The thirty-second anniversary of Ukraine regaining independence is a perfect reason to remember the historical economic changes in Ukraine. Without knowledge of history, it is difficult not only to understand the present, and predict, and effectively build the future, but also to raise an informed citizen and patriot of the Ukrainian state. The history of the Ukrainian socialist economy is a history of crises and reforms.
The purpose of the proposed article is to try to answer the question: what was the process of implementing economic reforms in the Soviet Union and their impact on economic growth and development of Ukraine’s economy. None of these reforms changed it structurally because they did not aim to build a new economic order or transform the old one; their mission was to save the socialist economy.
The chronological boundaries of the study cover the post-war reconstruction in the 1945–1950s, the reforming activities of Nikita Khrushchev, as well as the reforms of the 1960s–1970s. An important period of reform of the economic and political systems occurred in the 1980s. The bold economic and political reforms introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev were subsequently referred to as «perestroika» (reconstruction), «uskorenie» (acceleration), and «glasnost» (openness). However, these reform measures were generally late and failed to stabilize the economy, and even destabilized it. Repeated and ill-conceived reforms caused unexpected changes in the politics and economic system of the USSR. The slowdown of positive trends in the agricultural economy of Ukraine and the negative dynamics of industrial production proved the ineffectiveness of the reforms.
For Ukraine, Soviet reforms meant consolidating the status of an integral part of the union economy. The ruling regime did not even allow a moment to think about liberalization or fundamental changes, consistently «tightening the screws» and strengthening the totalitarian order. Attempts to overcome economic stagnation without radical changes in the social order eventually led to its collapse.
