If it were not for his studies at Leningrad University and the experience accumulated over the years in the economy, Seryosha would not have understood the relevance of this discussion between Yakovlev and Gorbachev.
Since the end of the Second World War, Keynesianism has gradually become the winning weapon for the economic development of the capitalist countries of Western Europe.
In Britain, the influence of Keynesianism is particularly prominent.
After World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led LinkedIn to victory over the Nazis, was ousted, and Labour leader Attlee became the first post-war prime minister.
Although Churchill led the Conservative Party to make a comeback after that, it still could not stop the long-term ruling trend of the Labour Party, and Keynesianism came to the stage of history under this special historical background.
The post-war Soviet Union and Europe faced almost the same problem, with ruins everywhere and the great wealth of the pre-war period being wiped out in the war.
In this case, relying on Adam Smith's liberal economy can no longer solve the real problem.
Guided by Keynesianism, the government began to intervene in the economy, nationalizing large industrial enterprises and banks, and raising workers' wages and benefits.
Together, we survived and rebuilt Europe from the ashes.
Although the policy pursued by the Soviet Union at that time was called Stalinism, the two doctrines were the same in terms of nationalization.
In fact, not only in Europe, but also in Asia, Japan, South Korea and China are carrying out nationalization with their own characteristics.
Nationalization began in Japan before the end of the war, in Korea under Park Chung-hee, and in China it was called public-private partnerships.
The Eastern and Western camps on both sides of the Iron Curtain chose a similar path of reform in a similar historical period, which has to be said to be a historical inevitability.
However, after entering the eighties, the economies of the world's major industrial countries fell into stagnation and recession, with the exception of Japan.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Keynesianism has come to an end and that new solutions must be found to the problems facing economic life.
So in this situation, governments have begun to explore their own paths.
This seems to be a historical necessity, just a few years ago, China proposed reform and opening up.
The Thatcher government also embarked on the path of privatization reform, the French government of Francois Mitterrand adjusted its policy to a similar path as Britain a few years ago, and the Soviet Union has been emphasizing reform since the later years of Brezhnev.
However, from the current stage, the British Iron Lady seems to point out a clear way for everyone, although the British economy is still at the bottom of the major industrial countries, but to consider that this country spent a lot of money and Argentina last year, in fact, the British reform has begun to show positive results.
In the room, Gorbachev and Yakovlev were discussing enthusiastically, while Seryosha listened quietly without saying a word.
Seryosha admits that most of Yakovlev's views are correct, but reform is not something that can be done with words, Thatcher could have eliminated all the milk of schoolchildren in order to save the government's budget, and Gorbachev did not dare to cancel similar benefits for workers.
"Seryosha, what do you think" Gorbachev saw that Seryosha was silent and felt a little curious, so he asked him.
"Secretary Gorbachev, I still think that many of the problems you are talking about are too complicated for me, and I am not very clear about these economic theories, but if I talk about the work of our Ministry of Foreign Trade, I would like to say that our current export commodities are too simple, and most of them are resources and raw materials, which are easily affected by commodity prices in the international market," Seryosha reported to Gorbachev.
"Yes, Seryosha has grown up now," Yakovlev praised Gorbachev in person, after all, Seryosha was introduced by Yakovlev, and the better he did, the more it shows Yakovlev's vision at the beginning.
For the other party's praise, Seryosha naturally had to shirk it, but he realized a problem.
In today's conversation between the three of them, he heard a lot of remarks that were not suitable for public expression.
Does this mean that Seryosha has entered the deeper circle of Gorbachev's staff?
"Comrade Seryosha, you worked in the Ministry of Agriculture some time ago, I want to know what you think about our agriculture, you know, I have always been in charge of this part.
If there are any good ideas, we can all put them into practice," Gorbachev was clearly not satisfied with Seryosha's answer, and he wanted a deeper and more effective answer.
"Secretary, in fact, I also planned to do something in the position of director of the Food Bureau, but you know that we are facing a very real problem, that is, the problem of labor.
In my opinion, this is the biggest difficulty restricting our agricultural development, if we can send some young and strong people back to China to engage in agricultural production, I think our grain production will definitely be greatly improved" Seryosha said cautiously, he originally wanted to say Afghanistan, but in fact, not only Afghanistan, there are a large number of Soviet troops in Eastern European countries, as well as millions of soldiers on the Sino-Soviet border, you must know that the population of the Soviet Union is almost the most sparsely populated country in the world compared to the country.
However, a large number of young people with the ability to work have been sent to the front line, and how can domestic production and construction be good.
It took only half a year to build a large steel plant from scratch during the Stalin era, but now it takes a year to build several apartment buildings in Moscow, which is enough to show how seriously the labor shortage in the country has seriously damaged the normal pace of construction.
"Seryosha, I'm afraid this can't be reversed in a moment," Gorbachev said with a sigh as he shook his head.
"General Secretary, where can we import frozen meat and grains from the Americas, but the common people will not be satisfied just by eating these things, we also lack vegetables, fruits and other fresh foods.
You must know that these can only be imported from our neighbors, even if we have sufficient labor, but because of the climate and other reasons, we cannot produce enough fruits and vegetables to ensure the supply of the people, if possible, can we communicate with our neighbors to solve our difficulties in this regard" Seryosha asked cryptically, he was actually hinting to Gorbachev, can he do some fresh products trade with China, such as some fruit and vegetable products, unless it is transported by air, Otherwise, it would not have been possible to send it fresh from South America to the Soviet mainland.
"Do you mean China, but Seryosha has an American guest coming to the Kremlin next week, and I think he might have a solution to our problems," Gorbachev said mysteriously. t1706231537: