ABSTRACT
In the half-century following its creation in the late 1920s, the Soviet system displayed many weaknesses and problems in its economic performance. These disturbed both Soviet officials and ordinary citizens and were emphasized by the critics of the system. Yet from 1928 through the mid-1970s, the Soviet economic model was in many respects quite successful in its own terms. The economic successes of the system were the main basis of the political stability which all observers, friend and foe, attributed to it.
