State planning of the Russian economy: Past and present

Abstract

© International Economic Society. One of the most important features of the Soviet economy during almost the whole period of its existence was the presence of planned management mechanisms. The efficiency of the Soviet Union economy and its individual regions depended on the true criteria of planning and their realization. In this regard nowadays it is necessary for the further economic growth to pay attention to some progressive economic management mechanisms that existed in the past. Despite of their imperfections at certain stages of the country development they managed to give an additional impulse and stimulated the growing power of the state. And the planning of the economy is one of the most important elements here. Planning of the economy, the definition of the functions of each subject-object of the economy, the distribution of tasks should be an important aim in the development of the market state. Undoubtedly, such aspects excited the interest of the Socialist Revolution classicists as V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky and others. At the same time their initiatives were continued in the works of the Soviet economists such as Nemchinov (1965) and many others. This study reviews and criticizes state planning of the Russian economy based on the previous works. A special place in this study of the economic planning is given to the studies of well-known foreign scientists such as Gregory (2008), Galbraith (1999), Leontiev (2006), and Hayek (1990) who evaluated the planning of the economy from the critical point of view. At the present stage a number of scientists continue to study this problem who are Kurnosoe (2011), Belousov (1987), and Verkhoturov (2009) among the others.