''Uskoreniye'' ( rus, ускорение, p=ʊskɐˈrʲenʲɪɪ; 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 Engel ...

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 the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

on 20 April 1985 at a Soviet Party

Plenum Plenum may refer to: * Plenum chamber, a chamber intended to contain air, gas, or liquid at positive pressure * Plenism, or ''Horror vacui'' (physics) the concept that "nature abhors a vacuum" * Plenum (meeting), a meeting of a deliberative asse ...

, 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 nationa ...

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

History

In May 1985, Gorbachev gave 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. This was the first time in history that a Soviet leader had done so. The program was furthered at the 27th Congress of the Communist Party in Gorbachev's report to the congress, in which he spoke about , , " human factor", , and "expansion of the " (commercialization). The acceleration was planned to be based on technical and scientific progress, revamping of

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

(in accordance with the

Marxian economics Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ...

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 positio ...

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 () between enterprises and state and among enterprises. The politics of mere "acceleration" eventually failed, which was ''de facto'' admitted in June 1987 at a 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