In May 1985, Gorbachev gave a speech in Leningrad which he admitted the slowing down of the economic development and inadequate living standards. This was the first time in Soviet 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 "perestroika", "uskoreniye", "human factor", "glasnost", and "expansion of the khozraschyot" (self-financing). The acceleration was planned to be based on technical and scientific progress, revamping of heavy industry (in the accordance with the Marxian economics postulate about the primacy in development of heavy industry over light industry), taking the "human factor" into an account, and increasing the labor discipline and responsibility of apparatchiks. In practice it was implemented with the help of massive monetary emission infused into heavy industry, which further destabilized the economy and in particular, brought an enormous disparity between cash money and virtual "paper" money used in cashless clearings (безналичный расчёт) between enterprises and state and among enterprises.
The politics of "acceleration" eventually failed, which was de facto admitted in June 1987 at a Party Plenum, and the "uskoreniye" slogan was phased out in favor of the less ambitious "Perestroika".
See also
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Last updated on Saturday June 21, 2008 at 21:04:10 PDT (GMT -0700)
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