reformists, that without a fundamental restructuring of government making authority, legal, political, and economic reform in the Soviet Union cannot be institutionalized.

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