Russia's Future: Economy

Figure 1.--.

We do not mean to say that Russian industry turned out worthless products. Some Russian products were sturdy, durable, and well egineered. Of course this was especially true of military euipment, but was also true of some consumer goods. Not only was quality control a roblen in Soviet industry, but Soviet manufacturers had difficulkty adjusting to new developments. This in part a reflection of the concentration on production and the relatively weak mecganisms for adjusting to consumer demand. For what ever reason, it is fair to say that there was a great demand for Western consumer goods in Russia and Russians generally preferred Western to Soviet-built goods. This became apparent when the economy was opened to foreign goods. Few Russian factories could compete with foreign companies, let alone compete in the international market. This is a problnm Russia faces today, its industry is simply uncompetive. Our reader it seems appears to believe that many of the problems stem from the Yeltsin interlude and Russia's experiment with democracy and capitalism. The reason Russian industy is uncometitive and inefficent, in seems to us, is largely the result of the decaded of Communist rule, a system of stte-controlled command economics and the lack of competitive, market pressures. Today we do not know of a single category of Russian industrial products that is competitive in the West. In contrast to the flood of Chinese products entering Western markets, virtully nothing other than raw materials is exported bt Russia. The Russian economy seems to have stabilized in recent years, but we suspect that this is primarly becuse of export earmings from high oil prices.

Russian Products in Britain

I can't recall any Soviet products being sold in the United Sates. A British reader reports that he recalls in the 1970s and 80s, some Soviet products. A British reader writes, "A problem for Russian manufacturers is finding importers of products that can be sold in the west. Two items come to mind. One is photographic equipment and electronic equipment. The cameras were basic models and sold at a very competitive price. The quality of the lens ensured that good quality pictures were taken. The portable FM and short wave radio was according to a well respected consumer journal the best available. Both these items were only available through mail order and not obtainable in high street stores. I obtained one of the radios and it was an excellent product. I recall a Russian made record deck for LP records being advertised at about the time digital players had taken over from anologue players. It was avalable from an English high street store as well as mail order. Regretablely this type of product was attractive only to a niche market. It was sold when the majority wanted digital players. I do not know if the record player can still be bought but I believe the radio can still be bought through mail order catalogues. The rise of cheap digital cameras have made ordinary film cameras obsolete. Kodak and other photographic companies have ceased production of film cameras for Western markets. These companies are supplying digital cameras to these markets." [Ferguson]

Sources

Ferguson, William. E-mail message, August 28, 2005.

Created: August 27, 2005
Last updated: 4:40 AM 8/29/2005