alternatehistory.com

Now, I don't know how many of you have read Francis Spufford's book, 'Red Plenty', but I have been recently. And, whilst I didn't really understand all of it (due in large part to my reading of it over a period of several months, resulting in great gaps in my understanding), the basic background was that, throughout the 1950s and 60s, Khruschev, in his burst of reforming energy, wanted to make the Soviet economy wealthier than the US one, better at providing consumer goods for all, with Ladas better than Porsches. It would be the envy of the capitalist world, a true triumph of socialism. And, for a time, it seemed to be working. (Sadly, a number of factors, such as the discovery of oil, meant that this ultimately failed.)

How to make it actually work, then?
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