The starting point: the Stalinist economic system and the aftermath of war -- Khrushchev: hope rewarded, 1953-60 -- Khrushchev: things fall apart, 1960-64 -- A new start: Brezhnev, 1964-73 -- The "Era of Stagnation": 1973-82 -- Three funerals and a coronation: November 1982 to March 1985 -- Gorbachev and Catastroika -- The end-game, 1989-91 -- The Soviet economy in retrospect.