ABSTRACT
On assuming power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks intended to redirect the Russian economy as quickly as possible according to Marxist principles. The 1918 Constitution of the RSFSR (Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic) advanced ‘the fundamental aim of abolishing all exploitation of man by man, of eliminating completely the division of society into classes’.1 Lenin hoped to promote harmony between the industrial and agricultural sectors and exploit all the most modern techniques: ‘Communism is the Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.’ He also intended to promote state ownership through all levels of industry and agriculture, referring, for example, to collectivization as the ‘indispensable theoretical truth’.2
