Conversion of Military Industry to Civilian Production in the USSR.

摘要

The conversion of military industry started in 1988 as a policy of the central government. It was intended to preserve as much as possible of the military industrial complex, especially its R&D establishment, skilled workforce, and managerial superstructure. From the military point of view this conversion was easily reversible; from the economic point of view it was wasteful. In 1990, the republics started to claim jurisdiction over the military plants on their territory. At the same time, economic decline threatened the performance of the military sector. We suggested that the republics' governments and an economic collapse will be much less favorable towards the interests of the military industrial complex than the central government. Their combined impact would be much more profound and harder to reverse than that of. any conversion program. Carving up military industry among the republics is the most effective way of dismantling it.