Reflections on the Book by Safronov A.V. "The Great Soviet Economy: 1917–1991"

The article is devoted to the analysis of the monograph of the modern researcher of the Soviet economy A.V. Safronov “The Great Soviet Economy: 1917–1991”. In his generalizing work, the author reveals in detail the main advantages (social orientation, prospective nature) and the main disadvantages (low quality of the planning system, lack of a clear ideological component of economic development, active use of non-socialist methods of management). The author draws attention to A.V. Safronov's meticulous study of a huge amount of factual material. In the context of reviewing this monograph, the author comes to conclusions about the “hybrid” paradigm of the Soviet economy and the unpreparedness of workers as a whole for a socialist labor. Under certain political circumstances, the economy of the Soviet Union could have continued functioning. However, it would still accumulate problems, remaining not socialist but contradictory and dualistic in its nature.