How far was Soviet economic decline in the period 1953-1985 a result of a failure of leadership?
The Soviet economic decline during the period 1953-1985 was a result of a failure of leadership of
the two leaders, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, there were also other contributing factors that also
aided the decline of the Soviet economy. The inflexibility of the command economy meant that
reforms failed and proved that capitalist ways worked as well as the external affairs that the Soviets
had got themselves into had further crippled the economy. The crippling economy wasn’t reformed
under Brezhnev as he was conservative and was anti-reform therefore when the reformist
Gorbachev eventually introduced glasnost and perestroika, the Soviet Union inevitable collapsed.
Khrushchev’s advocated for change within the Soviet Union with his aim to boost consumer goods,
living standards and agricultural production this differed to Brezhnev who had the anti-reform
approach and provided bonuses for output over innovation. Khrushchev introduced the virgin land
scheme which aimed to grow crops on land that hasn’t been used before. Although this scheme
boosted food production by 51% this was ultimately a failure due to the land being infertile
therefore there was a lot of wastage as plants died as well as having lack of transport and
infrastructure. Although Brezhnev also invested heavily into agricultural production, he primarily
relied on private plots which undermines full communism which Khrushchev was trying to achieve.
Overall, both leaders attempted to boost the Soviet economy however, they still prioritised military
defence spending by overspending. Brezhnev did very little to reform the Soviet system which led to
economic stagnation, lack of innovation and corruption which enforces the fact Soviet leaders were
at fault of economic decline due to their policies and approach to dealing with boosting the
economy.
The inflexibility of a command economy supported the economic decline, due to Brezhnev’s lack of
innovation and change there was economic stagnation therefore leading to corruption and the
emergence of a black market. The fact that the Soviet Union had a black market shows a failure of
the economy as it couldn’t provide goods and products to their citizens. The high focus on output
meant that lots of goods were being produced at a low quality, there was a lack of innovation and
modernisation but Brezhnev reasserting Gosplan over sovnarkosy as the central planning committee
to which he gave it more power, confused people and therefore emphasised that decentralisation
under Khrushchev had failed. Furthermore, both Khrushchev and Brezhnev relied on private plots for
agricultural produce, under Brezhnev, private plots produced 25% of the total produce in the Soviet
Union while only making up 1% of the total farms. This therefore suggests that the Soviet economy
couldn’t produce enough agricultural production as methods from capitalism, the efficiency of
private plots reinforce the fact that the Soviets had to rely on capitalism to attempt to stabilise their
declining economy.
Furthermore, external affairs also contributed to the Soviet Union's economic decline which was not
solely due to the failure of leadership but failure of economic policy although the leaders were
arguably to blame. The Soviet Union had involved themselves into an arms and space race with the
USA to be the biggest superpower with the best and most modern technology however, the USA
used this to their advantage as Reagan knew that the Soviet economic wouldn’t be able to cope with
this much spending and eventually the Soviets would bankrupt. Furthermore, the Soviets actively got
themselves involved in the Afghanistan war which was also quite costly as they sent thousands and
troops into Afghanistan, in order to do this the leaders would have to be spend a large percentage of
expenditure on the military this highlights weakness of the soviet leaders as they were overspending
on the military. The fact that the Soviet Union was still importing grain from North America and
The Soviet economic decline during the period 1953-1985 was a result of a failure of leadership of
the two leaders, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, there were also other contributing factors that also
aided the decline of the Soviet economy. The inflexibility of the command economy meant that
reforms failed and proved that capitalist ways worked as well as the external affairs that the Soviets
had got themselves into had further crippled the economy. The crippling economy wasn’t reformed
under Brezhnev as he was conservative and was anti-reform therefore when the reformist
Gorbachev eventually introduced glasnost and perestroika, the Soviet Union inevitable collapsed.
Khrushchev’s advocated for change within the Soviet Union with his aim to boost consumer goods,
living standards and agricultural production this differed to Brezhnev who had the anti-reform
approach and provided bonuses for output over innovation. Khrushchev introduced the virgin land
scheme which aimed to grow crops on land that hasn’t been used before. Although this scheme
boosted food production by 51% this was ultimately a failure due to the land being infertile
therefore there was a lot of wastage as plants died as well as having lack of transport and
infrastructure. Although Brezhnev also invested heavily into agricultural production, he primarily
relied on private plots which undermines full communism which Khrushchev was trying to achieve.
Overall, both leaders attempted to boost the Soviet economy however, they still prioritised military
defence spending by overspending. Brezhnev did very little to reform the Soviet system which led to
economic stagnation, lack of innovation and corruption which enforces the fact Soviet leaders were
at fault of economic decline due to their policies and approach to dealing with boosting the
economy.
The inflexibility of a command economy supported the economic decline, due to Brezhnev’s lack of
innovation and change there was economic stagnation therefore leading to corruption and the
emergence of a black market. The fact that the Soviet Union had a black market shows a failure of
the economy as it couldn’t provide goods and products to their citizens. The high focus on output
meant that lots of goods were being produced at a low quality, there was a lack of innovation and
modernisation but Brezhnev reasserting Gosplan over sovnarkosy as the central planning committee
to which he gave it more power, confused people and therefore emphasised that decentralisation
under Khrushchev had failed. Furthermore, both Khrushchev and Brezhnev relied on private plots for
agricultural produce, under Brezhnev, private plots produced 25% of the total produce in the Soviet
Union while only making up 1% of the total farms. This therefore suggests that the Soviet economy
couldn’t produce enough agricultural production as methods from capitalism, the efficiency of
private plots reinforce the fact that the Soviets had to rely on capitalism to attempt to stabilise their
declining economy.
Furthermore, external affairs also contributed to the Soviet Union's economic decline which was not
solely due to the failure of leadership but failure of economic policy although the leaders were
arguably to blame. The Soviet Union had involved themselves into an arms and space race with the
USA to be the biggest superpower with the best and most modern technology however, the USA
used this to their advantage as Reagan knew that the Soviet economic wouldn’t be able to cope with
this much spending and eventually the Soviets would bankrupt. Furthermore, the Soviets actively got
themselves involved in the Afghanistan war which was also quite costly as they sent thousands and
troops into Afghanistan, in order to do this the leaders would have to be spend a large percentage of
expenditure on the military this highlights weakness of the soviet leaders as they were overspending
on the military. The fact that the Soviet Union was still importing grain from North America and
