The Soviet Budgetary System by R. W. DaviesReview by: P. WilesThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 37, No. 89 (Jun., 1959), p. 575Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4205113 .

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reviews 575

The Soviet Budgetary System. By R. W. Davies. Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, 1958. xxi + 373 pages.

There is not much theory about a budgetary system?theory enters into taxation policy, which is not Mr Davies5s subject. Correctly he takes the tax structure as more or less given and discusses the relation between

physical and financial planning, between local and central budgets, etc., and describes the circulation of money both inside and outside the tax

system. The subject is treated historically and with an immense wealth of detail. Thus it is invaluable to have a tsarist budget for comparison, and Mr Davies has taken the trouble not merely to reproduce it but to find out

exactly what the various items meant. Or again the planning of industrial

enterprises has often been described, but what about hospitals? It is

reassuring to learn that the frequency of bed-linen changes is laid down? not only for the Soviet patient but also for the reader who thus learns that the author has left nothing to chance. He has not fallen into the trap of

concentrating on industry alone, to the neglect of agriculture, services, and local government.

Of course then the book is mainly descriptive, and by its nature not very critical of Soviet reality. But there has been very little statistical falsification in this field. Where criticism is required, however, it is not spared, and a

genuine attempt is made to throw light on dark places: individual rates of turnover tax, defence, even security police.

A standard work, then, on its narrow subject. I have only one serious criticism: there is practically nothing on the post-war period. Yet many exciting (if that is the right word) things happened after the war: retail

prices were steadily reduced, with the very curious accompaniment of

budgetary provisions for financing these reductions; wholesale prices were reduced by fits and starts with interesting effects on subsidies, turnover tax and profits; the currency was reformed; Stalin died; the NKVD lost its economic responsibilities, etc., etc. There was plenty of time, with a 1958 publication date, to get all this in.

Oxford P. Wiles

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