Was the Main Reason for the Soviet Union's Collapse Its "Inability to Keep Pace with the Times"?

On November 25, 2021, Zheng Yongnian, Dean of the Institute for Global and Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, stated in an interview with an influential Chinese publication that "the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union was its inability to keep pace with the times." This view is open to debate.

2021年11月25日,香港中文大学全球与当代中国高等研究院院长郑永年在接受我国一份有影响的报刊采访时表示，“苏联解体的主要原因是不能与时俱进”。这一观点值得商榷。

I. Did the Soviet Model after the October Revolution Fail to "Keep Pace with the Times"?

一、十月革命后的苏联模式没有“与时俱进”吗？

On the one hand, Mr. Zheng Yongnian acknowledges that the Soviet Union was "such a powerful country"; on the other hand, he says that "after the October Revolution of 1917, the 'Soviet model,' whether in terms of its economic base or political superstructure, failed to keep pace with the times." How could a Soviet model that did not "keep pace with the times" have enabled the Soviet Union to become "a powerful country"? Mr. Zheng is not alone in holding this contradictory view on the logical relationship between "cause" and "effect"; many people express similar ideas. Gorbachev, on the one hand, acknowledged the historical achievements of the Soviet system, while on the other hand, he declared a break with the Soviet bureaucratic system that had a history of over 70 years. Some domestic scholars do not deny the Soviet Union's achievements in industrialization and in defeating fascism, yet at the same time they almost completely criticize the Soviet political and economic system, labeling it "one-party dictatorship," "highly centralized," and so on. But if, at that time, there had been no leadership of the Communist Party, no centralized planning and unified distribution by the central authorities of the limited means of production and consumer goods, could the Soviet Union have achieved the goals of national industrialization and defeating fascism? The methodological error in this understanding lies in the inability to dialectically analyze the Soviet system as a contradictory unity that both promoted social progress and had defects, even serious ones. To dissect this system, seeing only its defects and then completely negating it, is clearly an erroneous method of understanding. It can neither clearly explain the reasons for the Soviet Union's achievements nor find the true reasons for its collapse.

郑永年先生一方面承认苏联是“那样一个强大”的国家，另一方面又说，“1917年十月革命以后，‘苏联模式’无论从经济基础还是政治上层建筑，都没有做到与时俱进”。没有“与时俱进”的苏联模式又怎么能使苏联成为“一个强大的国家”？不独郑先生在这个“因”与“果”的逻辑关系上持矛盾的观点，很多人也有类似表述。戈尔巴乔夫一方面承认苏联体制在历史上取得的成绩，另一方面又宣布与具有70多年历史的苏联官僚体制决裂；国内一些学者也不否认苏联工业化、打败法西斯的成就,同时又几乎全盘批判苏联的政治经济体制，冠之以“一党专权”“高度集权”，等等。那么，如果当时没有共产党领导，没有中央对有限生产资料和消费资料的集中计划和统一分配，苏联能够实现国家工业化和打败法西斯的目标吗？这种认识在方法论上的错误是，不能辩证分析苏联体制是一个既促进了社会进步、又存在弊端甚至严重弊端的矛盾统一体。把这一体制割裂开来，只看到其弊端方面就加以全盘否定，这种认识方法显然是错误的，既不能说清楚苏联取得成绩的原因，亦不能找到苏联解体的真正原因。

Proceeding from his perspective of "civilization-state," Mr. Zheng believes that the Soviet Union's "closing the country to international intercourse" was due to its tradition of conservatism and isolation. He therefore asserts that, compared with the essence of the old Russian Empire, the Soviet regime after the October Revolution "underwent no fundamental change in either its economic base or its superstructure." This assertion is a common-sense error.

郑先生从其“文明型国家”的角度出发，认为苏联的“闭关自守”是由于其具有保守封闭的传统，因此断言十月革命后的苏维埃政权与旧俄罗斯帝国的实质相比，“无论经济基础和上层建筑都没有根本改变”。这个论断是一个常识性错误。

After the October Revolution, the first "Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic," formulated in 1918, determined the form of the state and the form of government: Russia was a republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies; all power belonged to the Soviets; the dictatorship of the proletariat was established to mercilessly suppress the resistance of the exploiters; a socialist social organization was to be established; and so on. In 1936, Stalin revised the constitution based on the 1918 Constitution, retaining its basic principles while adding provisions on the status of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, voluntarily formed by the most active and class-conscious citizens from among the working class, working peasants, and working intelligentsia, is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to build a communist society and the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state.

十月革命后，1918年制订的第一个《俄罗斯苏维埃联邦社会主义共和国宪法（根本法）》，确定了国家的国体和政体形式：俄国为工兵农代表苏维埃共和国；全部政权归苏维埃；建立无产阶级专政，无情镇压剥削者的反抗；建立社会主义的社会组织；等等。1936年，斯大林在1918年宪法基础上重新修订宪法，保留了以前的基本原则，同时增加了对联共（布）地位的规定：由工人阶级、劳动农民和劳动知识分子中最积极最觉悟的公民自愿结成苏联共产党，即劳动者为建成共产主义社会而奋斗的先锋队，是劳动者所有一切社会团体和国家机关的领导核心。

In terms of the economic base, after the October Revolution, the Soviet government declared the expropriation of the means of production from the bourgeoisie, abolished the private ownership of land of the Tsarist Russian Empire, and turned factories, land, railways, and banks into the common property of the entire people; it eliminated all exploitation of man by man and completely eradicated the division of society into classes. Thus was born the world's first socialist state, a state completely different from the old Russian autocratic regime of the landlords and bourgeoisie, opening a new epoch in the development of human society.

在经济基础方面，十月革命后苏维埃政府宣布剥夺资产阶级的生产资料，废除沙俄帝国的土地私有制，把工厂、土地、铁路和银行变为全民的共有财产；消灭任何人对人的剥削，完全消除社会之划分为各阶级的现象等。世界上第一个社会主义国家就此诞生，这是和旧俄国地主资产阶级专制政权完全不同的国家，开辟了人类社会发展的新纪元。

After the founding of New China, how was the first constitution embodying the national founding strategy to be formulated? Mao Zedong instructed members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to refer to and learn from the Soviet constitutions of 1918 and 1936. The first constitution of New China, in terms of the basic principles of the form of the state and the form of government, and in terms of establishing the socialist economic base, referred to these two Soviet constitutions, thereby laying the cornerstone for the development of the People's Republic of China. If one were to claim that there is no essential difference between New China and Old China, I am afraid Mr. Zheng would not agree either.

新中国成立后，如何制订第一部体现建国方略的宪法？毛泽东指示中央政治局委员要参考借鉴苏俄1918年和1936年的宪法。新中国的第一部宪法，在国体政体方面、在建立社会主义经济基础方面的基本原则都参考了上述苏联两部宪法，从而奠定了中华人民共和国发展的基石。如果说新中国和旧中国没有本质上的区别，恐怕郑先生也不能同意。

Clearly, compared with the Tsarist regime that had existed for over a thousand years, the view that the Soviet Union's economic base and superstructure had not undergone fundamental change is untenable, even when explained from the perspective of a "civilization-state." The view that the reason for the Soviet Union's collapse lay in "the rigidity and conservatism of its system, its dogmatic approach to Marxism, and its failure to keep pace with the times" was once very popular, but this judgment is not entirely accurate.

显然，和具有上千年历史的沙俄政权相比，断言苏联经济基础和上层建筑都没有发生根本改变的观点，即便是从“文明型国家”的角度来解释也是说不通的。认为苏联解体原因在于“体制的僵化、保守和对马克思主义的教条，没有做到与时俱进”的观点曾经风靡一时，但这个判断不完全准确。

It was Lenin who broke through and developed the Marxist theory that socialist revolution could only break out simultaneously in developed capitalist countries, thereby putting forward the thesis that, due to imperialist war, socialist revolution could achieve "victory in one country" in Russia, a backward agricultural country, thus developing Marxism. Stalin continued the socialist cause initiated by Lenin. Building socialism was an undertaking unprecedented in history, with no ready-made models or dogmas to refer to or learn from; that is to say, every day and every task of the Soviet Union, whether correct or erroneous decisions, was carried out through innovation and exploration.

列宁正是突破并发展了马克思主义关于社会主义革命只能在发达资本主义国家同时爆发的理论，从而提出由于帝国主义战争，社会主义革命可以在俄国这个经济落后的农业国取得“一国胜利”的论断，进而发展了马克思主义。斯大林继续了列宁开创的社会主义事业。建设社会主义是前无古人的事业，没有任何现成模式和教条可以借鉴和参考，就是说苏联的每一天、每一项工作，无论是正确或者错误的决策，都是在创新和探索中进行的。

After the Second World War, peace and development gradually became the mainstream of the times, and a new wave of technological revolution swept the world. Due to conservative and rigid thinking, the Soviet leaders at the time failed to keep up with this trend in a timely manner, which seriously affected economic and social development. However, to conclude that Soviet society at this time only had a "stagnant" side and could not "keep pace with the times" is too arbitrary. "Rigidity and conservatism" and "reform and innovation" are two opposing sides; it was precisely the Soviet Union that initiated the reform of the highly centralized political and economic management system of socialist countries.

第二次世界大战后，和平与发展逐渐成为时代主流，世界掀起新的科技革命浪潮。苏联当时的领导人由于思想的保守和僵化没有及时跟进这股潮流，严重影响了经济社会的发展。但如果断定此时苏联社会只存在“停滞”的一面、不能“与时俱进”，则过于武断。“僵化保守”与“改革创新”是对立的两面，恰恰是苏联发起了对社会主义国家高度集中的政治经济管理体制的改革。

Shortly after Stalin's death, Malenkov comprehensively elaborated a "New Policy" for the further development of Soviet socialist construction. Its main contents were: first, noting the problem of the irrational structure of the national economy, proposing to develop light industry and the food industry at the same speed as the development of heavy industry; second, devolving some central powers, expanding the authority of various departments, localities, and enterprises to a certain extent; third, proposing to oppose the phenomenon of the "cult of personality," recognizing for the first time the problems existing in the political system; and so on.

斯大林逝世后不久，马林科夫全面阐述了苏联社会主义建设进一步发展的“新方针”。其主要内容是：第一，注意到国民经济结构不合理问题，提出要以发展重工业那样的速度来发展轻工业和食品工业；第二，下放部分中央权力，扩大各主管部门、地方及企业的部分权限；第三，提出反对“个人崇拜”现象，首次认识到政治体制存在的问题；等等。

Khrushchev continued Malenkov's "reform." In 1957, he formally proposed the "reorganization of industry and construction": changing the situation of excessive centralization of power in the management of the national economy, shifting main economic activities from the center to the localities, further expanding the management authority, financial management power, and planning power of localities in enterprise operations; proposing to expand the authority of enterprises, reducing the targets set by the center for localities and enterprises; making full use of various economic levers, strengthening economic accounting, and managing economic activities through economic incentive methods; and so on.

赫鲁晓夫继续了马林科夫的“改革”，1957年正式提出了对“工业和建筑业的改组”：改变中央对国民经济管理权力过度集中的状况，主要经济活动由中央转向地方，进一步扩大地方在企业运行中的管理权、财政经营权和计划权；提出扩大企业权限，减少中央下达给地方和企业的指标等措施；充分利用各种经济杠杆，加强经济核算，以经济刺激手段管理经济活动；等等。

In 1965, the Soviet Union formally introduced the term "economic reform." Under the leadership of experts headed by Kosygin, the Soviet Union launched an economic reform oriented towards economic accounting and self-financing, utilizing market instruments such as prices, value, and profit, which were then considered categories of the capitalist economy. The reform positioned the "cell" at the enterprise level, proposing the establishment of a more rational enterprise management system for production and operation.

1965年，苏联正式提出“经济改革”一词。在以柯西金为首的专家们的努力下，苏联启动了以经济核算和自负盈亏为导向，利用当时所谓资本主义经济范畴的价格、价值、利润等市场工具的经济改革，并且把改革的“细胞”定位在企业，提出建立生产经营更加合理的企业管理体制。

How should we evaluate these reforms today? First, the direction of these reforms should be affirmed, such as changing the irrational structure of the national economy, reducing the power of central ministries, expanding the production autonomy of localities and enterprises, and giving play to the role of the commodity economy and market laws. These measures played a certain role in promoting Soviet socio-economic development in the early stages of the reform. Second, as mentioned earlier, it must also be acknowledged that because the Soviet leaders at the time treated Marxism in a rigid and dogmatic manner, these reforms failed to fundamentally touch the defects of the old system, so their effectiveness was not very great, and there were even reversals. But can we therefore conclude, as some assert, that these Soviet measures and reforms were a complete failure and must be totally negated? The answer is no.

今天应当怎样评价这些改革？首先，应当肯定这些改革的方向，如改变不合理国民经济结构，缩小中央各部权力，扩大地方和企业生产自主权，发挥商品经济、市场规律的作用等。这些举措在改革初期对当时的苏联社会经济发展起到一定推动作用。其次，如前所述，也必须承认，由于当时苏联领导人以僵化和教条的方式对待马克思主义，这些改革没能从根本上触动旧体制的弊端，所以收效不是很大，甚至还出现反复。但我们能否就此如一些人断言，苏联这些举措、苏联的改革就是完全失败的？必须全盘否定？答案是否定的。

Lenin once pointed out: "To judge the merits of historical figures, one does not base the judgment on what they failed to provide that modern times demand, but on what new things they provided compared with their predecessors." [1]1 “Humane, democratic socialism” (гуманный, демократический социализм) was the ideological slogan of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms in the late 1980s, which sought to combine socialism with liberal democratic and human rights principles, and which the Chinese Communist Party has consistently criticized as a revisionist deviation leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse. The reform of socialist countries was unprecedented, and every step was difficult. However, the reforms that began in the Soviet Union rapidly expanded to other socialist countries in Eastern Europe, such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia, and also had an impact on China. In his article "On the Ten Major Relationships," Mao Zedong paid full attention to these measures of the Soviet Union. [2]2 This is a direct quotation from Xi Jinping, drawn from his speech at a meeting commemorating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 2016, and subsequently cited in official documents as a definitive analysis of the Soviet collapse. It can be said that if the Soviet Union had not been able to keep pace with the times and had not implemented such reforms to its highly centralized political and economic system, it is likely that the Soviet social economy would not have maintained its subsequent pace of development (from the 1950s to the 1980s, the annual growth rate of the Soviet Union's total social output value was above 5%).

列宁曾经指出：“判断历史的功绩，不是根据历史活动家没有提供现代所要求的东西，而是根据他们比他们的前辈提供了新的东西。”社会主义国家的改革前无古人，每走一步都很艰难。但从苏联开始的改革，迅速扩大到东欧等社会主义国家，如匈牙利、捷克斯洛伐克、波兰、南斯拉夫等国，还对中国产生了影响。毛泽东在《论十大关系》一文中，就充分注意到苏联的这些举措。可以说，如果当年苏联不能与时俱进、不对高度集中的政治经济体制实行这样的改革，恐怕苏联社会经济不会保持后来的发展进度（从20世纪50年代到80年代，苏联社会总产值的年增长率都在5%以上）。

II. Was Soviet Socialist Construction "Innovation Behind Closed Doors"?

二、苏联社会主义建设是“关起门来搞创新”吗？

Mr. Zheng believes that this Soviet "whole-nation system" initially achieved some successes in science, technology, and industry, but was unsustainable because it "innovated behind closed doors," sealing itself off, and ultimately ended in complete isolation and failure. However, the actual situation was not like this.

郑先生认为苏联这种“举国体制”，最初在科技、工业方面取得了一些成就，却难以为继，原因在于“关起门搞创新”，把自己封闭起来,最后走向彻底孤立、失败的结局。但实际情况并非如此。

After the October Revolution in 1917, the first socialist state was subjected to armed intervention by 14 Western countries led by the United States. US President Woodrow Wilson clamored to strangle the first Bolshevik regime in its cradle, and the Entente powers declared an economic blockade against Soviet Russia. [3]3 “Mr. Zheng” refers to Zheng Yongnian, a prominent Chinese political scientist and commentator on China’s development and comparative political systems, whose arguments about the Soviet Union’s “closing the door to engage in construction” are referenced in the original Chinese text as a point of debate. Even so, while under siege from the West and with almost no possibility of engaging in economic and technological exchange with foreign countries, Lenin still placed great importance on developing normal trade relations with Western capitalist countries. He believed that without stable foreign trade relations, a stable domestic economic relationship would be impossible. "Soviet power + Prussian railway order + American technology and trust organization + American national education, etc., etc. ++ = sum = socialism." [4]4 This is a well-known formula Lenin used in his work "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government" (1918), listing elements from different countries that he believed could be combined to build socialism. This fully proves that the Soviet regime was by no means "building behind closed doors," but rather placed extreme importance on exchange with capitalist countries.

1917年十月革命后，第一个社会主义国家就遭到以美国为首的西方14个国家的武装干预，美国总统威尔逊（Thomas Woodrow Wilson）叫嚣要把第一个布尔什维克政权扼杀在襁褓中，协约国宣布对苏俄实行经济封锁。即便如此，在受到西方围剿和几乎没有可能与国外开展经济技术交流的情况下,列宁仍然非常重视同西方资本主义国家发展正常的贸易关系，认为没有稳定的外贸关系，就不可能有稳固的国内经济关系。“苏维埃政权+普鲁士的铁路秩序+美国的技术和托拉斯组织+美国的国民教育等等等等++=总和=社会主义”。这就充分证明了苏维埃政权完全没有“关起门来搞建设”，而是极其重视与资本主义国家的交流。

In 1919, as the civil war was drawing to a close, Lenin predicted that international relations would inevitably enter a "period of coexistence between socialist and capitalist states," indicating a "willingness to grant concessions under reasonable conditions as a means for Russia to obtain technical assistance from technologically more advanced countries."

1919年，在国内战争即将结束之际，列宁就预言国际关系必将出现“社会主义国家和资本主义国家共存的时期”，表明“愿意在合理的条件下给予承租权，作为俄国从技术比较先进的国家取得技术帮助的一种手段”。

In 1920, after the war launched by the imperialists and domestic reactionaries to overthrow the Soviet regime failed, the Entente powers were forced to lift the blockade on Soviet Russia. Lenin said with great excitement: "The lifting of the blockade is an event of international significance; it shows that a new period of the socialist revolution has arrived," and "the state of complete isolation from the advanced countries, a state caused by the blockade, has been broken."

1920年，在帝国主义和国内反动派发动的推翻苏俄政权的战争失败后，协约国不得不解除对苏俄的封锁，列宁非常兴奋地说道：“解除封锁这一事实是有国际意义的重大事件，它表明社会主义革命的新时期到来了”，“我们同先进国家完全隔绝的状态，这种由于封锁造成的状态，已经打破了”。

In 1922, Western countries held an international economic conference in Genoa. Lenin demanded that Communist Party members attend the conference as businessmen. He said, "We welcome the Genoa Conference and are prepared to attend it; we are fully aware and do not conceal that we are prepared to attend as businessmen, because we absolutely must trade with the capitalist countries (as long as they have not completely collapsed)."

1922年，西方国家在热那亚举行国际经济会议，列宁要求共产党员必须以商人的身份参加会议，他说，“我们欢迎热那亚会议并准备出席这次会议；我们十分清楚而且毫不隐瞒，我们准备以商人的身份出席会议，因为我们绝对必须同资本主义国家(只要它们还没有完全垮台)进行贸易”。

Lenin not only fully elaborated on the idea of conducting trade and technological exchange with capitalist countries, but also put this idea into practice during the New Economic Policy period through the concession system. [5]5 The New Economic Policy (NEP) was a mixed economic system introduced by Lenin in 1921, allowing limited private enterprise and market mechanisms to revive the Soviet economy after the Civil War. In 1921, Russia ordered several thousand locomotives and several hundred tank cars from abroad, with exports reaching 50 million poods. [6]6 A pood is a Russian unit of weight, equal to approximately 16.38 kilograms. From 1921 to 1926, the Soviet government signed 144 concession contracts with capitalists (21 contracts with Germany, 16 with Britain, 10 with the United States), and a year later the number of concession enterprises reached 73. By 1927, the Soviet government had received 16.11 million rubles from concession enterprises. Through the concession system, the Soviet government successfully obtained a considerable income, enabling it to begin importing large quantities of Western equipment, technology, and talent in 1927. Of course, due to the limitations of the era, the scope of the Soviet Union's opening up at that time was not very large, but asserting that the Soviet Union was actively "building behind closed doors" at this time is completely inaccurate.

列宁不仅充分阐述了与资本主义国家开展贸易和技术交流的思想,并且在新经济政策时期通过租让制将这一思想付诸实践。1921年，俄国从国外订购了几千台机车，几百辆油罐车，出口量达到5000万普特。1921年～1926年，苏联政府与资本家们签订了144个租让合同（与德国签订了21份合同，英国16份，美国10份），一年后租让企业达到73个。截至1927年，苏联政府从租让企业手里获得1611万卢布。通过租让制度，苏联政府成功地获取一笔可观的收入，得以在1927年开始大量地引进西方国家的设备、技术与人才。当然由于时代条件的限制，当时苏联对外开放的范围不是很大，但断言此时的苏联是主动“关起门来搞建设”是完全不准确的。

Stalin also adhered to Lenin's thinking on strengthening foreign political and economic ties. As early as 1921, in his article "The Party Before and After the Seizure of Power," Stalin pointed out: "Russia is an economically backward country. If it does not exchange its own raw materials for the machinery and equipment of Western countries, it will be very difficult for it to organize its transport, develop its industry, and electrify its industry and agriculture on its own strength." He also emphasized: "Until the proletariat has won victory in one or several industrial capitalist countries, Soviet Russia and our Party leading it will inevitably have to seek forms and methods of economic cooperation with the hostile Western capitalist groups in order to obtain the necessary technical equipment." Stalin expounded on the inevitability and necessity of the Soviet Union developing economic relations with capitalist countries.

斯大林同样坚持了列宁加强对外政治经济联系的思想。早在1921年，斯大林在《党在取得政权以前和以后》一文中指出，“俄国是一个经济落后的国家，如果它不用自己的原料换取西方国家的机器和装备，那就很难靠本身的力量组织运输业，发展工业并使城乡工业电气化”。他同时强调：“在无产阶级还没有在一个或几个工业资本主义国家内获得胜利之前，苏维埃俄国和我们这个领导它的党就不得不寻求同敌视我们的西方资本家集团建立经济合作的形式和方法，以便取得必需的技术装备”。斯大林阐述了苏联与资本主义国家发展经济关系的必然性和必要性问题。

As if answering Mr. Zheng's question about the "closed-door" nature of the Soviet socialist economy, Stalin stated categorically: "To think that an economy is something absolutely closed in on itself, absolutely independent of the national economies of the surrounding countries, is the height of stupidity." Stalin explained the reason for this: the Soviet national economy had a dependence on the world capitalist economy; at the same time, this dependence was mutual, and capitalist countries also depended on the Soviet economy, for example, on Soviet oil, grain, timber, etc. Stalin believed that the interdependent relationship between the Soviet and capitalist economies was determined by the objective process of the development of the human social economy and was not subject to people's subjective will.

似乎是在回答郑先生关于苏联社会主义经济“闭关自守”的问题，斯大林斩钉截铁地指出：“以为经济是一种绝对闭关自守、绝对不依赖周围各国国民经济的东西，这就是愚蠢之至。”斯大林说明了这其中的原因，苏联的国民经济存在对世界资本主义经济的依赖；同时这种依赖是相互的，资本主义国家也依赖苏联的经济，比如苏联的石油、粮食、木材等。斯大林认为，苏联和资本主义经济的相互依赖的关系是由人类社会经济发展客观进程所决定的，不以人们的主观意志为转移。

It was precisely under the guidance of this thinking that in 1929 the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR established the Central Foreign Advisory Bureau, responsible for the introduction and utilization of foreign technology. From 1929 to 1932, the Soviet Union purchased approximately 70% of Britain's exported machine tools. Trade between the USSR and the USA was very active: in 1930, the USSR was the second-largest importer of American machinery and equipment, rising to first place in 1931. During the same period, the USSR became Germany's largest machinery importer, with 43% of German machine exports going to the USSR. In 1931, the machinery and equipment purchased by the USSR from abroad accounted for about one-third of the world's total equipment exports, rising to one-half the following year. At that time, the total value of industrial equipment purchased by the USSR ranked first in the world. From 1928 to 1931, the USSR purchased 67.1% of Western cutting machine tools, 52.6% of turbines, and 69% of tractors, which fully demonstrates the scale of Soviet foreign trade. By the beginning of 1931, the number of foreign technical assistance projects accepted by the USSR had increased to 124, with a total investment value of 83 million rubles. From 1929 to 1945, the USSR signed a total of 217 technical assistance agreements with foreign companies.

正是在这样的思想指导下，1929年苏联最高国民经济委员会专门设立中央外国咨询局，负责外国技术的引进和利用。1929年～1932年，苏联购买了英国出口的大约70%的机床。苏美之间的贸易十分活跃：1930年苏联是美国第二大机器与设备进口国，1931年跃升至第一位。同时期苏联成为德国第一大机器进口国，43%的德国出口机器运到苏联。1931年苏联向国外购买的机器设备约占世界设备总出口额的1/3，次年上升到1/2。当时苏联购买的工业设备总额占世界第一。1928年～1931年，苏联购买了西方67.1%的切割机床、52.6%的涡轮机、69%的拖拉机，足见苏联对外贸易规模之大。到1931年初，苏联接受国外技术援助的项目增加到124项，投资总值达8300万卢布。1929年～1945年，苏联与外国公司共签订217个技术援助项目。

At the same time, the Soviet Union also actively engaged in scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges with foreign countries. The Soviet Union sent large numbers of leading cadres, management cadres, technical personnel, and university students abroad for study, while also accepting a large number of foreign experts and technicians to come to the Soviet Union for guidance. In 1932, the number of foreign experts working in the Soviet Union reached over 20,000. Much of the equipment for the Soviet Union’s largest steel plants, tractor factories, and hydroelectric stations was imported from abroad, and many foreign experts worked in these enterprises. For example, the Soviet Union’s three largest steel plants—the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, the Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works, and the Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works—were all built with technical assistance from the United States and Germany. At that time, 250 American engineers worked at the world’s largest Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and ran training courses to help Soviet engineers master engineering technology. The Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works was designed and built with American help, and its advanced equipment was all imported. The famous Stalingrad Tractor Plant was also built with the help of 80 American factories. This plant produced tractors in peacetime and a large number of tanks during the Second World War, arming the Soviet army to fight against German fascism. As the largest hydroelectric station in Europe at the time, the generators and turbines for the Soviet Dnieper Hydroelectric Station were supplied by American companies such as General Electric, and some Americans supported the construction there, six of whom were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour by the Soviet government.

与此同时，苏联还积极展开与外国的科技文化交流。苏联派出大批领导干部、管理干部、技术人员和大学生出国考察，同时也大量接受外国专家和技术人员来苏进行指导。1932年在苏联工作的外国专家就达到2万多人，苏联最大的一些钢铁厂、拖拉机厂、水电站等不少设备都是从国外引进的，并且有不少外国专家在这些企业从事工作。比如，苏联最大的三个钢铁厂即马格尼托哥尔斯克钢铁厂、库兹涅斯克钢铁厂、扎波罗钢铁厂，都是在美国和德国的技术援助下建成的。当时，有250名美国工程师在世界最大的马格尼托哥尔斯克钢铁厂工作并开办培训班，帮助苏联工程师掌握工程技术。库兹涅斯克钢铁厂是由美国人帮助设计和建设的，其中的先进设备都是进口的。著名的斯大林格勒拖拉机厂也是在美国80家工厂的帮助下建成的。该厂在和平时期生产拖拉机，在第二次世界大战期间生产了大量坦克，武装苏联军队抗击德国法西斯。作为当时欧洲最大的水电站，苏联第聂伯河水电站的发电机和涡轮机是由美国通用电气公司等美国企业提供的，一些美国人在此支持建设，其中六人获得苏联政府颁发的劳动红旗勋章。

Thus it can be seen that the leaders of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union] at that time did not subjectively have the idea of “closing the door” to development in isolation, but rather strove to strengthen ties with the world, especially with developed capitalist countries. Of course, due to the objective hostility of the West towards socialist countries, this openness was greatly limited.

由此可见,苏共领导人当时主观上没有“关起门”封闭发展的想法，而是竭力加强与世界，特别是发达资本主义国家的联系。当然由于客观上西方对社会主义国家的敌视，这种开放受到很大局限。

3. Was the Main Reason for the Soviet Union’s Collapse “Decoupling from the West”?

三、苏联解体的主要原因是与“西方脱钩”吗?

Mr. Zheng’s starting point may be good, hoping that China will learn the lesson of the Soviet Union’s “closed-door system” leading to its collapse and absolutely not “decouple” from the world. The so-called “decoupling” is a metaphor, not a rigorous academic term. In the field of international relations during the Soviet period, the terms more commonly used were “blockade” and “isolation.” After the Second World War, economic exchanges between the Soviet Union and capitalist countries were greatly hindered, but this was not caused by the Soviet Union.

郑先生出发点或许是好的，希望中国接受苏联“关门体制”而导致解体的教训，绝对不要和世界“脱钩”。所谓“脱钩”是一个比喻,不是一个严谨的学术词汇，苏联时期国际关系领域使用更多的词汇是“封锁”“封闭”。第二次世界大战后,苏联和资本主义国家的经济交往受到很大阻碍，但这并非由苏联造成的。

In 1946, marked by British Prime Minister Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, the imperialist camp began the “Cold War” against the socialist camp, and Western countries started their encirclement, interception, blockade, and control of the Soviet Union. In 1949, 17 Western capitalist countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Australia, formed the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom), with the specific purpose of restricting its member states from exporting strategic materials and technology to socialist countries. The embargo list included tens of thousands of products in three major categories: military weapons and equipment, cutting-edge technology products, and rare materials. Under such circumstances, the economic and cultural exchanges of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries with the outside world were extremely restricted.

1946年，以英国首相丘吉尔发表“铁幕”演说为标志拉开了帝国主义阵营对社会主义阵营“冷战”的开端，西方国家开始了对苏联的围追堵截和封锁控制。1949年，美国、英国、法国、德国、意大利、日本和澳大利亚等17个西方资本主义国家组成巴黎统筹委员会（简称“巴统”），目的就是专门限制其成员国向社会主义国家出口战略物资和技术。列入禁运清单的有军事武器装备、尖端技术产品和稀有物资等三大类上万种产品。在这样的情况下，苏联等社会主义国家对外的经济文化交流受到极大限制。

Under these circumstances, Stalin was forced to propose the theory of “two parallel world markets.” He pointed out: “The single, all-embracing world market has disintegrated, and consequently we now have two parallel, and also mutually opposed, world markets” [1]1 “Humane, democratic socialism” (гуманный, демократический социализм) was the ideological slogan of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms in the late 1980s, which sought to combine socialism with liberal democratic and human rights principles, and which the Chinese Communist Party has consistently criticized as a revisionist deviation leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse., namely the capitalist and socialist markets. But Stalin particularly emphasized that this situation did not arise from the Soviet side, but because “the United States, Britain, and France themselves facilitated the formation and consolidation of this new parallel world market,” their purpose being to “impose an economic blockade on the Soviet Union, China, and the European People’s Democracies, hoping to strangle them.” The Soviet Union was by no means “actively decoupling” as Mr. Zheng suggests.

在这种情况下，斯大林迫不得已提出了“两个平行市场”的理论。他指出：“统一的无所不包的世界市场瓦解了，因而现在就有了两个平行的也是互相对立的世界市场”，即资本主义和社会主义两个市场。但斯大林特别强调这种情况的发生不在于苏联一方，而是因为“美国、英国及法国自己促成了这个新的平行的世界市场的形成和巩固”，它们的目的在于对“苏联、中国和欧洲各人民民主国家实行经济封锁，想以此扼杀它们”。苏联完全不是如郑先生所言的那样“主动脱钩”。

When one door closes, another opens. [2]2 This is a direct quotation from Xi Jinping, drawn from his speech at a meeting commemorating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 2016, and subsequently cited in official documents as a definitive analysis of the Soviet collapse. In order to break through the imperialist blockade, the Soviet Union’s foreign economic relations actually unfolded in three directions. First, expanding economic and trade cooperation among socialist countries. It is conceivable that, under the blockade by capitalist countries, until the abolition of the CoCom agreement in 1994, economic and trade cooperation between the Soviet Union and socialist countries was the mainstream of its foreign economic relations: from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, trade between the Soviet Union and socialist countries consistently accounted for 50% to 60% or more of its total foreign trade volume. Second, expanding economic and trade cooperation with developing countries. The Soviet Union’s economic and trade relations with developing countries developed rapidly. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the trade volume between the Soviet Union and developing countries accounted for approximately 11% to 15% of the Soviet Union’s total foreign trade volume. Third, exploiting the contradictions and needs among capitalist countries to strive to expand economic exchanges with Western countries. Although Western countries harbored hostility towards the Soviet regime, for economic reasons they also had to do business with Soviet Russia. Lenin profoundly revealed the inevitable failure of the imperialist blockade policy, arguing that “there is a force more powerful than the wishes, the will, and the decisions of any government or class that is hostile to us. That force is the world’s common economic relations. It is this force that compels them onto the path of relations with us.” [3]3 “Mr. Zheng” refers to Zheng Yongnian, a prominent Chinese political scientist and commentator on China’s development and comparative political systems, whose arguments about the Soviet Union’s “closing the door to engage in construction” are referenced in the original Chinese text as a point of debate.

东方不亮西方亮。为了突破帝国主义的封锁，苏联的对外经济联系实际上是从三个方向展开的。第一，在社会主义国家之间扩大经贸合作。可以想象，在受到资本主义国家封锁的情况下，直到1994年“巴统协议”废止，苏联与社会主义国家之间的经贸合作是其对外经济联系的主流：从20世纪50年代到80年代中叶，苏联与社会主义国家之间的贸易一直高达其对外贸易总额的50%～60%以上。第二，扩大与发展中国家的经贸合作。苏联同发展中国家的经贸关系迅速发展，从20世纪50年代到80年代,苏联与发展中国家的贸易额大约占据苏联对外经贸总额的11%～15%左右。第三，利用资本主义国家之间的矛盾和需求,竭力扩大与西方国家的经济交流。西方国家虽然仇视苏维埃政权，但出于经济方面的考虑，它们也不得不同苏俄做生意。列宁曾深刻揭示了帝国主义的封锁政策不能持久和必然失败的命运，认为“有一种力量胜过任何一个跟我们敌对的政府或阶级的愿望、意志和决定，这种力量就是世界共同的经济关系。正是这种关系迫使它们走上这条同我们往来的道路”。

After the signing of the CoCom agreement, some Western countries, for their own economic interests, continuously broke through CoCom’s embargo restrictions and conducted trade with the Soviet Union. Therefore, although in the early 1950s, trade between the Soviet Union and developed countries accounted for only 15% of its total foreign trade volume, it quickly increased year by year from the 1960s onwards, reaching over 30% in the 1970s and 1980s.

“巴统协议”签订后，一些西方国家为了自身的经济利益，不断突破巴统的禁运限制和苏联开展贸易。所以，尽管20世纪50年代初，苏联同发达国家的贸易仅占其对外贸易总额的15%，但从60年代起很快就逐年上升，70～80年代达到30%以上。

Stalin’s theory of “two parallel world markets” had both the aspect of being forced to respond to the blockade by imperialist countries and the theoretical limitation of Soviet Russia’s long-standing dogmatic understanding of Marxism and neglect of the commodity economy. This had a significant impact on successive Soviet leaders after Stalin, thereby reducing the level of the Soviet Union’s opening up to the outside world and the degree of its economic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries, to the extent that by the late 1980s, the Soviet Union’s total foreign trade volume ranked only seventh in the world, disproportionate to its status as a world industrial and energy power, and also affecting the further development of the Soviet social economy.

斯大林的“两个平行市场”的理论既有被迫应对帝国主义国家封锁的一面，也有苏俄多年教条理解马克思主义、忽视商品经济的理论局限。这对斯大林之后的历届苏联领导人产生了很大影响，从而缩小了苏联对外开放的水平和与国外进行经济文化交流的程度，以致到20世纪80年代末，苏联对外贸易总额仅仅排在世界第七位，与其作为世界工业大国和能源大国的地位不相称，也影响了苏联社会经济更进一步的发展。

In today’s world, any country’s system contains factors that promote social development and drawbacks that hinder social progress, but having drawbacks does not necessarily mean it will perish; one must identify the fatal drawbacks. The “reform” pursued by Gorbachev and the general line of “humane, democratic socialism” he formulated were the most important and fundamental reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even Gorbachev himself admitted this. The Russian history teacher’s reference book *Modern History of Russia (1945–2006)* writes that when Gorbachev turned 75 in 2006, someone asked him, “If you hadn’t carried out reforms, what would you be doing now?” He replied that if his health were good, he would still be serving as General Secretary of the CPSU. Because when he took over the Soviet regime, the state system was sufficiently stable: the Soviet system could 100% resist foreign invasion, and there were no major internal disturbances. The book emphasizes, “Neither the technological backwardness relative to the West, nor the economic difficulties caused by economic inefficiency, could lead to the change of the Soviet system. The only possibility for change lay in the top-down actions of the regime itself,” that is, the reforms initiated by Gorbachev. Even Gorbachev had to admit that the reason for the Soviet Union’s collapse lay in the mistakes made by the reformers, which were the errors of the Soviet leaders at the time, including his own errors (although he believed the main errors were Yeltsin’s).

当今世界任何一个国家的体制都存在促进社会发展的因素和阻碍社会进步的弊端，但不是具有弊端就必然灭亡，要找出致命的弊端是什么。戈尔巴乔夫所奉行的“改革”及其制订的“人道的民主的社会主义”总路线是导致苏联解体最主要、最根本的原因。这一点，连戈尔巴乔夫本人也承认。俄罗斯历史教师参考书《俄罗斯现代史（1945~2006）》写道，2006年戈尔巴乔夫75岁生日时，有人曾经问他，“如果不搞改革，你现在在干什么？”他答道，如果身体好的话还在担任苏共总书记。因为他接手苏联政权时，国家体制是足够稳定的：苏联体制可以百分之百抵抗外来入侵，国内没有大的动乱。该书强调，“不论是相对西方的科技落后，还是由经济缺乏效力引起的经济困难，都不能导致苏联体制的更迭。发生更迭的唯一可能，就在于政权自身自上而下的行动”，即戈尔巴乔夫发动的改革。甚至戈尔巴乔夫也不得不承认，导致苏联解体的原因在于改革者犯了错误，这是当时苏联领导人的失误，包括他本人的失误（当然他认为主要是叶利钦的错误）造成的。

Multiple opinion polls in Russia in recent years have shown that the majority of people believe the collapse of the Soviet Union was not inevitable, and that Gorbachev’s reforms were the main factor leading to the demise of the state. On December 12, 2021, the Russian news agency Sputnik published an interview with Nursultan Nazarbayev, former president of Kazakhstan and Gorbachev’s closest aide. In discussing the reasons for the Soviet Union’s collapse, he also acknowledged that Gorbachev’s mistakes led to the Soviet Union’s dissolution, stating that “at that time the Soviet economy was on the verge of collapse, the economic system had exhausted its own resources, and this was caused by the lack of political will of the then Soviet leadership.” This once again proves that it was the reform line of so-called “humane, democratic socialism” [1]1 “Humane, democratic socialism” (гуманный, демократический социализм) was the ideological slogan of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms in the late 1980s, which sought to combine socialism with liberal democratic and human rights principles, and which the Chinese Communist Party has consistently criticized as a revisionist deviation leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse. pursued by the Soviet leadership at the time that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse.

近年来的俄罗斯多次民调显示，大多数人均认为苏联解体不是必然的,而戈尔巴乔夫的改革才是导致国家消亡的主要因素。2021年12月12日,俄罗斯卫星通讯社登载了哈萨克斯坦前总统、戈尔巴乔夫最密切的助手纳扎尔巴耶夫（Нурсултан Назарбаев）的访谈。他在谈到苏联解体原因时也承认是戈尔巴乔夫的错误导致了苏联解体，“那时候苏联的经济濒于崩溃，经济体制已经耗尽了自己的资源，而这是当时苏联领导人缺乏政治意志造成的”。这又一次证明，是当时苏联领导人推行的所谓“人道的民主的社会主义”改革路线导致了苏联解体。

Xi Jinping pointed out: “Why did the Soviet Union collapse? Why did the Soviet Communist Party disintegrate? An important reason was that the struggle in the ideological sphere was extremely intense; there was a wholesale negation of Soviet history and the history of the Soviet Communist Party, a negation of Lenin and Stalin, the practice of historical nihilism, and the ideological line was thrown into chaos. Party organizations at all levels were rendered almost completely ineffective, and the military was no longer under the leadership of the Party. In the end, the Soviet Communist Party, a huge party, scattered like birds and beasts, and the Soviet Union, a huge socialist state, disintegrated. This is a lesson to be learned from the past!” [2]2 This is a direct quotation from Xi Jinping, drawn from his speech at a meeting commemorating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 2016, and subsequently cited in official documents as a definitive analysis of the Soviet collapse. This is the most accurate explanation of the reasons for the Soviet Union’s collapse.

习近平指出：“苏联为什么解体？苏共为什么垮台？一个重要原因就是意识形态领域的斗争十分激烈，全面否定苏联历史、苏共历史，否定列宁，否定斯大林，搞历史虚无主义，思想搞乱了，各级党组织几乎没任何作用了，军队都不在党的领导之下了。最后，苏联共产党偌大一个党就作鸟兽散了，苏联偌大一个社会主义国家就分崩离析了。这是前车之鉴啊！”这才是对苏联解体原因最为准确的解释。

In summary, conclusions can be drawn. First, due to the nature of imperialism’s pursuit of hegemony, its blockade and suppression of socialist countries have always existed. Even if socialist countries sincerely try to expand exchanges with developed capitalist countries, the latter, out of their own interests, will always do everything possible to blockade and besiege socialist countries. One cannot harbor illusions about this. The Trump administration and the Biden administration in the United States have used the “decoupling” tactic to comprehensively contain China.

综上所述，可以得出结论。第一，由于帝国主义追求霸权的本性所致，其对社会主义国家的封锁和打压始终存在。即使社会主义国家真诚试图扩大与发达资本主义国家的交往，但后者出于自身利益的需求总会千方百计对社会主义国家封堵围攻，对此不能心存幻想。美国的特朗普政府和拜登政府就是祭出“脱钩”的法器全方位对中国加以遏制的。

Second, the imperialist blockade is a double-edged sword, harming others without benefiting oneself. Historical experience proves that the imperialist goal of hindering the Soviet Union’s development through blockade did not succeed: by the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union had ultimately become a “superpower” on par with the United States (according to comprehensive national power rankings of world powers, from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, the United States and the Soviet Union consistently occupied the top two positions). Similarly, after the founding of New China, the imperialist blockade and encirclement of China were unprecedented, yet China still developed intercontinental ballistic missiles and successfully developed the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb… History will also prove that the plot of today’s Western countries, led by the United States, to force China to “decouple” from the world will ultimately not succeed.

第二，帝国主义的封锁是一把双刃剑，损人不利己。历史经验证明，帝国主义靠封锁阻碍苏联发展步伐的目的并没有得逞：到20世纪七八十年代，苏联最终成为与美国比肩的“超级大国”（根据世界强国综合国力指标排名，从20世纪50年代到80年代中期，美国、苏联始终排在前两位）。同样，新中国成立后，帝国主义对中国的封锁和围追堵截是前所未有的，但是中国仍然研发出洲际导弹，成功研制了原子弹、氢弹……历史还将证明，今天以美国为首的西方国家妄图迫使中国与世界“脱钩”的阴谋终究不会得逞。

Third, as Mr. Zheng [3]3 “Mr. Zheng” refers to Zheng Yongnian, a prominent Chinese political scientist and commentator on China’s development and comparative political systems, whose arguments about the Soviet Union’s “closing the door to engage in construction” are referenced in the original Chinese text as a point of debate. has stated, the Soviet Union did indeed, to a certain extent, suffer from the drawback of “engaging in construction behind closed doors.” Therefore, today we need to learn from its experience and lessons, further expand the pace of reform and opening up, expand our circle of friends, seek new reliable friends, and completely break the containment and suppression of our country by the Western imperialists led by the United States.

第三，如郑先生所言，苏联在一定程度上也确实存在“关起门来搞建设”的弊端，所以今天我们需要吸取其经验教训，进一步扩大改革开放的步伐，扩大朋友圈，找寻新的可靠朋友，彻底打破以美国为首的西方帝国主义对我国的遏制打压。

(Author: Wu Enyuan, Researcher at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者：吴恩远，中国社会科学院俄罗斯东欧中亚研究所研究员）

Online Editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心