THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION W. B. Bland. THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION By W. B. Bland. Second Edition, 1995; First published Wembley 1980. FOREWORD This book is an analysis of the economic system which was developed in the USSR after the "economic reforms" of 1965-66 - an analysis made on the basis of a mass of evidence taken almost exclusively from official Soviet economic journals. Taking into account the virtual abolition of centralised economic planning, the introduction of profit as the regulator of production, the vesting of effective ownership and "hiring and firing" rights in industrial management, and the inequitable distribution of enterprise profit between managerial and shop floor personnel, the author reached the conclusion - as the title indicates - that by the 1970s the soviet economy had become essentially a restored capitalist system masquerading under red flags which are no longer appropriate. Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1: The Abolition of Centralised Economic Planning ............................................................................................................... 10 3: The "Socialist Market" ............................................................................................................................................................................ 24 4: Payment for Production Assets .............................................................................................................................................................. 30 5: Credit and Interest ................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 6: Ownership of the Means of Production ................................................................................................................................................. 41 7: The New Soviet Capitalist ....................................................................................................................................................................... 45 8: Freedom to Hire and Fire ....................................................................................................................................................................... 46 9: The Primitive Accumulation of Capital ................................................................................................................................................... 49 11: The Value of Labour Power .................................................................................................................................................................. 50 12: The Price of Labour Power ................................................................................................................................................................... 52 Restoration of Capitalism in Soviet Union – Bill Bland, Page 2 13: Managerial Salaries .............................................................................................................................................................................. 57 14: "Price Control" ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 59 15: The Retention of Profit by the Enterprise ............................................................................................................................................ 65 16: "Economic Incentives" ......................................................................................................................................................................... 66 17: "Socialist Profit" ................................................................................................................................................................................... 67 18: The Distribution of "Socialist Profit" .................................................................................................................................................... 72 19: "Divide and Rule" ................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 20: Anti-Semitism ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 78 21: Corporatism ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 79 22: The Social Services ............................................................................................................................................................................... 81 23: Environmental Pollution ....................................................................................................................................................................... 86 24: "Moral Stimuli" ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 88 25: Economic Coercion ............................................................................................................................................................................... 93 26: National Discrimination ........................................................................................................................................................................ 94 27: "The International Division of Labour" ................................................................................................................................................. 99 28: Investment ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 102 30: The Concentration and Centralisation of Capital ............................................................................................................................... 109 31: Soviet Monopoly Capitalism ............................................................................................................................................................... 114 32: A "Superfluity of Capital" ................................................................................................................................................................... 118 33: The Exploitation of the Working Class ................................................................................................................................................ 119 34: The Market Problem .......................................................................................................................................................................... 123 35: The Class Structure of Contemporary Soviet Society ......................................................................................................................... 125 36: The Role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ....................................................................................................................... 126 37: The Character of the Soviet State....................................................................................................................................................... 127 38: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 130 INTRODUCTION After the Russian Revolution of November 1917, the official ideology of what became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was Marxism-Leninism. According to Marxism-Leninism, a capitalist society is one in which 1) the means of production -- factories, land, etc., -- are owned by individuals or corporate groups of individuals called capitalists; 2) this class of capitalists holds political power by controlling the state apparatus; 3) production is regulated by the profit motive; and 4) exploitation occurs, in that capitalists live, partly or wholly, on the labour of others, i.e., of their employed workers. Restoration of Capitalism in Soviet Union – Bill Bland, Page 3 On the other hand, according to Marxism-Leninism a socialist society is one in which 1) the means of production are owned collectively by the workers; 2) this class of workers holds political power by controlling the state apparatus; 3) production is planned by the state; and 4) exploitation -- the process of living partly or wholly on the labour of others -- has been eliminated. On the basis of these definitions, Marxist-Leninists describe the society which was constructed in the Soviet Union in the period following the revolution as a socialist society. In the years which followed the revolution, the political struggle to prevent the construction of a socialist society and, when such a society had been built, to bring about the restoration of a capitalist society, may