pipe.
Typically, Soviet managers gave less priority to fulfilling the assortment plan than to the overall quantity of production, because fulfilling the aggregate output plan targets formed the basis for the bonus payment. Adjustments made within the assortment plan enabled managers to fulfill quantity targets even when materials did not arrive in a timely fashion or in sufficient quantity. For example, managers could “overproduce” children’s shoes relative to adults’ shoes, if leather was in short supply, thereby generating a shortage in adult footwear relative to the needs of the population. This practice of adjusting quantities within the assortment plan imposed higher costs when steel pipes and other producer goods were involved, because producing three-inch pipe instead of the requisite six-inch pipe obliged recipient firms to reconfigure or adapt their equipment to fit the wrong-sized pipe. See also: ECONOMIC GROWTH, SOVIET; FIVE-YEAR PLANS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ellman, Michael. (1979). Socialist Planning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Krueger, Gary. (1991). “Aggregation in Planning.” Journal of Comparative Economics 15(4): 627-645.
The Khanate of Astrakhan was a tribal union of Sunni Muslim pastoral nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples, located in the lower Volga region, with the capital of Astrakhan (Citracan) situated at the confluence of the river into the Caspian Sea. Traditionally, it is believed that the khanate of Astrakhan was formed sometime in the mid- 1400s (certainly by 1466), when the tribe seceded from the Golden (or Great) Horde, probably under Mahmud Khan (died c. 1466). Many scholars attribute the foundation of the khanate to Qasim I (1466-1490), perhaps Mahmud Khan’s son. However, a recent study argues that the khanate was formed only after 1502. Specifically, from the 1450s to the 1470s, Astrakhan was one of the centers of the Great Horde and after the destruction of Saray (the old capital), not earlier than the 1480s, became its new capital. Astrakhan continued to be the capital of the Great Horde until its collapse in 1502 at the hands of the Crimean Khanate and, thereafter, remained its political heir in the form of the Astrakhan Khanate. There was no change of dynasty, nor was there any internal structural transformation to the state. The only major difference with its predecessor is that its borders were probably smaller.
The peoples of the Astrakhan Khanate mostly retained their nomadic lifestyles as they seasonally migrated in north-south directions in search of grasslands for their livestock, reaching as far north as the southern borders of Muscovy. Due to the small territory it occupied, the khanate did not have sufficient lands for grazing large numbers of animals and sustaining large human resources. For these reasons, the khanate was relatively weak militarily and prone to political interference in its affairs from its more powerful neighbors, including the successor Mongol khanates and Muscovy. The khanate also offered little by way of natural resources, aside from salt, fish, and hides.
Astrakhan, while a busy, wealthy, and large port city in the early Mongol era, fell into relative neglect after its destruction by Tamerlane in around 1391, as noted by Barbaro (d. 1494). Other Western visitors to Astrakhan, such as Contarini (1473) and Jenkinson (1558), noted the paucity of trade
ATOMIC ENERGY
coming through the city, despite the presence of Russian, Tatar, Persian, Transcaucasian, and Central Asian merchants. Both Contarini and Afanasy Nikitin, the latter a Russian merchant from Tver who traveled to India via Astrakhan sometime between 1468 and 1471, noted instability in the steppe near Astrakhan, general danger, and excessive tariffs (more properly, extortion payments) imposed on merchants. However, their travel through the khanate shows that while the trans-Volga-Caspian-Central Asian trade may have declined, because of the ideal location of the city of Astrakhan at key crossroads, international commerce continued to function. Although the volume and frequency of this trade is difficult to determine, Contarini relates that “a great many Tartar merchants” traveled in a caravan to Muscovy along with an annual embassy sent by the Astrakhan khans and brought along with them Iranian silks and fustian that they exchanged for furs, saddles, swords, bridles, and other items. With Ivan IV’s (r. 1533-1584) conquest and incorporation of the Astrakhan Khanate into Muscovy in 1556, coupled with his annexation of the Kazan Khanate in 1552, the entire course of the Volga with its Astrakhan link into the Caspian Sea came under Moscow’s direct control. Thereafter, trade via Astrakhan as well as Muscovite commerce with Persia, Central Asia, China, and India flourished. See also: CRIMEAN KHANATE; GOLDEN HORDE; NOGAI
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barbaro, Josafa, and Contarini, Ambrogio. (1873). Travels to Tana and Persia, ed. Henry E. J. Stanley; tr. William Thomas and S. A. Roy. Hakluyt Society Series no. 49. London: Hakluyt Society. Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
The Soviet Union had an extensive atomic energy program. The program included the use of isotopes as tracers for agricultural research and as ionizing sources for food irradiation, extensive applications in medicine, so- called peaceful nuclear explosions, and an ambitious effort to build scores of reactors to produce electrical energy. Under the regime of Josef Stalin, the military side of atomic energy was significantly more developed than its civilian application. Scientists and workers were gathered into closed cities to build the first Soviet atomic bomb, detonated in 1949, and to design and assemble tens of thousands of nuclear warheads. It is not certain what percentage of the nuclear program was civil ian and what percentage was military, but it is clear that the military needs pre dominated during the Cold War. It is also difficult to draw a line between military and civilian pro grams. Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev made the peaceful atom a centerpiece of their eco nomic development programs. The peaceful atom found expression in art and music, on stamps and lapel pins, and even in literary works. For instance, the Exhibition of the Achievements of the Socialist Economy (VDNKh) had a large hall devoted to atomic energy. However, even when the technol ogy was ostensibly dedicated to peaceful goals, there were often military interests at stake as well. For example, Soviet scientists conducted 120 peace ful nuclear explosions (PNEs) for excavation, dam construction, and other purposes that were con nected with the 1963 ban against atmospheric test ing of nuclear devices.
COLD WAR DEVELOPMENTS
Atomic energy was a prominent fixture of the Cold War, as part of competition with the United States for military superiority and for economic and ideological influence. In a propaganda coup in 1954, Soviet officials announced the opening of the Obninsk five-thousand kilowatt reactor, the first station to provide electrical energy for peaceful purposes (it remained open and operational until 2002). Over the next three decades, each subsequent Soviet achievement received extensive media coverage. Soviet scientists actively participated in the Geneva Conferences on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The first, in 1956, enabled Soviet physicists to appear as equals of their American and European counterparts.
The conferences were crucial in allowing Soviet physicists to participate in the broader scientific community, an opportunity that had been denied them during the Stalin era because of its extreme commitment to secrecy. At conferences, scientists from the USSR could enter into serious discussions with their international colleagues, and these interactions often eased Cold War tensions. For instance, Igor Kurchatov, the head of the atomic bomb project, spent the last years of his life promoting peaceful nuclear programs and sought a test ban treaty of some sort.
ATOMIC ENERGY
Workers monitor an experiment at the Akademgorodok nuclear physics laboratory in 1966. © DEAN CONGER/CORBIS
Soviet engineers developed five major kinds of nuclear reactors. One design focused on compactness, and was intended to be used for propulsion, especially for submarines. The USSR also employed compact reactors on aircraft carriers, container ships, freighters, and icebreakers, such as the icebreaker Lenin, which was launched in 1959. Scientists also worked on reactor propulsion for rockets and jets, and nuclear power packs for satellites.
