''Uskorenie'' ( rus, ускорение, p=ʊskɐˈrʲenʲɪɪ̯ə; literally meaning ''acceleration'') was a slogan and a policy announced by

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

on 20 April 1985 at a Soviet Party Plenum, aimed at the acceleration of political, social and economic development of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. It was the first slogan of a set of reforms that also included (restructuring), (transparency), new political thinking, and (democratization).

History

The idea of the acceleration of the economic development (and some other ideas implemented by Gorbachev during the ''

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

'' times) was put forth already in 1982 by

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...

; it was declared in the lead article of ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

'' by January 2, 1983 reporting on the November 28, 1982 Party Central Committee Plenary Session. In May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad (now

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

), during which he admitted the slowing down of the economic development and inadequacy of living standards. The program was furthered at the 27th Congress of the Communist Party in Gorbachev's report to the congress, in which he spoke about , , the " human factor", , and the "expansion of the " (commercialization). The acceleration was planned to be based on technical and scientific progress, revamping of heavy industry (in accordance with the

Marxian economics Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a Heterodox economics, heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx, Karl Marx's Critique of political economy#Marx's critique of politic ...

postulate about the primacy in development of heavy industry over

light industry Light industry are industries that usually are less capital-intensive than heavy industry and are more consumer-oriented than business-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consumer goods. Most light industry products are produced for ...

), taking the "human factor" into account, and increasing the labour discipline and responsibility of

apparatchik __NOTOC__ An apparatchik (; russian: аппара́тчик ) was a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Soviet government ''apparat'' ( аппарат, apparatus), someone who held any position ...

s. In practice it was implemented with the help of massive monetary emission infused into heavy industry, which further destabilised the economy and in particular brought an enormous disparity between actual cash money and virtual money used in cashless clearings (russian: безналичный расчёт, translit=beznalichnyi raschet) between enterprises and state and among enterprises. The politics of mere "acceleration" eventually failed, which was ''de facto'' admitted at the June 1987 Party Plenum, and the slogan was phased out in favor of the more ambitious (restructuring of the whole economy).

References

Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Reform in the Soviet Union Economic history of the Soviet Union Russian political phrases 1985 neologisms Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet phraseology 1980s in the Soviet Union Perestroika {{soviet-stub

History

See also

References