Reddit reviews Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia
We found 2 Reddit comments about Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collapse-Empire-Lessons-Modern-Russia/dp/0815731140
> In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran. These events led the Saudis to become concerned about a Soviet drive to the Persian Gulf and a threat to their kingdom. To counter this perceived threat, in the mid 1980s the Saudis greatly expanded their production and export of oil causing the world price to drop from the $30-40/bbl range to about $10/bbl. Obviously, this price change damaged the Soviet balance of trade.
Yegor Gaidar, the first post-Soviet prime minister of Russia, has done some excellent analysis on how and why the Soviet economy failed.
[This is Collapse of an Empire, his seminal work on the economic misallocations leading up to the 90s.] (http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Empire-Lessons-Modern-Russia/dp/0815731140) There's a short extract from the book in pdf format containing some of the central issues, including an analysis of Russia's grain shortages and increasing dependence on oil floating around somewhere on reddit/the internet.
He has a wide bibliography on command economy, but I'm not sure how much of it is available in English.