The 20-year arms race has led to the economic backwardness of the Soviet Union and the decline of people's lives.

The national strength of the Soviet Union reached its peak in the 1970s. It seems that the Soviet Union can keep pace with the United States. However, this situation did not last long. By the end of 1970s, the Soviet Union's economic growth rate began to lag behind seriously, and the lagging economy deeply affected people's basic life. People's happiness comes first, but in the Soviet Union, people are worried about short-term goods. The Soviet economy experienced negative growth and backwardness, and the living standards of the Soviet people continued to decline, which finally began to affect the political situation of the Soviet Union.

First, the Soviet Union's economy slowed down and its development was seriously deformed.

Since the early 1970s, the economic growth rate of the Soviet Union has been slowing down. 197 1 year, the Soviet economic growth rate was 7%, but by 1979, the Soviet economic growth rate was only 2.8%. The slowdown in economic growth has also led to a sharp drop in industrial profits. 197 1 year, the average industrial profit of the Soviet Union was 2 1.5%, 1979, only 14%. The mode of production in the Soviet Union is completely opposite to that in western countries. In the west, factories produce products according to customers' needs. In the Soviet Union, it was more cheating. Because all enterprises are state-owned and don't care about profits and losses, it is what products the factory produces and what products the customers accept. The quality of this product cannot be guaranteed. Cars produced in the Soviet Union often break down and consume no less fuel than military vehicles. Take the household electric fan as an example. The electric fan smuggled from West Germany is exquisite and durable. The electric fans produced in the Soviet Union are similar to helicopter propellers, which are noisy and often break down.

The arms race is the main reason for the economic backwardness of the Soviet Union. In terms of industrial development, the Soviet Union attached great importance to heavy industry. In heavy industry, military industry is the most important. However, the light industry in the Soviet Union is very worrying. In fact, the funds for research and development of light industry have been squeezed by heavy industry, and the production level of light industry in the Soviet Union has been lagging behind for a long time. The Soviet Union has the ability to put pilots on the stage, and has also developed atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, but the Soviet Union cannot produce qualified TV sets. More than half of TV sets produced in the Soviet Union will explode, so there is a joke in the Soviet Union: "If you hate someone, give him a TV set. It turns out that it is not just televisions, refrigerators and washing machines that produce household appliances. The low living standard made the Soviet people complain. But Soviet officials turned a blind eye to these situations, because their own products were smuggled from abroad, and only fools used domestic products.

Second, the price of commodities has been greatly increased, as evidenced by savings deposits in the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union's economic aggregate is only 5 1% of that of the United States, but its military expenditure exceeds that of the United States. After the economic slowdown, the Soviet Union faced increasing pressure and eventually had to raise commodity prices substantially. During the period of 1979, the Soviet Union raised commodity prices significantly, including catering industry by 45%, jewelry, carpets and other commodities by 50%, automobile prices by 18%, furniture prices by 10%, and gasoline prices actually doubled. The burden of Soviet military expenditure was finally passed on to ordinary people, which invisibly increased the burden on workers and aggravated the contradiction between people. Due to the low level of light industry and low product output, the Soviets need to queue up to buy goods. The Soviet Union even has a queuing strategy to teach housewives how to buy goods in the shortest time. But even so, the queue time is more than 3 hours, which indirectly consumes a lot of labor time.

The agricultural development of the Soviet Union is rather abnormal, and food is the first thing for the people, but the grain output of the Soviet Union has been in a backward state for a long time. This is not a question of land, but a question of system. The Soviet Union has a large area of cultivated land, of which 2.8% is in the hands of the deceased. It was this 2.8% land that supplied 58% of potatoes and 34% of vegetables in the country, which shows what the state-owned cultivated land in the Soviet Union was doing at that time. Farmers in the Soviet Union only feed 20% of poultry and livestock, but these fifth farmers provide 29% of milk, 32% of eggs and 265,438+0% of wool. It can be seen that breaking the shackles of the system on individuals is the only way for economic reform, but unfortunately the Soviet Union has not done so. The Soviet people are faced with the embarrassing situation of having no money to spend. 1985, the total savings of the Soviet Union was 220.8 billion rubles. This figure is 12 times that of 15 years ago, but the growth rate of the Soviet economy is far from this figure, which proves the fact that the Soviets have money and no place to spend it.

Third, the economy is depressed, and people generally engage in sideline business.

Due to the economic depression in the Soviet Union and the sharp rise in commodity prices, state-owned farms and state-owned enterprises began to engage in sideline business generally. The sideline income of state-owned farm farmers accounts for a quarter of household income, while that of enterprise workers accounts for a third. During this period, the life of farmers who own cultivated land is the most enviable, and their annual savings and income are above 1 100 rubles. This figure is beyond the imagination of farmers and state-owned farm workers, and their enthusiasm for production is getting lower and lower. The Soviet Union * * * requires workers to work overtime for free on Sundays, which is also euphemistically called a socialist labor competition. As a result, small-scale * * * time began to appear. 1980, there were 22 * * * incidents in the Soviet Union. The official of the Soviet Union tightly blocked the information, but it was enough to reflect the social reality of the Soviet Union at that time. In the late 1980s, the Soviet economy experienced direct negative growth, which led to the political turmoil in the Soviet Union.