ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we presented a picture of the formation of the Soviet economic system that bore a firm imprint of the supremacy of politics over economics. In a sense, this supremacy also implied a shift in the burden of analysis from the economic to the political field, since much economic policy making consisted of ad hoc — and at times even desperate — emergency measures, conditioned by political contingencies. In the present chapter we shall continue that line of argument, by presenting the formation of the Soviet political system as conditioned by the same political ambitions of achieving power and security — broadly defined — for those at the top.
