Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSRClass Theory and History takes an ambitious and ground-breaking look at the entire history of the Soviet Union and presents a new kind of analysis of the history of the USSR: examining its birth, evolution, and death in class terms. Utilizing the class analytics they have developed over the last three decades, resnick and Wolff formulate the most fully developed economic theory of communism now available, and use that theory to answer the question: did communism ever exist in the USSR and if so, where, why and for how long? Their initial, and controversial, conclusion: Soviet industry never established a communist class structure. This conclusion then leads to the hypothesis that the USSR and provate capitalism in the United States to discuss the future of private capitalism, state capitalism and communism. |
Contents
A General Class Theory | 3 |
The Classical Tradition | 5 |
Our Basic Terms | 8 |
A Brief Digression | 10 |
A Concrete Communism | 13 |
Centralization versus Decentralization | 16 |
Culture Politics and Economics of Communism | 20 |
How Societies DifferA Methodological Problem | 42 |
Class Contradictions after War Communism | 175 |
Notes | 179 |
Revolution Class and the Soviet Household | 183 |
Bolshevik Class Blindness | 185 |
New Economic PolicyOld Household Policy | 192 |
Notes | 202 |
The New Economic Poticies of the 1920s | 206 |
An Overview | 209 |
Notes | 44 |
The Many Forms of Communism | 51 |
Class and Property | 52 |
Class and Markets | 59 |
Class and Power | 65 |
I | 71 |
Socialism and Communism | 74 |
Notes | 79 |
State Capitalism | 83 |
A Class Theory of State Capitatism | 85 |
II | 88 |
III | 92 |
IV | 95 |
Notes | 101 |
Debates over State Capitatism | 104 |
Power as the Theoretical Key | 111 |
Weaknesses of Power Theories | 119 |
Notes | 126 |
The Rise and Fall of the USSR | 131 |
Class Structures and Tensions before 1917 | 133 |
The Complexities | 143 |
The Contradictions and the Revolution | 146 |
Notes | 153 |
Revotution War Communism and the Aftermath | 156 |
Changing the State and Class Structures | 158 |
Organizing the New Class Structures | 164 |
V | 169 |
The NEP in Class and Value Terms | 213 |
A History of NEP Contradictions | 222 |
Adjusting State Industrial Capitalism | 227 |
Revolution and NEP as a Transition to State Capitalism | 229 |
Notes | 231 |
The Transformations of the 1930s | 237 |
New Complexities and Contradictions | 238 |
Communism in Agriculture | 243 |
State Capitalism and Industry | 257 |
The Industrial Workers | 262 |
Stalinism and Class | 268 |
The Value Equation for Collective Farms | 273 |
The Value Crisis of Collective Farms | 274 |
Notes | 275 |
Class Contradictions and the Collapse | 281 |
Class Structures after World War Two | 282 |
Postwar Culture | 286 |
Postwar Politics | 298 |
Postwar Economy | 310 |
State Enterprise and Household Transitions | 316 |
The Collapse | 321 |
The Value Equation for Military Expenditures | 325 |
The Value Equation for International Terms of Trade | 326 |
| 335 | |
| 347 | |
Other editions - View all
Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR Stephen A. Resnick,Richard D. Wolff No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
agriculture ancient class structures ancient farmers appropriated and distributed Bolshevik bureaucracy capitalist class structures capitalist farmers capitalist industry centralized changes class analysis class struc classlessness coexist collective farms collectivization commodities communist class structures communist enterprises conditions of existence consumption contradictions cultural debates decentralized economic equation example exploitation feudal and ancient feudal class structures form of communism forms of capitalism fundamental class grain hence household class structures incomes individual industrial enterprises industrial workers interact labor power Lenin managers Marx Marx's Marxian Marxism means of production merchants Nepmen nonclass processes officials output overdetermined ownership planning policies political postwar private ancient private capitalism private markets private plots private property problems raw materials retail revolution Russian secure serfs socialist Soviet households Soviet society Stalinism state's struggles surplus appropriators surplus labor surplus value terms of trade theory tion transition tures undermine unequal exchanges USSR USSR's Vesenkha wages war communism women