ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Kremlinology of economic policies. It was written mainly in late 1984. Most, but all, of the information coming to light since Chernenko’s death is in the appendices. The Gorbachev period is covered as little as humanly possible. The argument is economic, and we must present it here at proper length, since it is also our first policy issue: the reform of industrial planning and management. It is that Andropov, as ambassador in Budapest, was present during the Hungarian Revolution and its suppression by Soviet troops. Looking backwards, we forget those eleven years. In 1958 collectivization was completed in a very brutal way: might not this have been more consonant with the ex-ambassador’s wishes Moreover, when the NEM came it was not on Kadar’s initiative: he merely permitted it. The initiator was another Hungarian Politburo member, Rezsö Nyers, who joined it in 1962, long after Andropov had left Budapest.
