Abstract
The article is a follow-up to the analysis of theoretical premises of command/
planned economy and presents practical consequences of the implementation
of Marxism and Russian Bolshevism. The author discusses the phenomena
resulting from practical use of the ideology starting with a statement about
the “economic expansion drive” – a major determinant of decision-making
factors in the command system. The economic expansion drive, which was
a result of the system’s belligerent attitudes, made communist authorities
take economic decisions in compliance with political criteria, irrespective of
economic rationalism. As a result, all the efficiency indices in that system
were poorer than in market economy. Practical effects of that also consisted
in deformation of investment processes and defective consumer goods market
manifesting itself in the form of invariable supply-demand disequilibrium.
Political motives behind economic decisions also led to excessive use of
resources and intensification of the “deficit” phenomenon in all the economic
sectors. Practical consequences of the deficit were disastrous for companies’
efficiency and people’s financial situation. Finally, the author illustrates his
theses with some data showing that from the 1970s the command system was
sliding down an inclined plane and, at its end, it eventually collapsed.