The USSR economy in the 1950s–mid-1960s: from euphoria to dead end (political and economic commentary)

This article examines the main trends in the development of the Soviet Union's economy from the 1950s to the mid-1960s from a political and economic perspective. It analyzes materials from the congresses of the CPSU Central Committee, statistical data, archival documents, and related scholarly works. It notes that the economy of this period of Soviet history is characterized by contradictory dynamics. Initially, growth was quite rapid, but in the first half of the 1960s, economic development reached a dead end. This was eloquently demonstrated by the fact that in 1961, Soviet leader N.S. Khrushchev loudly and publicly declared that the material and technical basis of communism would soon be established (by 1980) and that the capitalist economy would outpace it. In 1962, a demonstration in Novocherkassk, attended by thousands of workers protesting the deteriorating food supply and rising meat prices, was suppressed. This article examines the causes of this and other economic phenomena of the period under review.