The Soviet Government was under the obligation, by reason of its social philosophy and its programme, to give high priority to the extension of collective forms of economy. The amount of standardisation of products arose as an issue of policy at a quite early stage of Soviet planning; and a decision was taken in favour of combining a high degree of standardisation with the adoption wherever possible of the latest American technique in the construction of industrial plants. In fact, the very word that is usually rendered into English as “control” has in Soviet usage a meaning that goes at least half-way towards what in England would be referred to as “supervision”, and might at any rate be not inappropriately rendered as “steering”. More important for many than these narrower economic issues will be another claim which Soviet development between the wars is increasingly making upon the attention of the world.