Russia: The Dash Forward

Five months ago Ukrainian coal mine No. 9 near Lvov was cut loose from the tentacles of Soviet planning and made a test case. The test was the first application to heavy industry in Russia of Professor Evsei Liberman's Western-style theories of profit guidelines and greater autonomy for factory managers—theories that are already proving their superiority over Marxist regimentation in the Soviet consumer-goods sector (TIME cover, Feb. 12).

Nobody was more relieved to be free of the planners than No. 9's manage, Y. S. Taraskin, who in 1964 had been buffeted by no fewer than 30 changes in target figures, 17 revisions of cost estimates, and 13 switches in his budget allotments as decreed by central planners. Taraskin is a happier man today, for Izvestia announced a spectacular first-quarter for No. 9 under Libermanism. Daily coal production soared to 2,041 tons, a 33% increase over the expected 1,520 tons. Earnings rose, wage costs were reduced even as workers got bigger bonuses out of their one-half share in profits. Izvestia seemed almost beside itself with joy: "The mine made a powerful dash forward such as even the warmest supporters of the experiment hadn't dreamed of."