An Early and Sadly Misinformed Assessment of the Soviet Planned Economic System

Edward J. Dodson

[Comments on an editorial appearing in Land and Freedom, January- February, 1932, and probably written by Joseph Dana Miller -- 2009]

We should not be all that surprised that in 1932 there would be some attention paid to the economic model adopted by the Bolshevik leaders for the Soviet population. The number of first-hand observations made by Western visitors was small, and the visits were tightly orchestrated by officials of the Soviet regime. In the following editorial, Joseph Dana Miller describes what he believed to be the situation as it existed. [Ed Dodson, 4 June, 2009]

THE RUSSIAN FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The world-heralded Five-Year Plan, notwithstanding the obstacles to be overcome, is prosecuted rigorously, with the assurance that it will be practically completed on time. The development of the petroleum industry that was planned for five years has been completed in three. The hydroelectric development on the Dneiper River is up to schedule. Nine of the largest turbines in the world have already been installed, and when the project is completed more than 900,000 h. p. will have been developed. Three or four modern steel plants are in process of erection, and much more work is being done on railways, irrigation, telegraph lines, bridges, highways and dwelling houses.

If there are not enough skilled workers to be found among the Russians to operate the mills and factories, they will be found in other countries and the skilled operation of the plants assured.

The "hurry-up" processes in connection with the plan have, however, resulted in neither economy nor efficiency, and the wants and necessaries of the workers have been poorly supplied. Living conditions have been getting steadily worse for several years. The hardships which the people undergo must be a strain on both their vitality and their loyalty. The communistic distribution of commodities seems to be a failure. It is truly pitiful to see long lines of would-be purchasers attending from the doors of a government store along the streets and highways, hoping to reach the counter before the small stock of newly arrived goods has been sold out. One may be obliged to wait months to buy such trifles as a comb or spool of thread. The waste of time in shop lines must be something enormous.

A large percentage of the workers one meets in Russia would like to buy a watch, but the state watch factory in Moscow, which was formerly the Hampden Factory of Canton, O., U. S. A., is the only source of supply, the tariff duty on watches being prohibitive. The obvious remedy for these conditions would be the reinstalment of the private watch dealers or the repeal of the tariff law. It may not be too much to expect a reform of this kind from a government that has shown so much wisdom as the Russian Government.

In the World War the Russian losses were greater than those of any country engaged. The war was followed by a revolution; the revolution was followed by famine, and the famine by the War of Intervention, which was financed and the equipment supplied by Russia's former allies. Notwithstanding all of these misfortunes, Russia now has no war debt, no real depression, next to no unemployment problem, and will have a surplus for the present year estimated at three-quarters of a million dollars, at the same time carrying out a system of internal improvement on a scale never before approached. These achievements of Russia, while other great countries of the world are struggling with war debts, budget deficits, crime, depression and unemployment, indicate economic wisdom of a high order.