CHAPTER 5 Communist Factory and Farm With the November Revolu tion of 1917, modified Marxism-Communism-came to Russia. But for three years, 1918-1920, the Bolshevik leaders were too busy putting down White rebellion and foreign intervention to make headway with Socialism. Then, from 1921 to 1928, they followed their New Economic Policy—the famous N.E.P., really state capitalism—because they had no other choice; civil war and internal chaos simply had required it. Thus it was not until the spring of 1929 that the brave Communist words began to take on substance-before the word became deed. In that year the First Five Year Plan was born. Under it, both industry and agriculture were genuinely collectivized. Out of the travail of this period and the purges which followed, the shape of present-day Communist Russia appeared. We are here concerned with coming to an understanding of the basic features of the new socialist economy. We shall examine first the new regime in industry, and then turn to its counterpart in agriculture. The section on Soviet industry is from Professor Barrington Moore's SOVIET POLITICS: THE DILEMMA OF POWER, one of the most powerful contributions to an understanding of Soviet society that has been offered in recent years. In the preparation of his analysis of the Soviet system, Professor Moore had the assistance and advice of a number of scholars asso ciated with the Russian Research Center located at Harvard University. "Politbureau," referred to but not defined in this section, is the name given to the top echelon of the Communist Party-the small elite which makes all important decisions. Its official name since 1952 is Presidium. It is taken up in the next chapter in the section on the Party. The description of Soviet agriculture is from MANAGEMENT IN RUSSIAN INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE, by G. Bienstock, S. M. Schwarz, and A. Yugow. This able work was published under the auspices of the Institute of World Affairs, established by the New School for Social Research, and offers, in the opinion of this editor, one of the most constructive approaches to an understanding of the Soviet farm economy available to the "beginning student." FROM Barrington Moore, Jr. SOVIET POLITICS: THE DILEMMA OF POWER any industrial economic system has to find ways and means for making four groups of decisions. First, it is necessary to decide what to produce, in the second place, decisions have to be made concerning the most efficient way of combining labor and resources in order to produce the guns, butter, and other myriad products of a modern industrial order. Thirdly, it is necessary to provide some means for deciding how much economic effort should go into the building of new plants and the replacement of equipment that has become worn-out or obsolete. Finally, there have to be devices for insuring the orderly distribution of the products of the economy among the population. How does the Soviet system provide for reaching decisions on whether to produce guns or butter, machinery or knitting needles? From the available evidence it is reasonably certain that the major decisions on the general production goals of the Soviet economy, including the types of products and quantities of each, are now reached by the Politbureau and embodied in the various Five Year Plans. This concentration of the decisionmaking power on matters of national import in the economic field parallels the political concentration of power. The present situation differs markedly from that before Stalin's accession to power. The First Five Year Plan was itself the product of discussions and small-scale trials that lasted from the November revolution until 1929. The highest planning body on economic affairs is the Gosplan (State Planning Commission). However, as the English economist Maurice A. Dodd, who is not one to emphasize the authoritarian aspects of the Soviet regime, points out, the Gosplan is an advisory body and "not an executive department of state." It is a part of the Council of Ministers, and, according to Soviet sources, receives its directives from them and from the Supreme Soviet. The procedure by which the Five Year Plans are actually drawn up is quite complicated and need not be considered in detail here, especially since this aspect of the Soviet system has received considerable attention from Western writers. It is sufficient to point out that in formulating the details of a Plan the Gosplan authorities must take careful account of existing capacities and resources, an operation which requires an accurate knowledge of such capacities and resources of the USSR as a whole. In the second place, the planners have to make sure that the plans for each industry and area match one another. For example, in expanding the amount of electric power, the Gosplan has to be sure that there will be available the necessary steel and other equipment for building the new power plants, and that this power in turn will be in a locality where it will be useful to other factories. Thus, it is quite clear that the planners, including not only the technicians but also the political authorities, do not and cannot have a completely free hand in the choices that they make. The conclusion that the basic decisions concerning what to |