From Revolution to Plan

Abstract This chapter analyzes the Soviet economic model from 1917 to the early 1950s as a coherent, ideologically driven development strategy. It identifies four defining features: the primacy of politics and ideology over efficiency; a growth-by-strain logic prioritizing producer goods over consumption; an administrative-command system of planning and enforcement; and a legitimacy compact built on universal education, healthcare, and social consumption funds. The narrative traces War Communism, New Economic Policy, forced industrialization and collectivization, wartime mobilization, and postwar reconstruction, showing how 1930s–1940s’ structures shaped later trajectories. The chapter assesses social outcomes, including vertical mobility and rapid female advancement, and reviews counterfactuals to coercive, high-accumulation industrialization. The chapter concludes that the model enabled accelerated industrialization under duress but was ill-suited to innovation-led growth, while leaving durable material, social, and institutional legacies. Though this model collapsed, it demonstrated that development beyond market confines remains possible if institutions align incentives and information with technological progress and social welfare.