Pekka Sutela

Kirja kuvaa Suomen ja Neuvostoliiton välisen idänkaupan kehitystä sodan jälkeisen kahdenvälisen kaupan ajalta vuosina 1945-1990. Idänkaupan kehitystä seurataan ulkoasiainministeriön sekä Suomen Pankin arkistomateriaalin valossa. Kertomus vuosien 1975-1985 ”kulta-ajoista” ja kaupan alamäestä 1980-luvun loppuvuosina perustuu runsaaseen idänkauppiaiden haastatteluaineistoon. Hirvensalo ja Sutela kyseenalaistavat monia idänkauppaan liittyviä myyttejä, kuten kaupan automaattisesti löytyvän tasapainon ja maksuvaluutan, clearing-ruplan vakauden. Todellisuudessa öljyntuontiin perustuva kahdenvälinen kauppa vaihteli rajusti öljyn hinnan mukaan. Myös Yhdysvaltain dollarin kurssiheilahtelut vaikuttivat ruplan kurssiin ja sitä kautta sekä viejien että tuojien maksuihin Suomen markoissa. Lisäksi korkean tason poliittiset päätökset suurista rakennusprojekteista hankaloittivat kaupan tasapainottamista. Pullonkaulana oli jatkuvasti tuonnin kasvattaminen. Öljyn hinnannousuja seuranneet viennin kasvumahdollisuudet syötiin hämmästyttävän nopeasti.

This book constitutes an up-to-date treatment of Russia’s economic development and economic policies since 2000, when Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia. After the slow decline and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia embarked upon a multi-faceted change. This included transition from central management to a market economy, from one-party rule to democracy, from multi-national empire to nation state, and from relative autarchy to opening up to the European and global communities. This book concentrates on economic change, exploring how in spite of steep production decline, widening welfare differentials and increasing social uncertainty, the 1990s also created many of the institutional and policy preconditions for a functioning market economy.

This book constitutes an up-to-date treatment of Russia’s economic development and economic policies since 2000, when Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia. After the slow decline and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia embarked upon a multi-faceted change. This included transition from central management to a market economy, from one-party rule to democracy, from multi-national empire to nation state, and from relative autarchy to opening up to the European and global communities. This book concentrates on economic change, exploring how in spite of steep production decline, widening welfare differentials and increasing social uncertainty, the 1990s also created many of the institutional and policy preconditions for a functioning market economy.

Although the history of centrally planned economies has been widely studied, the development of socialist thinking on the subject has remained largely uncharted. In this pathbreaking work, Pekka Sutela presents a detailed analysis of recent and contemporary Soviet economic thought and theory. Dr Sutela traces the competing currents in the Marxist tradition of socialist economies from the Revolution to the present day. In particular he shows how the Gorbachev economic reform programme of 1987 rose from the work of Nobel Prize economist L. V. Kantorovich and his followers. However, this programme failed and the author explains in some detail why this happened. Since then, Soviet economists have tried to abandon their traditional theory of central planning and move along the path and long established contacts with leading Soviet economists, Pekka Sutela is able to show how Soviet economic thinking has moved from dogmatism through reformism to pragmatism.