ABSTRACT
The 1950 to 1997 period was considerably less convoluted than the previous half-century, but it was nonetheless marked by great change. The late twentieth century in particular was marked by such radical changes that the USSR actually ceased to exist and divided into fifteen independent republics. The only variable that in the history of Russia and numerous other countries systematically has given signs of possessing those impressive powers is manufacturing. The share of services in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries relentlessly increased during the second half of the twentieth century, and as it did the rate of the nations’ economic growth systematically decelerated. Defense expenditures as a share of GDP during the 1980s were actually at the lowest level in Soviet history. In Russia defense as a share of GDP averaged about 16 percent in the 1980s while in 1990 to 1997, the figure fell to about 8 percent.
