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Kremlin Building 14

"Yes, national and ethnic identification was to be eliminated from identity cards and civil registries, and local nationalists were to be arrested and gangsters were to be fought in all the Soviet Union. And the replacement of nuclear reactors and the creation of nuclear power plant containment, with the Leningrad and Chernobyl nuclear power plants being the first to be replaced." Tregubova yawned as Romanov stared at the pile of reports on his desk and talked to Serbitsky, the first secretary of the Ukrainian Soviet. "Comrade Serbitsky, this is about the fate of the 52 million people of the Ukrainian Soviet."

"This is the first we're hearing about it, but I imagine it involves a massive amount of people and money."

"I know the internal guard forces and border guards will cooperate, and the Galicia region must be focused on cleaning up the Western Ukrainian nationalists." Romanov scratched his head; he'd been up late for days. "The main problem is convincing the republics that the new system will be better. That will be our greatest challenge."

Tregubova walked into the room, and said, "General Secretary Romanov, this is the audit report on the economic budget and development."

"Show me." Romanov glanced at the report. "Anything significant?"

"There are a bunch of whistleblowers and letters sent to you from the public, including one from Professor Sakharov, who says he'll give up publicly blaming the Soviet Union if you let his wife return to Moscow."

"Professor Sakharov?" Romanov remembered that he hadn't been a pro-democracy crusader for the U.S. and Pinochet, and the wholesale privatization of the Soviet industrial system, in the original? "Throw that letter in the trash."

"Yes." Tregubova shuffled through a bunch of reports and highlighted one. "The Ministry of Intelligence has requested additional funding for wiretapping and bugging equipment. We are providing it, even though it is an increase from last year's budget."

"Good. What else?"

"We've had some problems with the Ministry of Defense. It has requested an increase in spending for new fighter jets and other war equipment. We've countered with new budgetary restrictions."

"Well, what do you think about cutting 2 billion rubles from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education to transfer to the Ministry of Defense?" Romanov returned to the report, which audited the economic development of the Soviet Union last year.

"That's a lot of money. Do you think it would be better spent on military equipment or reducing prices to farmers?"

Romanov sighed and said, "The Soviet Union can lose the support of the peasants, but not of the army."

Tregubova nodded.

"All right. Is there anything else?"

"No."

"Very well. We should have a final decision soon."

"Decision? What kind of decision?"

"It is a matter for the political branches of the government to discuss, and I will not sit in judgment over them."

"Very well." Tregubova walked out of the room. Romanov stared after her, and said, "I wonder what she has in mind."

------

Well, in your speech, you painted a picture of a peaceful coexistence between workers and management that was based on cooperation and mutual benefits. The question before us now is: how do you intend to put that into practice?

The most fundamental characteristics of communist society are expressed in three points. First, there is great material abundance and the means of consumption are distributed according to needs; second, social relations are highly harmonious and people's spirituality is greatly improved; third, the means of production do not belong to private ownership.

We are far from having a fully-functioning communism in the West. There are still remnants of the private property system that have a tendency to block the progression of these ideals.

The most fundamental characteristics of communist society are expressed in three points. The first is great material abundance and the distribution of the means of consumption according to needs; the second is a high degree of harmony in social relations and a great improvement in people's spirituality; and the third is that the means of production do not belong to private ownership.

Communism in the West is still far from being fully functional. The remnants of the private property system still have the tendency to hinder the development of these ideals.

How do all communist parties build socialism to achieve a communist society on the road to socialism? Leninism saw the need to be under the leadership of a communist party, hence the establishment of the one-party dictatorship and vanguard of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. However, this required facing a problem. If, for example, the Communist Party was the vanguard of the people...who would supervise the Communist Party?

Lenin, Stalin and Mao failed to really address this question, and eventually, the communist party degenerated and bureaucratized. The vanguard communist party inevitably became the party of all people, and the Politburo eventually became the home of the bureaucratic clique.

There has been a trend in communist theory to de-bureaucratize the party, but that misses the point entirely. Without some mechanism to oversee and direct the party, it will surely degenerate.

The problem is how do you keep the party focused, and accountable to the people?

The world capitalist countries continue to face an expanding communist threat, which does not seek profits at all, and which keeps pumping the labor population from the agricultural sector into the more efficient industrial sector increasing factors to increase productivity. At such times, capitalism begins to learn from socialism, which can only increase money and welfare .... Constructing a better pay market and social environment, through welfare and openness tries to get the proletariat to support capitalism against socialism. Because, there are only individuals who betray the class. There is no class that betrays the individual. The true proletarians and capitalists have no homeland.

That's why a class of its own is made up of migrants and refugees who are oppressed in both societies. At such times, nationalism is born as a reaction to communism.

A man can be born understanding that he must live and fight for his own country and nation, but he cannot understand why he should fight for the proletariat of other countries. This is why nationalism gradually overcame international communism.

At the same time, the Soviet Union itself was bound to fall behind the U.S. economy under the global trade and technology blockade facing the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Union lagging behind the West in economic growth and technological development across the board, and unable to provide the population with more advanced technological products, living conditions, freedom of speech and economic welfare, was it necessary to rely on a few communist books to keep the general population identifying with communism?

So, in 1985 the average Soviet citizen was paid 200 rubles a month while the American citizen in the same year was paid $1,000 to $1,500; and when Soviet bureaucrats saw that American politicians could openly and legally corrupt themselves, own private jets and operate multiple businesses, would they pursue America or oppose America? Human beings will pursue better living conditions and self-needs for the individual, so eventually the Soviet Union collapsed. Just as the proletarians without adequate education and a good social environment degenerated into a rogue proletariat, so the bureaucrats were transformed into oligarchs with vast wealth.

(The Soviet Communist Party, at least in the USSR with only 50% of the U.S. GNP, was still willing to give its citizens a welfare policy of free distribution. This is much better than the Chinese Communist Party since Deng Xiaoping; after all, it would be hard to find another economy that is the second largest in the world but allows most of its citizens to work at the same level of wages and hours as underdeveloped countries. (Unless, of course, China's population starts to grow negatively or the struggle is so intense that a revolution is imminent; otherwise, the Leviathan of monopoly capital will never give up its exploitation.) But it is not enough. A society cannot survive if it is divided between the haves and have-nots.

If the Soviet Union wants to continue to exist down only adhere to the planned economy and the implementation of OGAS to solve the problem of false indicators and material shortages, queuing (or like the collapse of the Soviet Union, the elimination of productivity to solve the shortage ... destroy the industrial system production and prices rise thousands of times there is no material shortage! The Soviet Union has to wait until Reagan steps down to ease relations with the United States and lift the trade and technology and food embargo against the Soviet Union before it can hope to introduce the technologies of the third industrial revolution for an industrial revolution.

Historically, some of Gorbachev's measures were correct from a practical point of view, and Gorbachev's détente with NATO and withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan were in the national interest and reality. However, he foolishly decentralized power and used liberals and local nationalism to fight against opponents and bureaucrats; he carried out market economy reforms and abandoned the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, suppressed and abandoned the military. The abandonment of power by those who should have held it allowed some crazy ambitious people who should not have held it to do so. The Soviet Union's own peculiarities and historical problems determine its high degree of alignment with the Soviet Communist Party and the planned economy, and it would be dangerous and wrong to abandon both, especially if the constitution did not abolish the free secession of the constituent states from the Union (Lenin and Stalin disputed the Soviet Constitution's decree on the free secession of the constituent republics from the Soviet Union, Lenin wanting a confederate Soviet Union with autonomous constituent republics, while Stalin wanted a federal Soviet Union dominated by the Russians; after Lenin's death, Stalin prevented the problem of disintegration by establishing a centralized political system of one-party dictatorship. This approach determined the risk of disintegration of the Soviet Union in the event of decentralization and loss of leadership of the Soviet Communist Party. (In contrast, other socialist countries do not have this risk because they are nation-states led by a single subject nation)

To conclude, the Soviet Union had a long road to travel, and it is a history lesson that we should not forget.

---

"What should we do now?"

The problem with the Soviet model is that it lacks a market mechanism to resolve conflicts and keep production and consumption in sync. This was seen most keenly in the dearth of consumer goods during the first Gorbachev administration, as well as the rise of the Black Market to alleviate this problem, the emergence of private property and the subsequent corruption of bureaucrats and politicians. And now, a dearth of innovative capital goods to keep the system running.

Importing consumer goods like the real Russian Federation to ease consumer goods market demand? That would be a fatal mistake.

The Soviet model is a command economy. It is centralized and top-down. It is a system in which the needs of the society as a whole are met, not the private desires of a few. It is a system in which the state owns the means of production, not individuals. It is a system in which the means of production are controlled by the political institutions of the state, not by greedy, shortsighted capitalists. The only problem is that it can be stolen by equally short-sighted and greedy bureaucrats. After all, there will always be arrogant people who want to monopolize wealth and oppress others even when they have gained enough wealth and status to live. It's a problem that has plagued societies throughout history.

The solution to this problem is not the privatization of the means of production. The solution is not laissez faire and letting the market decide. The solution is not the rugged individualism of the free market. Private property and free markets are not a panacea. They can also be the source of great social and economic anomalies and suffering. The bureaucratic class must be restricted & eliminated, which is dangerous, but Romanov must do it.

The problem is that the Soviet model has been so thoroughly politicized and corrupted by bureaucrats and politicians that it is difficult to restore and maintain its integrity. This is not a political problem. It is a systemic problem. Unless, of course, there is a massive cleansing campaign to bring down the entire system... and that is not something Gorbachev is likely to undertake.

Thus, there is a great deal of uncertainty and risk in the system that needs to be addressed.

Romanov looked over the following brief financial and economic audit report.

The Soviet Union generated 1,544 billion kWh of electricity in 1985, with a population of 270 million. The per capita capacity was about 5700 kWh.

Soviet car ownership per capita in 1985: 42

Meat / milk and products / fish consumption per capita in the USSR in 1985: 61 kg / 323 kg / 18 kg

Average housing area in the USSR in 1985: about 65 square meters

Soviet GDP: 1,382.5 billion roubles

Gross national income per capita: 4,937 rubles per year

Inflation rate, 1985: 6.3%

Life expectancy at birth: 69

Soviet unemployment was negligible, and Romanov sighed as he picked up the phone and called Tregubova and said, "It's me, bring me the report of the State Economic Planning Committee forecasting the U.S. economy."

"The what?"

"The report from the State Economic Planning Committee," Romanov said,

Tregubova asked for the phone. Romanov said, "It's not a good time, please hang up and call me back in a few minutes."

The minutes of the meeting were concise, to the point, and to the point:

The U.S. economy is growing fast, but this growth is unstable. This situation can change in the next few years.

"Damn, the U.S. economy is growing at a high rate." Romanov stared at the report and scratched his head as he took a pen and circled the area of cars and housing on the report. He scribbled down some notes.

"This report is very optimistic about the rate of growth and is based on a number of very questionable assumptions. This leaves me with very little confidence in their projections," Romanov said. "The Soviet Union cannot make the same mistake. We must build a socialist economy, not a mixed economy with socialist tendencies."

"So, what's the plan?" Tregubova asked.

"Removing the excess rent penalty in terms of housing versus giving people the application to exchange their homes, but must insist that they will not be allowed to buy or sell homes. On the car side, I haven't figured it out yet. Do you have a solution to the car quality and production issue?"

"The problem is that we don't have the necessary raw materials to keep up with the demands of the market. If we produce half the cars, we will still be short. We will need to import more." Tregubova said.

"No, we won't. We can't. The entire plan is predicated on the Soviet Union being able to export more than it imports. I'm afraid we won't be able to maintain our current standard of living if we don't change the system. We must reduce the amount of labor we use, and increase the output of the machines." Romanov said.

"But - but -" Tregubova began to speak, but Romanov interrupted her.

"No buts. It's not about what's good for the country right now. It's about what's good for the country in the long term. You only need to obey my orders & offer advice?"

"Well... okay," Tregubova said.

"Good," Romanov said, looking at his watch. "I'll talk to you later."

"Shouldn't you discuss this with the Politburo?"

"I would, but I'm also the general secretary & supreme leader. Come here, let me see if your teeth are neat and tidy with your braces off?" Romanov slapped his thigh.

"Ha ha."

"Are you finished?" Tregubova asked.

"Almost." Romanov said. "You don't have a bugging device in here, do you? My little girl of information."

"No. Why would we need one?" Tregubova said.

"I dunno. It's just a feeling I got. Have you had a physical in the past six months?"

"Yes, I've been feeling really well. Why?"

"Just checking," Romanov said. "You're my Avril, and I'm worried about carrying a baby in your belly."

"Do you..." Tregubova began to ask, but stopped. "Well yes, I'm worried as well. I think it's been about a month or two since we've had a physical."

"You better get checked out sometime, I still want to ravage you in bed like Pinochet ravaged Chile. If you're pregnant with my child, this will bother me."

"You're disgusting," Tregubova said, rolling her eyes.

"It'll be so worth it," Romanov said, grinning. "You are mine, and I will make you my wife when the time comes. Won't you kiss my hand?"

Tregubova said nothing, but she leaned in and pressed her lips to Romanov's hand, which he grabbed and held still.

"Good," Romanov said. "Kneel down to me and kiss my shoes and call me Father."

"No," Tregubova said.

"Kneel," Romanov said, grabbing her by the arm.

Tregubova stood up from the chair, staring down at Romanov in defiance.

"This is just a test, and I want you to show your love and obedience to me by doing this. Kneel down to me and kiss my shoes and call me Father."

"I won't do either," Tregubova said. "I love you, but I won't worship you."

"You're making this very difficult," Romanov said, his patience growing thin. "But I get it, so don't talk about it."

"There's no way you'll ever forcing me to do anything against my will," Tregubova said, staring down at Romanov. "You just... you just get out of here. Leave me alone."

"I will afterwards, I need to think seriously about our relationship." Romanov picked up the pen with the audit report and asked, "Now, mind helping me analyze the economic budget? I don't want to think by myself."

"Fine," Tregubova said. "I can't believe you're being so stubborn."

"I know," Romanov said, smiling. "Now, help me analyze this year's economic budget."

"Fine," Tregubova said. "What is the GNP growth rate for this year?"

"The U.S. predicts our economy to grow at 1%, the Statistical Commission publishes it at 4%...guess what it really is?" Romanov asked, grinning.

"It's 2.2%. I rest my case," Tregubova said, grinning.

The two of them worked together until nightfall, when they finally finished the report. Romanov signed it, and handed it to his aide.

"Can I get a copy of that?" She asked.

"Sure," Romanov said, but added, "if you ever see me again, that is."

"Of course," Tregubova said.

"That's all for now, my dear." Romanov waved his hand and said, "You can go home after that, I have other things to take care of."

"Okay," Tregubova said.

Tregubova left, walking out of the room. Romanov, however, stayed behind, cleaning his glasses. He took a deep breath, and said, "This is a test. A big test. I have a feeling that Olga and I will be tested many times in the years to come. Be prepared for anything."

"It's only logical. We'll have to see how we react to each other, and how the world reacts to us, and what kind of life we can have."

---

Putting down the No. 1 telephone system roster with the Soviet emblem on it, Romanov wiped his hands. After decades of development, the Soviet Union had already formed a self-running bureaucracy, and the No. 1 telephone system roster, a telephone book wrapped in red hard cover, was one of the products, recording more than 600 leaders of the Soviet central and local administrations, ministry leaders, important media personalities and newspaper editors-in-chief, the presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and senior generals. Of course, these people also had their own roster of long-distance automatic telephone users. Only, there were more of them, about 3,000... and one level lower in status and influence.

These levels of bureaucracy kept the Soviet Union running, and the same level of administrative divisions made up a whole set of redundant and inefficient federal administrative structures.

First level of administrative divisions (republics) - second level of administrative divisions (autonomous republics/obstacles/krai) - third level of administrative divisions (autonomous oblasts/autonomous regions) - lower level of administrative divisions (regions/republics/krai/obstacles) - lower level of administrative divisions (cities/municipalities/villages/towns)

If we include the group of the USSR Council of Ministers, which was divided into all-Union departments and all-Union-Republic departments owned by the Union Republics, the administrative departments were really redundant.

One department of the Council of Ministers, the Department of Intelligence, was investigating the possibility of reducing the amount of redundant bureaucracy, proposing to merge several ministries and departments into eight super-efficient agencies.

"The Soviet Union now has redundant administrative bodies and should merge with the removal of redundant ministries. What do the comrades think?" Romanov said as he wrote down the annotations, and several people attended the meeting, including Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Grishin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Tikhonov, Ideological Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Second Secretary) Kosolapov, Foreign Minister Troyanovsky, First Chairman of the State Security Committee Bobkov, and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Fedorchuk, in the conference room of Building 14 of the Kremlin.

"The Soviet Union should aim to become even more efficient," Grishin said. "We need to streamline the entire governmental framework."

"Yes," Tikhonov agreed.

"Then, after that, at the Politburo meeting to discuss the next four years to start merging and streamlining departmental agencies." Romanov finished writing the endorsement and added: "The next step is departmental appointments, who will be the Minister of Finance? Comrade Viktor Vladimirovich Dementsov has been acting for several years."

"Dementsov is a capable man," Foreign Minister Troyanovsky said. "He has a lot of experience."

"I agree," Romanov said. "But he is too old and we don't doubt his faith and ability, but it's time for him to be with his family. We need a young man, but the ability of a young man and his faith in communism is questionable."

He looked around and asked, "Any other suggestions?"

No one spoke, so he continued, "In other words, our best bet is to appoint a team of capable young people and train them, but with a very loose reins on them. We'll have to trust that their abilities will be sufficient, but if not, then we can always replace them. What do you think comrades? Anyone? No?"

Troyanovsky looked around once again and said, "I think we should trust Dementsov and his team. They know how to run an economy."

"That's a good point."

"Of course," Romanov said. "Please be aware that this is a very dangerous line of work, and not just for the Ministry's reputation. The entire Soviet Union depends on a healthy financial system."

"I know," Troyanovsky said.

"Therefore, we will need to be extra careful in the investigations we conduct," Romanov said. "It's not only the Ministry's reputation that's at stake, but the whole of the Soviet Union's financial stability."

"In the absence of a suitable candidate, how about continuing to let Comrade Demenzov act as Finance Minister for now?" Grishin suggested.

"Yes, you're right," Romanov said. "But the age was too great, and at the 28th Soviet Congress the retirement age for leading cadres was set at 70 or more and retained as an entitlement."

"So if we don't remove him, he'll continue to be in charge of the Ministry of Finance for the next 4 to 5 years?" Troyanovsky asked.

"Yes, in all probability."

"I guess that could be considered a merit to his appointment," Troyanovsky said.

"Comrade Dementsov?" Romanov nodded and added: "The next issue is housing and education. We should abolish the penalty of multiplying the rent for excess area in housing and provide people with applications to exchange their houses, while allowing the construction of centralized residential areas with villas or two-bedroom houses as the main buildings and shortening the building distance. The area should be 100 to 120 square meters and continue to be allocated free of charge by the state."

"I have some reservations about this," Troyanovsky said. "While I agree that this is a backward system, the residential penalties are a huge disincentive for people to expand their homes."

"But egalitarianism is not socialism, and it doesn't make sense for the Minsk party secretary to live in the same villa with his son's family and his daughter's family. We should limit a family to one house, not limit the size of the house."

"Maybe we could also introduce a non-residential penalty for too much space in buildings," Troyanovsky suggested. "The more square meters a building has, the more the owner taxes per year."

"Yes, but we're losing efficiency, and it's unfair to the tenant."

"I understand your concerns," Troyanovsky said. "I just don't think that this is the way to go."

"You're probably right," Romanov said. "But it's more important for people to live in free state housing that is satisfactory and spacious."

Grisham asked, "But building distances are reduced, and it defeats our original purpose. The lack of flat and wide open spaces between building distances would hinder military and emergency relief forces in the event of nuclear war."

"We're a city-state," Romanov said, "not a nation of farmers who need to stockpile large quantities of food and necessities in the countryside."

"Perhaps we could reduce building distances by 50% in some areas," Troyanovsky suggested.

"Yes, that would solve half of our problems," Romanov said. "The next thing is education reform, we should stop giving students less homework load but more homework. They should focus on learning, not rock bands with politics and such. And also reduce education spending by 38.4 billion rubles to 20 billion rubles."

Students in primary and secondary schools are not required to pay any additional fees, except for stationery, and university students are exempt from tuition fees and free textbooks; breakfast and lunch are free for all students up to the fifth grade; and students can participate in various extracurricular interest groups with full-time teachers and extracurricular activities on Saturdays (including There is no fee for students to participate in the various extracurricular interest groups and extracurricular activities on Saturdays (including piano, violin, voice, dance, etc.). In the mid-1980s, there were 891 schools of higher education in the USSR, with 5.28 million students and 515,000 teachers.

Kosolapov thought about it and asked, "So, the spare 18.4 billion ruble budget is deployed to the economic sector with the Academy of Sciences?"

"Yes," Romanov said. "As I understand, the science and research communities are in need of a large infusion of funds."

He added, "I imagine that your job as a group is to prioritize and recommend the use of those funds. So, should we give the physics community the extra 18.4 billion?"

"That would be a good start."

"And what about the mathematics and computer science community? Or the medical community?"

"I'm sure the science community is a very important one," Romanov said. "We need to further increase the budgets of these science departments to accelerate science and technology development."

"A science-friendly government is very important for the future of USSR."

"You're right," Romanov said. "If there are no questions, we should discuss the international situation and foreign aid."

"Do we still plan to lend money to them?"

"They is a net recipient of aid. We should increase our lending to those countries that are net contributors."

"Such as?"

"We cannot continue to give free aid to worthless and economically undeveloped countries, and net recipients other than Libya, Syria, Iraq, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, and Ethiopia should reduce reimbursable aid and require these countries to repay their loans with hard currency and mineral resources and businesses."

"Or perhaps these countries should pay some interest on our loans," Kosolapov suggested.

"No, that would be against the principles of the international financial system." Thinking of the 2008 financial crisis, Romanov added: "Could those subprime loans with the risk of non-repayment be sold to the U.S. capital consortium through the Ministry of Foreign Trade's joint venture with the Leningrad Bank?"

"That's a good idea," Troyanovsky said.

"We could also seek trade partners in the private sector, sell the loans on to them, and gain a profit."

"Interesting."

"This could also help us diversify our economy and reduce our exposure to the volatile financial sector."

"That's true," Troyanovsky said.

Grishin inquired, "I wonder if the American capital consortium will really buy up these subprime loans we have in underdeveloped countries?"

"Yes, the capitalists have no homeland. They will sell these subprime loans to the average American for profit to pass on the debt risk, and the people who will end up bankrupt will never be those on Wall Street. The more people like Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman in the US, the better, the more developed the US financial economy and the more the real economy declines, the better for us." Grigory Romanov explained.

"And, of course, the more economic freedom of the people in the current imperialist countries, the better for everyone."

"That's a good way of looking at it, yes," Troyanovsky said.

"So be it, and who should fill the vacant position of the newly established Minister of International Relations in charge of the international revolution?"

Kosolapov raised his hand and said, "I have a candidate I can undoubtedly trust, except that his political positions are more radical than ours."

"Go."

"My candidate is a man named Alexander Tarasov."

"Oh?" Romanov asked. "Why him?"

"He was a Trotskyist and was held in a mental hospital for a long time before being released on your instructions last year, General Secretary Grigori."

"Yes, I remember. Continue."

"Alexander has been involved in anti-fascist and anti-racist activism for years. He's well-versued in the philosophies of anti-fascism and racial equality."

"Very well. You have my support. Does anyone else have any candidates?"

"No."

"Then Alexander is my choice," Romanov declared.

"Congratulations," Kosolapov said with a clap. "You've made a very wise choice."

"Thank you."

The room became silent as they all waited for to finish his cigarette.

"If not then comrade Tarasov will be examined as the head of the International Relations Department afterwards. Now we are faced with a task. We need to discuss the global situation and the state of our financial system." Romanov said, "Regarding the proposals already made before, collective farms should be gradually transformed into state farms in the following four years."

"Mmm, small-scale industry should be developed," Kosolapov said. "Agriculture should be expanded across the board. The private sector has shown itself unwilling to play its role correctly."

"I propos

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