{"product_id":"building-a-ruin","title":"Building a Ruin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA masterful account of the global Cold War's decisive influence on Soviet economic reform, and the national decay that followed.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat brought down the Soviet Union? From some perspectives the answers seem obvious, even teleological-communism was simply destined to fail. When Yakov Feygin studied the question, he came to another conclusion: at least one crucial factor was a deep contradiction within the Soviet political economy brought about by the country's attempt to transition from Stalinist mass mobilization to a consumer society. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBuilding a Ruin\u003c\/em\u003e explores what happened in the Soviet Union as institutions designed for warfighting capacity and maximum heavy industrial output were reimagined by a new breed of reformers focused on \"peaceful socioeconomic competition.\" From Khrushchev on, influential schools of Soviet planning measured Cold War success in the same terms as their Western rivals: productivity, growth, and the availability of abundant and varied consumer goods. The shift was both material and intellectual, with reformers taking a novel approach to economics. Instead of trumpeting their ideological bona fides and leveraging their connections with party leaders, the new economists stressed technical expertise. The result was a long and taxing struggle for the meaning of communism itself, as old-guard management cadres clashed with reformers over the future of central planning and the state's relationship to the global economic order. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeygin argues that Soviet policymakers never resolved these tensions, leading to stagnation, instability, and eventually collapse. Yet the legacy of reform lingers, its factional dynamics haunting contemporary Russian politics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Yakov Feygin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42850025570365,"sku":"9780674240995","price":63.86,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9780674240995_664edb1c-dce0-4c29-9689-fbb72c37ec2d.jpg?v=1767069672","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/building-a-ruin","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}