Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms behind achieving record-high gold production in the North-East of the USSR in 1974 and its long-term consequences for industry development. Based on archival documents, for the first time, the author comprehensively researches the process of implementing the decision to produce 2 % above-plan gold, made in the course of the USSR Council of Ministers Chairman A. N. Kosygin's visit to Magadan Oblast in March 1974. The study analyzes the Communist party-driven economic management system created to achieve the high record indicators, which included unprecedented control and incentive measures. Special attention is paid to the personnel and management issues: the decreasing qualified processing staff and the contradictions between production and geological exploration organizations. The negative consequences of forced production are examined, including resource base depletion, increased production costs, and technological lag. The study shows that the high record indicators of 1974 were achieved through mobilization of all available resources and intensive exploitation of rich deposits; however, this resulted in the subsequent prolonged decline in the industry. The events of 1974 demonstrate systemic problems of the Soviet economy: contradictions between short-term political goals and sustainable development objectives, inefficiency of centralized management in crisis situations, and inability to provide comprehensive solutions to technological and personnel problems.
Author: P. S. Grebenyuk
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4408318602