|Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
The discourse on ownership in the Soviet political economy
https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2023-10-27-52
Abstract
The primary task for political economy of socialism was to elaborate a project of the new society. Looking forward into the future, that is positioning beyond current reality, was its mission, not a flaw, for which it is routinely blamed. At the same time, the future socialist society was thought through negation of capitalism as a system based on private property. Therefore, the theme of ownership was at the centre of the socialist project. Creating specific type of discourse was its component part. Sophistication in mastering its rules was a prerequisite of meaningful communication within this discourse. That’s why the texts as artifacts of this discourse need to be deciphered today. In this paper, dealing with the history of Soviet economic debates about ownership, it is attempted to reveal most relevant, even if often implicit, meanings which leading Soviet political economists were aiming to express in their works. The authors analyse historical background of the Soviet ownership discourse, its formation in the early Soviet, as well as in Stalin’s periods, competing research programmes of its transformation in the 1960s and 1970s, and its breakup at the turn of the 1990s.
Keywords
political economy of socialism,
social ownership,
cooperative ownership,
power-ownership,
A.V. Venediktov,
Y.A. Kronrod,
N.A. Tsagolov,
V.P. Shkredov,
Y.V. Sukhotin
JEL: B14; B24; P30
About the Authors
D. V. Melnik
HSE University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Denis V. Melnik, associate professor, director of the PhD School in economics
Moscow
O. I. Ananyin
HSE University; Institute of Economics, RAS
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Oleg I. Ananyin, distinguished professor, department of theoretical economics
Moscow
References
1. Abalkin L. I., Milyukov A. I. (eds.) (1990). Economic reform: Search for solutions. Proceedings of the USSR scientific and practical conference on the problems of radical economic reform. Moscow: Politizdat. (In Russian).
2. Balakin V. S. (2018). Social history of the Soviet science: Academicians Vasily Nemchinov and Nikolay Fedorenko on economic and mathematical methods in optimal planning (1960s — middle 1970s). Perm University Herald. History, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 88—97. (In Russian).
3. Bogdanov A., Stepanov I. (1910). Course of political economy, Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Znanie. (In Russian).
4. Bogdanov A., Stepanov I. (1919). Course of political economy. Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2, 4. Moscow, Petrograd: Communist. (In Russian).
5. Bukharin N. I., Preobrazhensky E. A. (1920). The ABC of communism. Peterburg: Gosizdat. (In Russian).
6. Vasilyev L. S. (1982). The phenomenon of power-ownership. In: Types of social relations in the MIddle Ages East. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 60—99. (In Russian).
7. Venediktov A. V. (1948). State socialist property. Moscow, Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences Press. (In Russian).
8. Vorontsov V. P. (2008). Economy and capitalism. Moscow: Astrel. (In Russian).
9. Glagolev V. (2005). Speculation with SOFE: The history of one economic discussion. Russian Who is Who, No. 6, pp. 64—65. (In Russian).
10. Gloveli G. D. (2010). Political economy in a broad sense: Elements of institutionalism and utopianism. Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 10, pp. 113—134. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2010-10-113-134
11. Grebennikov V. G., Pchelintsev O. S., Shatalin S. S. (1986). On the problems of development of socialist ownership in the USSR. Proceedings of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Economics and Applied Sociology Series, No. 2, pp. 7—16. (In Russian).
12. Danielson N. F. (1880). Essays on our post-reform social economy. St. Petersburg: Tip. V. Bezobrazova. (In Russian).
13. Kronrod Y. A. (1966). The laws of the political economy of socialism. Moscow: Mysl. (In Russian).
14. Kronrod Y. A. (1971). On the issue of the socialist mode of production and the stages of its development. Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Economics Series, No. 3, pp. 82—99. (In Russian).
15. Kronrod Y. A. (1973). Some theoretical issues of the economy of a developed socialist society. Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 2, pp. 99—108. (In Russian).
16. Latov Y. V. (2007). Wittfogel’s “Oriental despotism” (Toward 50th anniversary of the “strange” book). Journal of Economic History & History of Economics, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 8—37. (In Russian).
17. Lenin V. I. (1970). On сooperation. In: Lenin V. I. Сollected works, Vol. 45. Moscow: Politizdat, pp. 369—377. (In Russian).
18. Lenin V. I. (1969). “Left-wing” childishness. In: Lenin V. I. Collected works, Vol. 36. Moscow: Politizdat, pp. 283—314. (In Russian).
19. Melnik D. V. (2014). From the history of institutionalization of economic science: The “Leningrad affair.” Moscow: Institute of Economics of RAS. (In Russian).
20. Mitrokhin N. A. (2022). Essays on Soviet economic policy. In 2 vols. Moscow: NLO. (In Russian).
21. Some questions (1943). Some questions of teaching political economy. Pod Znamenem Marxisma, No. 7—8, pp. 56—78. (In Russian).
22. Nureev R. M. (1990). Asiatic mode of production and socialism. Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 3, pp. 47—58. (In Russian).
23. Ovsiyenko Y. V., Sukhotin Y. V. (1979). On the question of the place of the theory of optimal functioning of economy in the system of economic sciences of socialism. Economics and Mathematical Methods, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 783—795. (In Russian).
24. Orekhovskiy P. A. (ed.) (2022). Cognitive structures and the political economy of socialism in the USSR. St. Petersburg: Aleteya. (In Russian).
25. Ostrovityanov K. V., Shepilov D. T., Leontyev L. A., Laptev I. D., Kuzminov I. I., Gatovsky L. M. (1954). Political еconomy. A textbook. Moscow: Politizdat. (In Russian).
26. Popkova L. (1987). Where are the lusher pies? Novy Mir, No. 5, pp. 239–240. (In Russian).
27. Popov G. K. (2004). Bringing the future closer. In: The destiny of political economy and its Soviet classic scholar. Moscow: Alpina Business Books, pp. 363—394. (In Russian).
28. Preobrazhensky E. A., Bukharin N. I. (1990). Paths of development: Debates of the 1920s. Leningrad: Lenizdat. (In Russian).
29. Sibirev A. I. (1983). Economic аccounting. In: D. K. Trifonov, L. D. Shirokorad (eds.). History of political economy of socialism, 2nd ed. Leningrad: LSU Publ., pp. 391—430. (In Russian).
30. Skvortsov-Stepanov I. (1925). What is political economy? Pod Znamenem Marxisma, No. 1—2, pp. 156—190. (In Russian).
31. Stalin I. V. (1952). Economic problems of socialism in the USSR. Moscow: Gospolitizdat. (In Russian).
32. Stalin I. V. (2012). Talks with economists. Note of 29th of January 1941. Istoricheskiy Arhiv, No. 4, pp. 6—28. (In Russian).
33. Sukhotin Y. V. (1975). On the economic forms of planned management. Moscow: TSEMI. (In Russian).
34. Sukhotin Y. V. (1983). On the motivational aspect of economic management. Economics and Mathematical Methods, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 328—345. (In Russian).
35. Sukhotin Y. V. (1985). Economic mechanism in the system of production relations. Proceedings of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Economics and Applied Sociology Series, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 13—20. (In Russian).
36. Trifonov D. K. (1964). General economic laws. Leningrad: LSU Press. (In Russian).
37. Tsagolov N. A. (ed.) (1973). Course of political economy. Vol. 2. Moscow: Ekonomika. (In Russian).
38. Tsagolov N. A. (1973). Current problems of designing the system of political economy. In: N. A. Tsagolov (ed.). On the system of categories and laws of political economy. Moscow: MSU Press, pp. 5—43. (In Russian).
39. Stein V. M. (1948). Essays in development of Russian socio-economic thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. Leningrad: LSU Press. (In Russian).
40. Shkredov V. P. (1967). Economy and law. Moscow: Ekonomika. (In Russian).
41. Shkredov V. P. (1973). The method of studying ownership in K. Marx’s Capital. Moscow: MSU Press. (In Russian).
42. Shlyapnikov A. G. et al. (1921). Tasks of trade unions (Theses of the Workers Opposition). Moscow: Gosizdat. (In Russian).
43. Yurchak A. (2014). Everything was forever, until it was no more: The last Soviet generation. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie. (In Russian).
44. Dunayevskaya R. (tran.) (1944). Teaching of economics in the Soviet Union. American Economic Review, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 501—530.
Supplementary files
Review
For citations:
Melnik D.V., Ananyin O.I. The discourse on ownership in the Soviet political economy. Voprosy Ekonomiki. 2023;(10):27-52. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2023-10-27-52
Views:
552
Email this article 
