Critical overview of Marxist theories on the nature of the Soviet Union

This chapter criticises theories on the nature of the Soviet economy, including previous theories of a capitalist USSR. It claims that the USSR was socialist and demonstrates non-Marxists cannot give a coherent answer to the debate. It then turns to critical Marxist theories. It demonstrates that most of these, even some claiming the USSR was capitalist, were based on the belief the Soviet economy was superior to Western economies and are therefore almost all incapable of explaining the USSR’s collapse. Trotsky’s is shown to be incoherent in relation to the facts, to Marx’s thought, and to itself. The idea that the USSR was a form of bureaucratic collectivism is shown to be similarly based on a misunderstanding of Marx’s thought and the belief that the USSR showed the world an image of its future. The chapter finds that most theories of Soviet capitalism see it as superior to Western capitalism and either denied that competition between capitals is a core feature of the capitalist mode of production or in some form denied that such competition existed within the USSR. The few that do not deny that the USSR saw domestic competition also understood the USSR was less developed than Western economies.