what kind of economy was the soviet union?
Communist state
entailment
 During 1928 – 1973 , the Soviet Union was growing economically at a pace that would eventually catch up with the United States and Western Europe . This was true despite the advantage the United States had — the USSR was hampered by the effects of World War II , which had left most of Western USSR in ruins . In 1973 , the process of catching up with the rest of the West came to an abrupt end , and 1973 was seen by some scholars as the start of the Era of Stagnation . The beginning of the stagnation coincided with a financial crisis in Western Europe and the U.S. By the early 1970s , the Soviet Union had the world 's second largest industrial capacity , and produced more steel , oil , pig @-@ iron , cement and tractors than any other country . Before 1973 , the Soviet economy was expanding at a rate faster , by a small margin , than that of the United States . The USSR also kept a steady pace with the economies of Western Europe . Between 1964 and 1973 , the Soviet economy stood at roughly half the output per head of Western Europe and a little more than one third that of the U.S. 

entailment
 The Soviet Union was generally anti @-@ Semitic ; Zionist activities inside its borders were considered treason that could lead to execution , and , after 1967 , Israel was considered an enemy state . It was not until Perestroika that Jewish activists were given freedom to operate . The emigration that took place from 1989 to 1993 is described as a " panic migration " , due to the socio @-@ economic crisis in the Soviet states , rather than a migration of " born @-@ again " Jews . Many of them did not have any relation to Judaism or Zionism in their former place of residence . Most immigrants of this period came from Russia and Ukraine , and to a lesser extent from Belarus and Central Asia . 

entailment
 The Soviet Union , despite enormous human and material losses , also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post @-@ war era . Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth , becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s . China returned to its pre @-@ war industrial production by 1952 . 

neutral
 Soviet Union . 

contradiction
 The Era of Stagnation , a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev , was seen as the result of a compilation of factors , including the ongoing " arms race " between the two superpowers , the Soviet Union and the United States ; the decision of the Soviet Union to participate in international trade ( thus abandoning the idea of economic isolation ) while ignoring the changes occurring in Western societies ; the increasing harshness of its policies , such as sending Soviet tanks to crush the Prague Spring in 1968 ; the intervention in Afghanistan ; the stifling domestic bureaucracy overseen by a cadre of elderly men ; the lack of economic reform ; the political corruption , supply bottlenecks , and other unaddressed structural problems with the economy under Brezhnev 's rule . Social stagnation domestically was stimulated by the growing demands of unskilled workers , labour shortages and a decline in productivity and labour discipline . While Brezhnev , albeit " sporadically " , through Alexei Kosygin , attempted to reform the economy in the late 1960s and 1970s , he ultimately failed to produce any positive results . One of these reforms was the economic reform of 1965 , initiated by Kosygin , though its origins are often traced back to the Khrushchev Era . The reform was cancelled by the Central Committee , though the Committee admitted that economic problems did exist . 
