Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR (Russian:Экономические проблемы социализма в СССР,romanized: Ekonomicheskiye problemy sotsializma v SSSR) is a work ofpolitical economy written byJoseph Stalin in 1951. It was one of the last works published before his death.[1] In it, he made the claim that theSoviet Union had reached thelower stage of communism. The main impetus for the book came from the discussions around the preparations for a new textbook on political economy that would be standard throughout thecommunist movement. One of the main theoretical debates was on whether thelaw of value still operated within asocialist economy; some economists stated thatKarl Marx inDas Kapital had only meant for it to apply to capitalist exchange. Stalin insisted that it still operated under a socialist economy. Nonetheless, he argued that it was a historical and not eternal law and that it would disappear in the second higher stage ofcommunism. Under socialism, it was necessary for commodity exchange and trained "business executives to conduct production on rational lines and disciplines them". Stalin laid the book out as plan for the transition to full communism but insisted that objective economic laws would still have to be followed.[2]
The main topics discussed are the following:
Regarding the law of value and commodity production, Stalin wrote, "[I]t is chiefly the form, the outward appearance of the old categories of capitalism that have remained in our country, but that their essence has radically changed in adaptation to the requirements of the development of the socialist economy."[3]: 204
Stalin stated that wars between capitalist nations were still inevitable, a position thatEugene Varga had disputed.[4][5]
Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSRwas immediately translated upon its release and became a foundational political economy text in thePeople's Republic of China in 1952.[6] It was influential in discussions of public and collective ownership and thelaw of value under socialism.[3]: 70
During the first Zhengzhou Conference (November 2, 1958 to November 10, 1958),Mao Zedong,chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a letter on November 9 suggesting that leading cadres at all levels carefully read Stalin's work.
The book was later criticised by Mao Zedong inA Critique of Soviet Economics.[7]: 51
Earlymarket socialist economists in both the Soviet Union and China would use these words of Stalin to justify market reforms. In his 1981 workChina's Socialist Economy,Xue Muqiao would use Stalin's book as a justification for using the market mechanism in theprimary stage of socialism.[8] Xue also introduced the term "underdeveloped socialism" in his bookChina's Socialist Economy.[9] The book was written in the orthodoxMarxist–Leninist framework enunciated by Stalin inEconomic Problems of Socialism in the USSR.[10] Xue wrote that within thesocialist mode of production there were several phases and for China to reach an advanced form of socialism it had to focus on developing theproductive forces.[10] He proposed a theory in which the basic laws ofeconomic growth were those in which "therelations of production must conform to the level of the productive forces".[10] Similar to Stalin, Xue considered the productive forces to be primary and that the relations of production had to conform to the level of the productive forces. Xue believed that this was a fundamental universal law of economics.[10]