The advantage of the planned economy lies in the majestic momentum of the early stage. Taking the Soviet Union as an example, from 1928 to 1937, the Soviet Union implemented two five-year plans, and by 1937, when the Soviet Union overfulfilled the Second Five-Year Plan, it achieved the great achievement of being the first in Europe and the second in the world.
In 1928, there were only 90,000 specialists with higher education in the Soviet Union, but by 1937 there were 9.6 million intellectuals in the country, including more than 4 million technical cadres, which laid a solid foundation for the development of the national economy and the victory in the Great Patriotic War. The relative number of specialists in important industrial sectors exceeds that of Germany. The number of students enrolled in colleges and universities reached 540,000, more than the number of students in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Italy combined.
By 1937, the Soviet Union produced 17.7 million tons of steel, 13 million tons of steel, 14.5 million tons of pig iron, 128 million tons of coal, and 36.5 billion kWh of electricity. After two five-year plans, the Soviet Union built more than 6,000 large enterprises, and established steel, aircraft, automobiles, tractors, chemicals, heavy machinery, precision instruments, and other sectors.
The drawback of the planned economic system lies in the gradual rigidity of the later period. If we look at the economic growth rate of the Soviet Union:
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During the tenure of each leader, the Soviet Union went through cycles of economic growth and decline. Specifically, during the Stalin period, there was a high growth rate of up to 19% in the early period, and a gradual deceleration in the later period (with a war element in between); By the time of Khrushchev, it gradually declined from double digits; In the era of Brezhnev, even more so.
It is even more obvious in the figure above, from the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, when Khrushchev first came to power, to 1964, when he left class, the change in labor productivity is a portrayal; In the Brezhnev era, in 1964 the "new economic system" began, once again offering the magic weapon of military industry and heavy industry, and the economic growth rate changed the declining trend of the late Khrushchev period and rose again, but from 6.8 in the first five years to 4.5 in the later years, and then 3.3 later, it finally returned to an era that was even inferior to that of the late Khrushchev period; by the Gorbachev era, it was already difficult to return.
When we evaluate the reforms in the Soviet Union, we basically "failed to change the overly centralized Stalinist model." In other words, the failure to change the fundamentals of the planned economy led to the incomplete and failed reform.
Looking back on this period of history, it is also a great enlightenment for our socialist reform: Our First Five-Year Plan has achieved brilliant results, laid the initial foundation of socialist industry, and has a complete national economic system.
Many of the firsts of New China originated from this era.
However, judging from the data in the chart above, the principle is the same. In the 70s, except for the rectification of Deng Gong in 1975, the economy as a whole failed to achieve sustained economic development. This is why reform and opening up must be carried out.