“We have a problem,” runs a popular Soviet joke. “Communism is advancing all over the world. But how can we wipe out capitalism without destroying our source of credit, grain, and technology?” The jest contains a bitter truth. The Soviet Union faces enormous difficulties. Its agriculture is in disarray. The growth of capital investments has substantially declined. All branches of the Soviet economy (to some extent even the armaments industry) are stagnating. Not even the most enthusiastic Soviet agitprop and disinformation experts talk any longer about catching up with—much less outstripping—the “decadent” Western economies.
Moscow has, however, as the joke says, managed to solve some of its difficulties by getting capitalists to subsidize Communism. The Soviet Union now depends heavily on Western loans, investment, trade agreements, grain sales, and technology (gained by fair means and foul).
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