The present thesis looks at the Soviet economy in the 1940s-1960s period. It specifically focuses on the influence of economic policy and thought developed in the late 1940s on the post-Stalinist era. The thesis' aim is to prove that several key elements of 1950s-1960s economic reforms had already been conceptualised, proposed or implemented during the Stalinist period. The pillars of this 1940s-1960s reforming continuity which the research deals with are khozraschet, economic levers (profit, value, market, prices, credit, bonuses), perspective planning, the balance of the national economy method, as well as the debates concerning the law of value and the repeated attempts at drawing up a General Plan and at drafting a new Party Programme. The key figure this thesis focuses on is N.A. Voznesensky, top Soviet planner in 1939-1949. In the late 1930s he revived practices and methods discontinued after 1928, while under his aegis, policies and debates that later influenced post-Stalinist reforms were developed in the late 1940s. The thesis relies on primary evidence gathered at four Russian state archives (RGAE, GARF, ARAN, RGASPI) and on research carried out at British, Russian, Italian and German libraries.

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This is a comparative study of the spatial patterns of peasant crop farming in Chibombo District between the 1980s and the 1990s. The study lists and discusses the agricultural support system, communication infrastructure and the crop production and patterns of the 1980s within the environment of centralised planning and then compares these to the structures and patterns of the 1990s in an atmosphere of economic liberalisation. This comparison in crop production, cropping patterns, institutional support systems and the communication infrastructure in five sampled farming wards of Chibombo District, leads to the conclusion that there is a marked change in the structures and patterns of the 1990s from those of the 1980s. Thus, in Chibombo District, the state of the communication infrastructure in the 1990s is generally poorer than the communication infrastructure of the 1980s, the agricultural support system of the 1990s is largely privately owned and found in fewer farming areas while the agricultural support system of the 1980s was state controlled and more widely spread, and crop patterns in some farming wards are different in the 1990s from those of the 1980s. In the 1990s, crop production in farming wards with a supportive environment has increased than it was in the 1980s but decreased in those where a conducive environment lacks. In this line, the study makes several recommendations for consideration on how to mitigate the problems that the peasant farmers are facing or how to enhance the positive changes that have occurred in Chibombo District. / Geography / M.A. (Geography)

This is a comparative study of the spatial patterns of peasant crop farming in Chibombo District between the 1980s and the 1990s. The study lists and discusses the agricultural support system, communication infrastructure and the crop production and patterns of the 1980s within the environment of centralised planning and then compares these to the structures and patterns of the 1990s in an atmosphere of economic liberalisation. This comparison in crop production, cropping patterns, institutional support systems and the communication infrastructure in five sampled farming wards of Chibombo District, leads to the conclusion that there is a marked change in the structures and patterns of the 1990s from those of the 1980s. Thus, in Chibombo District, the state of the communication infrastructure in the 1990s is generally poorer than the communication infrastructure of the 1980s, the agricultural support system of the 1990s is largely privately owned and found in fewer farming areas while the agricultural support system of the 1980s was state controlled and more widely spread, and crop patterns in some farming wards are different in the 1990s from those of the 1980s. In the 1990s, crop production in farming wards with a supportive environment has increased than it was in the 1980s but decreased in those where a conducive environment lacks. In this line, the study makes several recommendations for consideration on how to mitigate the problems that the peasant farmers are facing or how to enhance the positive changes that have occurred in Chibombo District. / Geography / M.A. (Geography)