ABSTRACT
Economic exploitation is certainly a necessary, although perhaps not sufficient, condition for colonialism. In an economy where stagnating labour supply is one of the major constraints to economic growth, optimal utilization of existing capacities becomes of paramount importance for economic policy. Economic growth which makes extensive use of material inputs and labour must entail a slowdown of labour productivity development. Economic planners, concentrated in a far-away Moscow, worked under the assumption of common behavioural patterns. In a time when Soviet economic growth is still rather factor intensive, labour supply will be stagnating with the exception of the south where it is least needed, at present. Rapid industrialization of Central Asia along traditional Soviet lines, planned in order to absorb additional labour supply, thus could probably have a counterproductive effect. Soviet perceptions of national development were guided by the politically favoured idea of the Soviet melting pot.
