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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been charged with the responsibility of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information on the economy of the USSR. This review analyzes the quality of the CIA’s research, compares it with academic Sovietology, and raises certain questions regarding the internal mechanisms of the agency. For obvious reasons, the inquiry is confined to the unclassified materials produced by the agency. Moreover, I will be reviewing only a selected proportion of the published materials. The sheer volume is overwhelming: a request for publications produced a box weighing forty pounds. While my general comments refer to older materials, I will be concentrating on the most recent publications. The number of publications and variety of subject matter prohibit a traditional review article. Consequently, I intend an overall and much more general evaluation of research by the CIA.
1. 1 realize that there is no single set of quality criteria extant in the land; I am relying on the acceptance by the readership of this journal of the idea that most of us hold at least several of the most prominent values in common.
2. See CIA, “SOVSIM: A Model of the Soviet Economy,” February 1979; and idem, “Simulations of Soviet Growth Options to 1985,” March 1979.
3. CIA, “Organization and Management in the Soviet Economy: The Ceaseless Search for Panaceas,” December 1977.
4. CIA, “Soviet Chemical Equipment Purchases From the West: Impact on Production and Foreign Trade,” October 1978.
5. Ibid., p. 17.
6. W. Green, Donald and S. Levine, Herbert, “Soviet Machinery Imports” Survey, 23, no. 2 (Spring 1977): 112–26.Google Scholar
7. Hanson, Philip, “Western Technology in the Soviet Economy” Problems of Communism. 27, no. 6(November-December 1978): 20–30.Google Scholar
8. For example, see CIA, “Biological and Environmental Factors Affecting Soviet Grain Quality,” December 1978.
9. See Millar, James R., “The Prospects for Soviet Agriculture” Problems of Communism, 26, no. 3 (May-June 1977): 2.Google Scholar Indeed, Millar's article represents a highly balanced picture of the virtues and woes of Soviet agriculture.
10. CIA, “Prospects for Soviet Oil Production,” April 1977.
11. Robert Campbell found such possibilities in his article, “Implications for the Soviet Economy of Soviet Energy Prospects,” ACES Bulletin, 20, no. 1 (Spring 1978): 37-51.
12. CIA, “USSR: Role of Foreign Technology in the Development of the Motor Vehicle Industry,” October 1979.
13. CIA, Handbook of Economic Statistics, 1979, August 1979.
14. Hunter, Holland, “Soviet Economic Problems and Alternative Policy Responses,” Soviet Economy in a Time of Change, vol. 1, U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee (Washington, D.C., 1979), pp. 23–37 Google Scholar.
15. See, for example, Bergson, Abram, The Economics of Soviet Planning (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964) especially chap. 4Google Scholar and Morris Bornstein, “Soviet Price Theory and Policy,” in Bornstein, and Fusfeld, Daniel R., eds., The Soviet Economy: A Book of Readings, 4th ed. (Homewood, 111.: Richard D. Irwin, 1974), pp. 85–116 Google Scholar.
16. Richard Portes, “The Control of Inflation: Lessons from the East European Experience,” Economica, 44 (1977): 109-30.
