A harsh winter chills economic growth
The ill winds of Russia's winter blew very little that was good for the Soviet Union this year. The Central Statistical Administration of the U.S.S.R. last week released its figures on the performance of the Soviet economy in the first three months of 1979, and they were bleak. The coldest winter in 75 years sent temperatures plummeting to -45° C in Moscow suburbs and severely damaged pipes, power lines, railway beds, trucks and roads across the country. Never a strong point of the Soviet economy, transportation became a major national problem as a late...