r quality products. The fact that these products were often virtually useless did not affect the success rating of the managers, so long as they met their volume target. Besides neglecting the ultimate consumers, the Soviet planned economy also disregarded the social and environmental costs of industry, resulting in higher infant mortality rates and lower life expectancies than in western Europe.
These developments only accelerated under Stalin, who placed an added emphasis on heavy industry. In an attempt to "show up" the American capitalists, Stalin ordered a huge buildup in heavy industry during the 1930s; this buildup, however, again ignored the needs of Russian consumers and was done in a wasteful manner, with little in the way of horizontal linkages (subcontracting). The results were huge and inefficient manufacturing plants which could never even approach the productivity levels of western industry and increased burdens on the economy.
By the 1940s, the Soviet system bore only a passing resemblance to the Ma
...