ABSTRACT
What had the Bolshevik effort actually achieved by the time of the start of the Second World War and the (at least temporary) congealing of the particular system of planning that was the legacy of October 1917? On the positive side it had shown that revolutionary socialists could maintain political control in a given country for a significant period of time and institute various fundamental economic changes. Investment in heavy industry had been increased on a massive scale and agricultural production had been radically transformed. On the negative side it had shown that, in the Russian context at least, the price to be paid for this Bolshevik control was very high indeed, both in human and material costs. Working conditions in much of industry remained gruellingly harsh and the peasantry had been forced against their will into large-scale collectivisation. In terms of liberating the species-being of all humanity – Marx’s underlying goal – little had been achieved, as most people still toiled in very difficult working conditions for long hours with little capacity for leisure amidst authoritarian social structures. It is true that universal education for example was receiving much more attention than in Tsarist times, even despite Kokovtsov’s pre-war efforts, but this education had become merged with propaganda to a very frightening degree.
