<Tr> <Th> Economic aid </Th> <Td> $147.6 billion (1954--1988) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars . </Td> </Tr> <P> The economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian: экономика Советского Союза) was based on a system of state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, industrial manufacturing and centralized administrative planning . The economy was characterised by state control of investment, public ownership of industrial assets, macroeconomic stability, negligible unemployment and high job security . </P> <P> Beginning in 1928, the course of the Soviet Union's economy was guided by a series of five - year plans . By the 1950s, during the preceding few decades the Soviet Union had rapidly evolved from a mainly agrarian society into a major industrial power . Its transformative capacity--what the White House National Security Council of the United States described as a "proven ability to carry backward countries speedily through the crisis of modernization and industrialization"--meant communism consistently appealed to the intellectuals of developing countries in Asia . Impressive growth rates during the first three five - year plans (1928--1940) are particularly notable given that this period is nearly congruent with the Great Depression . During this period, the Soviet Union encountered a rapid industrial growth while other regions were suffering from crisis . Nevertheless, the impoverished base upon which the five - year plans sought to build meant that at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa the country was still poor . </P>

The former soviet union had an economic system by which resources