ABSTRACT
This analysis covers a specific period in the development of socialist economies, the period of initial socialist industrialization, which is characterized by very rapid changes in the structure of m aterial production. This very fact sheds additional light on the relative value of such an analysis. In particular, investment cycles go beyond the temporal context of this initial stage and represent a lasting form of the dynamics of the socialist economy — its long-run character istic. This is the only kind of broad comparative analysis which is possible, however, because the development up to this point does not perm it comparable analysis of this phenomenon in most socialist countries for a longer period, although some countries already offer some evidence for such an analysis.
