Books on the Soviet economy

[p0is0n]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a fairly easy to read (i.e. not overwhelming amounts of archaic and academic language) book regarding the economical and political nature of the USSR, why it turned out the way it did, etc. I obviously prefer an unbiased book, I'd rather not read Pravda 1930 or the Mises forums.

Thanks!

[Le Socialiste]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a fairly easy to read (i.e. not overwhelming amounts of archaic and academic language) book regarding the economical and political nature of the USSR, why it turned out the way it did, etc. I obviously prefer an unbiased book, I'd rather not read Pravda 1930 or the Mises forums.

Thanks!

I would recommend "Western Marxism and the Soviet Union (http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pr/Western-Marxism-and-the-Soviet-Union)." It's a bit academic at times, but it provides valuable encyclopedic knowledge into the various historical and contemporary theories surrounding the socioeconomic and political character/nature of the Soviet Union.

[Ostrinski]

Split and moved this to a thread of its own. The reasons why I did so are because I think it is a topic that warrants in depth discussion, I felt like you would get more replies with a thread of its own, and it had the possibility of derailing the existing thread. Hope OP doesn't mind.

[Ostrinski]

There is a book by Alec Nove that you may be interested in called An Economic History of the USSR: 1917-1991. Where as Le Socialiste's suggestion (which is of high value) gives a rundown of all the different analyses and theories put forward from Marxists on the subject of the Soviet Union, this work is more of an indepth look at the specifics of the economy itself without wasting time on ideological roadbumps i.e. what the specific nature of the economy is.

[Thirsty Crow]

There is a book by Alec Nove that you may be interested in called An Economic History of the USSR: 1917-1991. Where as Le Socialiste's suggestion (which is of high value) gives a rundown of all the different analyses and theories put forward from Marxists on the subject of the Soviet Union, this work is more of an indepth look at the specifics of the economy itself without wasting time on ideological roadbumps i.e. what the specific nature of the economy is.
I agree. The book by van der Linden is no doubt valuable, but it might not be exactly the kind of a work OP is asking for.

I'd also suggest Paresh Chattopadhay's The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience for an analysis rigorously grounded in Marx's notion of capital as a social relation of production (it is dense, that's true, but it is highly valuable).