Changes in Quality of Economic Planning in the Late USSR: Technological and Institutional Dynamics

Introduction. Studying the Soviet economic performance is important in searching for arguments in the ongoing debate on the possibilities of routine and strategic planning application for economic development of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to identify the dynamics of the planning quality of the Soviet economy in the framework of the institutional approach to economic history. Materials and Methods. The author constructed a data set filled with available information on key growth indicators (national income, production volume and labor productivity, capital investment) targeted in five-year and annual plans, which passed their way from initial drafts proposed by academic economists and employees of the State Planning Commission to approved legal documents, and to the further implementation, presented in branch (industry, agriculture, retail) and spatial (union republics) breakdown. The archival data on the growing activity of the State Planning Commission for revising the approved planned indicators is of our primary contribution. Results. The author highlights the factors underlying the deviations for key planned aggregated indicators that arose at various stages of their preparation, adoption and revision, between their approved figures and actual performance. The results of the data analysis basically confirmed our hypothesis that the technological improvement of the planning process was largely offset by the deterioration of institutional interactions between its subjects. Discussion and Conclusion. While there were signs of an increase in the role of scientists in the process of drafting five-year plans from the second half of the 1950s to the mid-1970s, then from the second half of the 1970s we find less and less evidence that they played a meaningful role in the short and medium term planning processes. On the other hand, our analysis revealed a significantly higher level of fulfillment in annual breakdown compared to five-year one. This confirms the view that just annual plans performed more operational functions, as compared to the motivational ones, in managing the Soviet economy.

Food Consumption Pattern and Dietary Diversity among the Farmers in Kanyakumari and Perambalur Districts of Tamil Nadu

Aims: To study the consumption pattern and dietary diversity among the farmers in rural areas. Study Design: Random Sampling. Place and Duration of Study: Primary data were collected from the Kanyakumari and Perambalur districts of marginal and small farmers between July and August 2020. Methodology: The study was conducted in Kanyakumari and Perambalur districts based on Tamil Nadu state planning commission report 2017.The Simpson index of dietary diversity was calculated to score the quantity and consumption of food items were consumed. The multiple linear regressions were used to understand the variation of socio-economic and demographic features of the household members. Results: The overall result of the SIDD score for Kanyakumari district was 0.73 and 0.72 for Perambalur district. When compared to Perambalur district, the results clearly showed that Kanyakumari district farmers had a higher dietary diversity. Because the food habits of Kanyakumari district farmers differ significantly from those of Perambalur district farmers, owing to a higher intake of nutritious foods in Kanyakumari district farmers. Conclusion: The factors like monthly income and education most influence the household dietary pattern and nutrition status of Kanyakumari district rather than the Perambalur district.

Energetika: Gleb Krzhizhanovskii’s Conception of the Nature–Society Metabolism

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the relation between Marxism and the Soviet productivist economy. While historical scholarship rarely explores the intellectual context in which the Soviet experiment unfolded, ecomarxists tend to describe the Soviet Union’s mistaken path as a result of the loss of ‘metabolic’ thinkers following the rise of Stalin. This article challenges the neat, purported divide between a ‘metabolic’ and ‘productivist’ Marxism by analysing the energy-economic thinking of Gleb M. Krzhizhanovskii, a Bolshevik engineer and old friend of Lenin. As chairman of both the electrification commission (GOELRO) and the State Planning Commission (Gosplan), Krzhizhanovskii conceptualised the energy economy as something embedded in the metabolism of nature and society and as the technical-economic basis of the socialist economy. This argument drew its strength from his idea that production is part of the general, ongoing life-process, and the hope that large-scale electrification and electro-chemistry could help govern the metabolism between nature and society more rationally – both arguments commonly found among contemporary natural scientists. Any ecomarxist attempt to recover the concept of metabolism today has to come to terms with its productivist and technocratic history.

The Ennoblement of Nature: Gleb M. Krzhizhanovskii's Energetika and the Concept of Metabolism

There has been a growing interest in the relation between Marxism and the Soviet Union’s relation to nature. While historical scholarship rarely explores the intellectual context in which the Soviet experiment unfolded, ecomarxists tend to describe the Soviet Union’s mistaken path as a result of the loss of ‘metabolic’ thinkers. This article challenges the neat divide between a ‘metabolic’ and ‘productivist’ Marxism byanalysing the energy-economic thinking of Gleb M. Krzhizhanovskii, chairman of the electrification commission (GOELRO) and the State Planning Commission (Gosplan). Krzhizhanovskii understood human production as part of the general life process and envisioned the energy economy to become an ‘ennobling’ element within nature. His argument rested on the hope that large-scale electrification, district heating and electro-chemistry––realisable under Socialism––could help govern the metabolism between nature and society more rationally. The history of energetika shows thatproductivist and metabolic thinking are more intricately connected than thought before.

Nonlinear Evolution and Stable Growth of Regional Industry (for Five-Year Planning of Economic Development of the Irkutsk Region)

Involvement of representations of nonlinear dynamics in the analysis of the functioning of industrial enterprises in a non-stationary environment provides a key to understanding the phenomena they experience — nontrivial cardinal perestroikas. Phases of slow and fast changes, periods of leaps and bounds in the complex evolution of enterprise activity reveal its inherent nonlinearity and find expression in the features of stable and unstable enterprise behavior. From these conceptual positions, the article offers a cursory analysis and interpretation of trends in the functioning of the industry of the Irkutsk region in 2015–2019 with an emphasis on the stable growth of indicators of the regional economy, in particular, gross regional pro­duct, regional budget revenues and fixed investment. The damping effect on sharp fluctuations in the macroenvironment and imparting pace of development to the regional industry was achieved thanks to a constructive public-private partnership, which served as the motive for the development and successful implementation of the State Plan for Social and Economic Development of the Irkutsk Region for 2019–2023 (State Planning Commission). A number of priority directions of the State Planning Commission and industrial points of growth in the Irkutsk region and the phenomenon of the evolution of enterprises with a mixture of stable states of various levels of efficiency are stated.

Rauner - one and a half centuries in the service of forestry in Russia

В статье впервые в обобщенном виде приводятся ранее неопубликованные сведения о судьбе и деятельности представителей династии выходцев из Австрии Раунеров на русской службе и в послереволюционный период. На основе архивных материалов, редких и малодоступных публикаций, а также материалов из частных собраний отражены малоизвестные страницы истории лесного хозяйства России. Непосредственно к лесному делу России имели отношение целый ряд представителей клана Раунеров. Юлий Карлович Раунер, который учился в Лисинском учебном лесничестве. С 1855 г. Ю.К. Раунер главный лесничий Екатеринбургского горного округа. Наибольшей известности в лесоводстве достиг Станислав Юльевич Раунер, лесовод, мелиоратор, теоретик и практик горно-облесительных работ, проводимых в целях борьбы с эрозией почв и селевыми потоками. После окончания Алексеевского Екатеринбургского Реального училища с 1879 по 1882 год С.Ю Раунер являлся студентом Лесного института в Петербурге. Влияние леса на режим поверхностных и подземных вод составляло предмет особенно тщательного изучения С.Ю. Раунера. С середины 80-х годов XIX в. до 1917 года С.Ю. Раунером было написано большинство научных трудов, составлено множество инструкций и программ, непосредственно по географическому, биологическому и другим исследованиям. После Революции с 1917 г. С.Ю. Раунер работал в Москве в ВСНХ в должности Заместителя председателя Госплана. В 1920 году был выбран профессором лесного института в Петрограде. For the first time, the article summarizes previously unpublished information about the fate and activities of representatives of the dynasty of come from Austria, Rauner in Russian work for the government and in the post-revolutionary period. On the basis of archival materials, rare and inaccessible publications, as well as materials from private collections, little-known pages of the history of forestry in Russia are described. A number of representatives of Rauner clan were directly involved in forestry in Russia. Julius Karlovich Rauner, who studied at the Lisinsky training forestry. Since 1855, Yu.K. Rauner is the chief forester in the Yekaterinburg mountain district. Stanislav Yulievich Rauner, a forest grower, land reclamator, theoretician and practitioner of mining and afforestation works carried out to combat soil erosion and mudflows, became the most famous in forestry. After graduating from the Alekseevsky Yekaterinburg Real School from 1879 to 1882, S.U. Rauner was a student at the Forest Institute in St. Petersburg. The influence of the forest on the regime of surface and groundwaters was the subject of a particularly thorough study by S.Yu. Rauner. Since the mid 80s of the XIX century. until 1917 S.Yu. The majority of scientific works were the rauner, many instructions and programs were compiled, directly on geographical, biological and other studies. After the Revolution since 1917, S.Yu. Rauner worked in Moscow at the Supreme Economic Council as a Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Commission. In 1920 he was chosen as a professor at the Forestry Institute in Petrograd.

Analysis of cowpea price forecasting in Adamawa state, Nigeria

The study was conducted to analyze cowpea price forecasting in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The sources of data for the study were secondary data which were collected from State Planning Commission of Adamawa State for a period of 5 years (2013-2017). Purposive sampling techniques were used for selection of the study area. Dicky Fuller Test and Simple Exponential Smoothing Model were used as analytical tools. The unit root test analysis revealed almost all the markets price series were non-stationary at level except Jambutu market (AD5) at 5% significant level but became stationary after first difference. The result of Exponential Smoothing Model showed that there will be upward trend of cowpea prices in Adamawa State in February and October – November in the year 2018 and therefore, it is recommended that provision of better infrastructural facilities such as construction of accessible and motorable roads, and communication network by government and NGOs. This would reduce transfer cost which usually gets translated to the prices of the cowpeas, especially across markets in critical distance.

Fiscal Federalism Model in Nepal: An Analytical Study

The Constitution of Nepal as Federal Democratic Republic was promulgated on September 20, 2015 by the second CA. The primary objective of this study is to review the modality presented in the new constitution on the natural resources, economic rights and revenue allocation. The study finds that the fiscal decentralization initiatives have not been successful in minimizing the political, social, economic, regional and ethnic inequalities inherent for nearly 240 years of a unitary system of governance in Nepal. The study recommends that VAT and income taxes will have to be collected concurrently at both the central and sub-national levels. Other taxes including excise duties will have to be collected by the sub-national governments which will support the expenditure responsibilities of the sub national governments adequately in federal Nepal. Intergovernmental transfer modality has to be included in the constitution. National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission (NNRFC) have been constituted at the central level to make national level development plans and to make recommendations for additional grants and loans. A State Planning Commission (SPC) and a State Fiscal Commission (SFC) can be established in each state to prepare state development plans and to deal with the transfers to be made to local bodies.

«Anarchy» Planning or self-regulation of the soviet economy: Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Planning Commission in inter-departmental conflicts (1940-1950)

The study of Ministry of Internal Affairs economic activities gives an opportunity to look at relationships with other departments and its role as an economy agent. The studying of departmental correspondence materials allows us to speak about the conflict of interests among The Ministry of Internal Affairs, The State Planning Committee and other сommissariat-ministries. Contradictions were settled at the highest party and the state levels. All actors in the Soviet planned economy had their own interests and the most important was provision of resources for the government tasks and timely fulfilment of obligations by other economic organizations. During this process the departments involved tried to obtain more favorable conditions for themselves. Heads of different levels (from the ministries to separate agencies), who sent appeals and requests to the center, served as channels for information on the fulfillment of government directives. The conflicts helped to determine if a plan was impossible to fulfill and to correct figures and decisions. This allowed the Stalinist system to react and overcome contingent problems like a personal dispute with producers, and structural, such as economic capacity. The result was paid with material costs and overextended bureaucratic procedures for coordination of departmental interests.