The work of economist and historian Alexey Safronov is the first book to present, under one cover, a coherent account of the Soviet economy—from the era of war communism to perestroika. Based on statistics and a wide range of sources, the author systematically and without emotion examines the key stages of the USSR’s existence and searches for answers to the main questions: “What was it?” “Why did everything end exactly that way?” and “Could it have turned out differently?”