ABSTRACT
The more strictly economic factors, to which in England one is inclined to assign the leading place, undoubtedly played some part in the Bolshevik attitude towards nationalisation, but apparently only a subordinate part. Principle decreed that the character of the new economic system should be predominantly socialist, but left mainly to experiment and expediency the precise forms of administration which socialist industry might adopt. The interference of the State in economic affairs was mainly confined to finance, to certain branches of trade and to general regulation and control, such as happened in most belligerent countries during the war, and had already under the Tsar acquired the name of “war socialism.” The Supreme Economic Council was set up, primarily with the object of regulating and giving some cohesion to the “elemental forces” which were shaping the economic situation; and among the leading figures on its Presidium were Rykov, Larin, Miliutin and later Krassin and Piatakov.
