ИСТИНА

The Double Shock: the Soviet energy crisis and the oil price collapse of 1986 In the late 1970s the Soviet energy sector entered a difficult period when despite run up investments the oil output was steadily slowing down. This Soviet energy crisis was caused by the ‘tyranny of the gross output targets’, extreme inefficiency, lack of industrial support, and reliance on the supply of imported equipment which was drastically decreased in the early 1980s. Drawing from several Russian archives, this paper explores the Soviet perception of, and reaction to the developments on the global energy market in broader context of soaring oil prices and the crisis of the Soviet energy industry. Eventually, in 1985 and 1986 the USSR was jolted by the double crisis: the downturn of domestic production and the oil price collapse.