ABSTRACT
As we saw in Chapter 1, the industrial planning experiment announced in 1983 and introduced at the beginning of 1984 provided Gorbachev with a central role in the immediately post-Brezhnev era, and this forms the basis of a substantial degree of industrial policy unity between Andropov and Gorbachev General Secretaryships. To anticipate a little, the industrial planning experiment is not a world-shattering development, and indeed Gorbachev has made it clear that he sees it as merely the first stage in his industrial planning strategy. But by the same token it can provide us with a concrete starting-point for the assessment of Gorbachev’s industrial policies.
