On the Political Economy of the Transition Period

Abstract

Most of the economic writings of the founders of scientific socialism, it is well known, arc concerned with the analysis of capitalism. Though they had very much in view the social formation that was to succeed the existing one, any elaborate discussion on the subject was out of the question as long as the "material base" of such a discussion was absent, i.e., as long as the working class had not seized political power and established its dictatorship. This material base was created in Russia after the October Revolution and, indeed, an extensive and animated debate took place in Russia in the twenties on the economic problems of the transition period between capitalism and socialism.

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