Editing Socialist emulation (section)

== Competition vs. emulation ==
{{See also|Soviet-type economic planning}}
The first variant is a literal translation of the Russian term, commonly used by Western authors. The second form is an official Soviet translation of the term, intended to put distance from the "[[capitalist competition]]", which in its turn was translated as {{Lang|ru|капиталистическая конкуренция}}, "kapitalisticheskaya konkurenciya". Implied was that "capitalist competition" only profited those that won, while "socialist emulation" benefited all involved.

The race between teams and team members for overperforming the [[five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|five-year plans]] led to increasingly unrealistic targets, which could only be satisfied with cheating, double accounting, hoarding of resources, and ''[[shturmovshchina]]'' (last-minute cramming)—which, in the long term, led to a collapse of the supply chain in the economy.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man|last = Heller|first = Mikhail|publisher = Alfred A. Knopf|year = 1988|isbn = 978-0394569260|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/cogsinwheelforma0000gell}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = I chose freedom|last = Kravchenko|first = Victor|year = 1988| publisher=Transaction |isbn = 978-0887387548}}</ref>  In 1987, Soviet economist Nikolai Shmelov estimated that out of 450 billion roubles worth of inventories of raw materials and parts, around 170 billion was kept as surplus, with the sole purpose of securing the successful completion of plans.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://echelon.pl/content/%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9-%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87-%D1%88%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%91%D0%B2-nikolay-shmelyov-%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8B-%D0%B8-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B8-avansy-i-dolgi-credits-and-debts-%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2|title = Avansi i dolgi|last = Shmelov|first = Nikolai|date = 1987|journal = Novyi Mir|issue = 6|trans-title = Credits and debts}}</ref>