Anyone wondering that between Brezhnev and Gorby they were Soviet leaders. Also the guy on the left was Nikolai Tikhonov the Soviet Premier at the time if your curious.

  • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    26·
    21 days ago

    The preparations for reforms took place in complete secrecy. “Even deputies in the Gosplan did not know what we had been working at,” recalled a member of Ryzhkov’s team. “[Andropov] concluded that the old system of rigid planning from the top had exhausted itself . . . We had to demonstrate to the bureaucracy that cooperatives, with their greater economic liberties, would make more profits than state enterprises. In the document we prepared we did not speak openly about private property, but we laid out an idea of having, next to state ownership, also cooperative ownership.” Andropov backed those ideas.22 A senior official of the State Bank remembered: “We understood that the enterprises needed more rights . . . The situation when the center was responsible for everything . . . throttled economic development.” Andropov instructed the State Bank to shift from distribution of state investments to competition. “Other ministers should come to you,” he said to the Minister of Finance, “crawling on their bellies, begging for money.”23 In July 1983, the Council of Ministers restated some notions of economic liberalization. In January 1984, with the approval of the Politburo, a pilot economic experiment was launched in some industries within Ukraine, Belorussia, and Lithuania. It was here where the reforms of 1965–68 had come to a standstill.24

    Andropov had enough power, but he lacked the time necessary to carry out further reforms. In declining health, his kidneys failed completely in February 1983, so he was subsequently on dialysis. His last appearance at the Politburo was on 1 September 1983. Andropov went to a Black Sea resort and returned to Moscow only to be hospitalized. He died on 9 February 1984 from acute kidney failure.

    Andropov’s main contribution to Soviet reforms was the team of people and academics he had brought into the Politburo and the Soviet government. It took them a further two years to launch the reforms he had initiated. The key man whom the ex-KGB reformer had groomed to continue his policies was Mikhail Gorbachev.

    I’ll find more passages and update the post. I would highly recommend reading Vladislav Zubok’s Collapse for a complete look into the Soviet collapse and breakup. It’s incredibly exhaustive and busts a lot of myths about the subject.

    • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      25·
      21 days ago

      Edit: Here is another passage, contrasting Andropov with Gorbachev:

      Despite his neo-Leninist rhetoric, Gorbachev could not decide on a strategy of reforms during his first two years in power. As an admirer of Lenin, he searched for some key leverage that could revive Soviet society and the economy. Yet he also heeded Andropov’s conservative advice: before any radical political changes, suggested by Yakovlev, Soviet people should feel tangible improvements in the economy. Soon after coming to power, therefore, Gorbachev listed the economic and social problems he wanted to address: “1) Quality; 2) Struggle against drinking; 3) People in need; 4) Land for orchards and gardens; 5) Medicine.”35 Surprisingly, the list did not include the pressing issues that Andropov had raised about Soviet macroeconomic stability: the need to reduce the import of food, restore the balance of trade, crack down on the shadow economy, and discipline the labor force. Gorbachev’s notes did not contain any diagnosis of the economic and financial problems plaguing the Soviet Union.