IS RUSSIA ‘ON THE ROAD TO COMMUNISM’?

THERE is growing talk in the USSR of the building of communism, and no doubt this will rrovide a major theme at next year’s Twenty-first Cong:.ss of the Soviet Does this mean that forty-one years after the October Revolution the USSR now stands at the gateway of a new epoch of abundance and freedom where, as .Marx put it, ‘the point is passed where labour under the compulsion of necessity and external utility is required’?

Is this phase of society—where ‘socialized man, the associated producers, regulate their intercourse with nature rationally, bring it under their common control, instead of being ruled by it as some blind power'—now in sight?

-Economic reality is still a long way removed from this, despite the brave title—‘Building Technical Basis of Communism’—given to an article by T. Khachaturov in Questions of Economics (English translation, slightly abridged, in Soviet News nos. 3924-5, Oct. 2-3, 1958).

To a large extent this article is concerned with generalizations about the relationships between improvements in technique, labour productivity and investment. The question of the world balance of political forces is excluded.

SG to catch up What is stated about the Soviet economy now—as distinct from the hypothetical future—shows that the power of necessity is still overwhelming.

Khachaturov admits that production will have to be increased 2} times, not to attain the abundance of communism, Emphasis is now distinctly upon technique as the major factor in labour productivity; Stakhanovism has receded into the background.

But technique still means investment. With automation or nuclear power it means very heavy investment indeed. Therefore, before ‘communism’ can be realized a further indefinite period of holding back the consumption standards of the people will be called for.

No doubt past investment, bringing steady growth in total output, ensures that the mass of consumer goods available for distribution increases, without a spectacular change in their proportion.

But since the emphasis in the past was on investment in means of production to build up more means of production, the demands of the masses of the people still cannot be met rapidly enough.

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Contradictions and socia] antagonisms, far from disappearing, reach a new pitch and find expression in new forms.

It is now a steady pressure in ficld and factory which imposes switches in policy, stunts and promises. Above all! it imposes the current emphasis on opening up ‘the road to communism’, which recalls the atmosphere and propaganda accompanying the ‘building of socialism’ in the 1930s.

More rapid improvement will have to wait until the conditions have been prepared. For the present a strenuous attempt is being made to break down the suspicions of the people, and to use the appeal of the communist ideal to enlist their co-operation.