Planning without a Plan: On the Failure of Economic Theory in the Soviet Union

In: Osteuropa, Volume 63, Issue 5-6

Abstract

Although the 'classics' could only imagine socialism without the market, the Soviet debate primarily revolved around the question whether market relations should be allowed. But then Stalin promulgated tenets that allowed neither a true representation of the Soviet economy, nor the development of a theory of economic planning. Instead, a Political Economy of Socialism, a contradictory doctrine of 'planned market relations', was rolled out. The economic-mathematical school and tentative reflections on the market failed to make an impact. Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt to save the socialist system by means of a Soviet variation on market socialism failed also because of a lack of theoretical groundwork. Adapted from the source document.