Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Transport ===
{{Main|Transport in the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Flag of the Aeroflot.svg|thumb|[[Aeroflot]]'s flag during the Soviet era]]
[[File:RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01.jpg|thumb|Nuclear Icebreaker ''[[Lenin (1957 icebreaker)|Lenin]]'']]
Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|economic centralization]] of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of [[Aeroflot]], an aviation enterprise.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Highman, Robert D.S. |author2=Greenwood, John T. |author3=Hardesty, Von |title=Russian Aviation and Air Power in the Twentieth Century |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpynoFM-Jf4C |isbn=978-0-7146-4784-5 |page=134 |access-date=14 September 2017 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116193139/https://books.google.com/books?id=cpynoFM-Jf4C |url-status=live}}</ref> The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.<ref name="Central Intelligence Agency-1991" /> However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=205}}

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=205}} it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=201}} By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet [[government budget]].{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|pp=166–167}} The [[street network]] and [[Automotive industry in the Soviet Union|automotive industry]]{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=168}} remained underdeveloped,{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=165}} and [[dirt road]]s were common outside major cities.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=167}} Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=167}} Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=169}} The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.<ref>{{cite book |author1=IMF |author2=OECD |name-list-style=amp |title=A Study of the Soviet Economy |volume=3 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] and [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AQFk8R18f0C |page=56 |isbn=978-92-64-13468-3}}</ref>

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still{{when|date=February 2016}} riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.<ref>{{citation |title=ДОРОГИ И ДВИЖЕНИЕ В СССР И ЦАРСКОЙ РОССИИ: ЧТО БЫ ПЕРЕНЯТЬ? |translator-last=Roads and transportation in the USSR and Tsarist Russia |date=1 August 2016}}</ref>

The Soviet [[merchant navy]] was one of the largest in the world.<ref name="Central Intelligence Agency-1991">{{cite web |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_communications.html |title=Soviet Union – Communications |author=Central Intelligence Agency |website=[[The World Factbook]] |year=1991 |access-date=20 October 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101005005759/http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_communications.html |archive-date=5 October 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>