Mind you this is just the basic measures, no idea what the separate "advanced" measures would have had.
It's frustratingly vague, especially to modern eyes. It is open about having agricultural aims, but mention of 'canals' is the closest it ever comes to saying we'll be diverting rivers. It says it involves direction of the hydrosphere but doesn't say how we're directing it. Looking at it now, it DOES seem almost tailored to mislead our environmentalist neurons. "green belts", "reduction of evaporation", "wind management", all are things we associate with attempts to reduce environmental damage. And when we hear "stabilization" naturally our minds think of the Aral because the giant drying up sea is the most obviously non-stable thing there. Even more so given there is one other declining central asian sea (the Caspian) that the political folk DO want us to literally stabilize. No wonder we screwed that up.
And I get the general idea of "it's the seventies, period-typical High Modernism sees horribly defiling Earth-chan for our gains as a fun family pastime", but unlike say the northern wetlands the Aral Sea has a pretty clear use (providing water and general economic lifeblood to every settlement in the vicinity, plus drying it is a recipe for horrible dust storms, worryingly close to major cities and our cosmodrome). Wanting to save it seems to make sense even without modern environmentalist logic. "High Modernism", I argue, is not enough to explain why all our bureaucrats in universe celebrate its demise like some Captain Planet villains.
Speaking of water use: People have argued that synthetic fibers use several times as much water as growing cottom. But wouldn't water used in industrial processes be returned to the river (admittedly likely polluted)? As apposed to irrigation water which mostly evaporates.
In OTL, the fact that the Aral sea occasionally dries out naturally meant that the Soviets basically... Didn't think much of its disappearance until the 80s. Called it "a mistake of nature". And if irrigation upstream ruined the once strong economy of the Aral delta, well, they were making more wealth upstream so it was all good! As for settlements on the shore, those were poor fishing villages and who cares about those?
As for ESA: According to @Vi'Talzin , Discord Lore is that ESA involves very little networking, even less than ASU, mostly just computerizing the existing command centers so E.G. we have mainframes that can automatically pull up and do stataistics on census data instead of having an army of specialized secrataries and human calculators do it by hand. It's not the EASU. I admit I'm skeptical, that's very little for 250 progress and makes "new automated system of governmental" an alarmingly deceptive bussword. Whatever it is, I am willing to trust Klimenko enough to have actually thought through this thing and check if there is enough Erbrus production to pull it off.
Ah well! That sounds very practical and useful. And to be honest, freeing up the masses of skilled labour (probably women as in the US at this time) who are doing all the math of the department is probably a good idea.
Look what happened last time our exports to our satellite were hit, thanks to the bad oil roles. That said, since it apparently happened OTL could you please elaborate on what impact oilshock had on the eastern block? I'm curious what mistakes we should avert.
Soviet peak oil hits in something like 1988 or 1989. So... The answer isn't super clear. Though the peaking of FSU production does play a roll in the collapse and the post-Soviet trajectories of the successor states (for example, approaching the physical limits of production meant the Soviet Union could not keep up with the demand for cheap energy of their satellites, destabilizing those regimes, nor could they pump more oil to make up for the falling price during the 80s, destabilizing their own state finances), it isn't the most important factor driving the collapse. Eastern Europe had already been destabilized by heavy borrowing in the 60s and 70s to try and kick off an export-led growth boom right as the oil crisis led to Western countries importing less, meaning smaller than expected economies had to go into austerity in the late 70s and 80s to repay the debts. The Soviet Union was already destabilized by Gorbachev's mistaken approach to reform leading to out of control agricultural spending (to bribe Gromyko into backing the reforms) and the emergency of the oligarch class robbing the working people blind. Then, in the 90s, the collapse of industrial civilization within former Soviet borders mean that at the same time that production is declining, demand declined by even more, leading to an export boom.
Also add that would Soviet eventually adopt somekind system similar to China did before ascension XI where they impose a term limit on how long in being General Secretary then a successor would be decided by previous General Secretary or undecided by faction/s with most seat in General Assembly as I feel like most in Communist Party don't want 80-90 something year old controlling entire country so they'll implement a term limit at some point though probably after General Secretary Semyonov term in office come to pass which probably going be long while.
To speculate on the theme: I've never been entirely clear on why the USSR in this TL is less of a gerontocracy, but I do suspect it is to do with some combination of the lower casualties in WW2 (which in OTL hit young members of the party especially hard and in this TL, there might be some young men of that generation who have been rising up the ranks and trying to push out their elders) and the more open selection of candidates - since candidates in elections are selected by (if I remember rightly) the local party voting on candidates, instead of the local party secretary just saying who gets to be voted on (gasps! actual democracy inside the party!) there's more opportunity for people who are young and lacking in connections to get involved in politics.
Anyway, vote time!
I am a little worried about voting for two plans with so little infra dice, but armed with new information, the ESA sounds practical and I am very concerned at the political cost - we need mainframes and machine calculators for the department to be able to handle the ever more complex economy and while I would rather get mainframes later, if such a simple practical measure is such a big political issue now, we should probably get on with it.
Hmmmmmm. Actually, has anyone ever asked WHY the ESA is such a political hot topic?
Until we get an answer on that tho, here's my votes. Two votes for other people's plans, and two variants that expand the student cadres to get more infra dice. Based on current information, my two plans aren't super great ideas, but in case it turns out there is a good reason for the ESA being so politically expensive, and since I don't know when I'll be able to post next, I'm putting some plans in the ring.
[X]Plan: Slap That Service Transition Button, student cadre version
-[X]Expand the Student Cadres
-[X]Plan Focus (+6 dice): HI/Services
-[X]Spending: 25+15% GNP (10000R)
-[X]Target: High Technology Industries
-[X]Infrastructure Autodice (-8 Infra/-2 Ag dice, -1020R base but modified by steel prices)
--[X]Housing: 5 Infra dice (-480R)
--[X]Rail Electrification: 1 Infra Dice (-140R)
--[X]Dnieper Reservoir System: 1 Ag Dice (-100R)
--[X]Krasnoyarsk-Irkutsk Hydroelectric Zone: 1 Ag +2 Infra Dice (-300R)
-[X]Power Autodice (-5 HI/-1 CI dice, +451 power, -1840R)
--[X]Nuclear Power: 2 HI dice, +36 power from last FYP's program (-640R)
--[X]Coal Power: 2 HI dice, +240 power (-600R)
--[X]Gas Power: 1 HI + 1 CI dice, +175 power (-600R)
-[X]Services Autodice (-7 Services dice, -900R)
--[X]Healthcare: 3 Services dice (-500R)
--[X]Education: 4 Services dice (-400R)
-[X]Total Discretionary pool: 4 FR/2 IN/11 HI/6 LI/5 CI/4 AG/9 SR +up to 4 Dice with 6240R
[X]Plan All Aboard the 3rd Industrial Revolution, student cadre version
-[X]Expand the Student Cadres
-[X]Plan Focus (+6 dice): HI/CI
-[X]Spending: 25+15% GNP (+10000R)
-[X]Target: High Technology Industries
-[X]Infrastructure Autodice (-7 Infra/-2 Ag dice, -920R base but modified by steel prices)
--[X]Housing: 5 Infra dice (-480R)
--[X]Rail Electrification: 1 Infra die (-140R)
--[X]Hydroelectric Power: Krasnoyarsk-Irkutsk, 1 Infra + 2 Ag die (-300R)
-[X]Power Autodice (-6 HI/-1 CI dice, +573 power, -2100R)
--[X]Nuclear Power: 2 HI dice, +38 power from last FYP's program (-640R)
--[X]Coal Power: 3 HI dice, +360 power (-860R)
--[X]Gas Power: 1 HI + 1 CI dice, +175 power (-600R)
-[X]Services Autodice (-7 Services dice, -900R)
--[X]Healthcare: 3 Services dice (-500R)
--[X]Education: 4 Services dice (-400R)
-[X]Total Discretionary pool: 4 FR/3 IN/10 HI/6 LI/11 CI/4 AG/3 SR with 6080R
[X]Plan All Aboard the 3rd Industrial Revolution!
-[X]ESA
-[X]Plan Focus (+6 dice): HI/CI
-[X]Spending: 25+15% GNP (+10000R)
-[X]Target: High Technology Industries
-[X]Infrastructure Autodice (-7 Infra/-2 Ag dice, -920R base but modified by steel prices)
--[X]Housing: 5 Infra dice (-480R)
--[X]Rail Electrification: 1 Infra die (-140R)
--[X]Hydroelectric Power: Krasnoyarsk-Irkutsk, 1 Infra + 2 Ag die (-300R)
-[X]Power Autodice (-6 HI/-1 CI dice, +573 power, -2100R)
--[X]Nuclear Power: 2 HI dice, +38 power from last FYP's program (-640R)
--[X]Coal Power: 3 HI dice, +360 power (-860R)
--[X]Gas Power: 1 HI + 1 CI dice, +175 power (-600R)
-[X]Services Autodice (-7 Services dice, -900R)
--[X]Healthcare: 3 Services dice (-500R)
--[X]Education: 4 Services dice (-400R)
-[X]Total Discretionary pool: 4 FR/3 IN/10 HI/6 LI/11 CI/4 AG/3 SR with 6080R
[X]Plan: Slap That Service Transition Button
-[X]ESA
-[X]Plan Focus (+6 dice): HI/Services
-[X]Spending: 25+15% GNP (10000R)
-[X]Target: High Technology Industries
-[X]Infrastructure Autodice (-8 Infra/-2 Ag dice, -1020R base but modified by steel prices)
--[X]Housing: 5 Infra dice (-480R)
--[X]Rail Electrification: 1 Infra Dice (-140R)
--[X]Dnieper Reservoir System: 1 Ag Dice (-100R)
--[X]Krasnoyarsk-Irkutsk Hydroelectric Zone: 1 Ag +2 Infra Dice (-300R)
-[X]Power Autodice (-5 HI/-1 CI dice, +451 power, -1840R)
--[X]Nuclear Power: 2 HI dice, +36 power from last FYP's program (-640R)
--[X]Coal Power: 2 HI dice, +240 power (-600R)
--[X]Gas Power: 1 HI + 1 CI dice, +175 power (-600R)
-[X]Services Autodice (-7 Services dice, -900R)
--[X]Healthcare: 3 Services dice (-500R)
--[X]Education: 4 Services dice (-400R)
-[X]Total Discretionary pool: 4 FR/2 IN/11 HI/6 LI/5 CI/4 AG/9 SR +up to 4 Dice with 6240R
Regards,
fasquardon
