I have just been reading a book written by Dmitri Volkognov and read a sentence that really bugged me, shops were empty, but the soviet union was either the biggest or 2nd largest producer of wheat and and other agricultural products. What happened in the process of distribution? And how did the collective farm system work?
I’m relatively new to this because in never really took an interest in russia or eastern Europe, I just had the perception that it was ‘them’ against ‘us’ but my wife who likes this genre, made me read this book (rise and fall of the S.U)and I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t realise how banqrupt the leninist principles were or how extremely large amounts of money were spent (And wasted)on detente with the western powers.
From your resident Slavophile, who spent a semester in Leningrad in 1989, when there was almost no food left, some receommended reading:
The Russians and The New Russians, by Hedrick Smith (in that order).
Lenin’s Tomb, by David Remnick
Both Smith and Remnick are journalists, so their writing is very readable. They both offer some excellent perspective on Soviet and post-Soviet society, and how/why it was screwed up, illustrated with numerous colorful and illuminating anecdotes. If you like those, I have about 500 more things to recommend from various of my grad school bibliographies, if you can provide some more insight into what aspects of the Soviet experience you are interested in.
Short answer: the distribution process was both extremely inefficient, extremely corrupt, and leaked in many places. The rest is just details. The coolective farm system: more complex, but I can illustrate the principle with an anecdote from my college class in History of Economic Thought:
Eva Luna: So if people are supposed to receive according to their needs and contribute according to their abilities in a socialist system, what incentive is there for anyone to work harder than they can get away with?
Amused Professor: Eva, didn’t you say you’re going to Russia in the fall? When you get back, let me know how it went, will ya?