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If you're interested in a straightforward English language account of life in the GDR, I recommend "A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee" by Victor Grossmann, who defected by way of crossing into Soviet occupied Austria.

He addresses the perks (price fixed goods (at least staples), cheap public transport, the position of and benefits to the worker) and what could be considered drawbacks by western readers (Stasi, press freedom, limited travel opportunities, industriality of the region) in a fairly evenhanded manner. It's been years since I've read this so I might be a bit off base.

A good companion piece is "Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?" for a more analytical "overview" rather than the perspective of one man.

Both of these works deal with the end of the GDR and it's bleak.

Class theory and history: capitalism and communism in the USSR by Resnick and Wolff

This is a question with an immense sprawling answer.

"What economic policies were pursued by 6 different countries over a total of hundreds of years?" can't be answered in a forum post.

Maybe someone can chime in with book recommendations.

Things to look up include Gosplan, Đổi Mới, Lenin's New Economic Policy, the Reform and Opening Up, etc.

Not trying to be unhelpful, but the question is so big it's hard to do it justice otherwise. Some things that come to mind:

• In 1922-24 Lenin reformed the monetary system. It was a dual-currency system chervonets (gold-backed, for nationalised market) and sovznaks (private markets, more like fiat money)

• Stalin: "In 1921, when we introduced NEP, Lenin again raised the question of the possibility of the victory of socialism, this time in the more concrete form of the possibility of laying a socialist foundation for our economy along the lines of NEP. You will recall that when NEP was introduced in 1921, Lenin was accused by a section of our Party, especially by the “Workers’ Opposition,” that, by introducing NEP, he was swerving from the path of socialism. It was evidently in reply to this that Lenin repeatedly declared in his speeches and articles of that time that we were introducing NEP not as a departure from our course, but as a continuation of it under the new conditions, with a view to laying “a socialist foundation for our economy,” “together with the peasantry,” and “under the leadership of the working class” (see Lenin’s 'The Tax in Kind' and other articles on the subject of NEP)."

• Lenin's New Economic Policy (1922-1928) used the concepts of profit and incentives. Autonomous enterprises were not nationalized, but instead placed under the guidance of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy, with the plan to group them into "trusts" based on production chains or geographic proximity.

• After the NEP, 1930-65, things got more centralised under Gosplan, then the Kosygin reform happened in 1965. In September 1962, Liberman wrote "Plans, Profits, and Bonuses" in Pravda, arguing that incentives and the profit motive were required. "What is profitable for society should be profitable for every enterprise," he wrote.

The first Kosygin reform:

1. Enterprises as the main economic unit
2. The system of policy targets was simplified, in favour of independent enterprises
3. Enterprises were allowed to set their own stock, reïnvest profits funds in production, arrange contracts with suppliers, etc.
4. This was to be done with profit calculation (рентабельность)
5. Pricing: Wholesale sales prices would be recalibrated to reflect costs and encourage economic efficiency

Industries were transferred to the new system bit-by-bit, beginning at 1966, and by the end of 1967 most of the Soviet economy was using the reformed profit system. Results: The economy grew more in 1966–1970 than it did in 1961–1965.

Kosygin was a busy guy, launched wide-reaching economic reforms in 1973 and 1979 as well, but the first was the biggest.