State industry

This chapter examines Soviet industry and its state enterprises. It demonstrates that the First Five-Year Plans did not fundamentally change the capitalist relations of production. It shows that the Soviet economic system established in Stalin’s time and continuing onwards had all the essential features of the capitalist system identified in the first chapter. It also delves into class struggle in the USSR, showing that the working class continuously resisted its plight. It also shows the particular regime of accumulation the Soviet economy was subject to, wherein accumulation of absolute surplus-value was more of a priority than accumulation of relative surplus-value.