The biggest challenge faced by the Soviets was building a successful socialist economy. To this end, three major problems had to be overcome. Managers had to learn how to meet the demands of a planned economy. Workers had to be encouraged to increase productivity. Troublemakers and incompetents had to be rooted out before they could wreck the system.

In the Soviets' planned economy, the only "customer" was the government. In theory, trained economic planners determined how much of each commodity the various industries and factories would produce, and then allocated the resources required to meet the plan, thus assuring that all of the nation's needs were met. In reality, many planners were Communist Party bureaucrats who had no training in the industry for which they were responsible. Many plans called for unrealistically high production quotas, particularly in light of the fact that the demand...