Late Soviet bureaucracy

Notice, in the subtitles most of the legal language and some fragments of the speech are omitted.

Late Soviet bureaucracy The opening scene of the “Courier” takes place in a court room, where Ivan’s parents are getting divorced. During the divorce procedure, it seems that the judge reads her standard long speech mechanically. Karen Shakhnazarov commented on this episode during our interview “In this speech not a single word was invented. In the center of this episode is a human drama, their life is crumbling. All this is happening so formal.” The words of the judge’s speech were required by a customary procedure, although everybody knew the eventual result, they still had to listen to the judge’s monologue until the end. This is an example of one of the many bureaucratic procedures that had accumulated by the period of Perestroika. Such procedures not only didn’t facilitate new initiatives, but also hindered them. In the rusty Soviet bureaucratic machine, also called the “system”, the positive intentions of Perestroika became trapped and were completely deformed to the point of absurdity.

For instance, in 1985 the government proposed a program aimed at accelerating the socio-economical development of the country by introducing new technologies and activating the motivation and enthusiasm of the workers. However, the expansion of the existing production capacity was not supported by the necessary equipment and skilled workers. Instead of the acceleration of economic development this led to a significant increase in shoddy production and accidents in the workplace, the largest of which was a disaster on the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in April of 1986.

In the mid-1980s, the Soviet government deployed two administrative initiatives across the country: the fight against alcoholism and against “undeclared income”. Again, in practice these seemingly good initiatives of the CPSU Central Committee, turned into a disaster, thanks to overzealous local politicians. A sharp reduction in the alcohol available for sale and higher prices for it led to an increase in moonshine production and mass poisonings  because of low quality alcohol. A struggle against “undeclared income” has actually turned into an attack on dacha owners (small farmers) by local authorities. At the same time, the black markteers, associated with corrupted part of the state apparatus, continued to flourish.

In mid-1988 there several laws were adopted which legalized entrepreneurship in more than thirty fields of industry and services. A side effect of this was the actual legalization of the shadow economy and its capital, which had accumulated through extra-legal means, including corruption. In general, the vast majority of the “well-intentioned laws” did not work as planned. They were emasculated by bureaucrats, who regarded these unusual innovations from the center as a direct threat to their existence and prosperity.

bureaucracy 2

(This is a Soviet poster of the time of Perestroika. it says “Our enemy is bureaucracy. Don’t wait for the changes in life until you kill a bureaucrate in yourself”) http://propagandahistory.ru/1739/Antibyurokraticheskie-i-antikriminalnye-plakaty-vremen-Perestroyki/

bureaucracy 3

(This is another Soviet poster that says “An evil bureaucrate has spoilt the state apparatus. Kick him out, working people.”) http://nnm.me/blogs/Racing19/mysli-o-byurokratii/

 

bureaucracy

(This poster says “beaureaucracy, conformism, voluntarism, bribery, window dressing, rudeness, red tape, careerism – reconstructed”) http://propagandahistory.ru/1739/Antibyurokraticheskie-i-antikriminalnye-plakaty-vremen-Perestroyki/