Abstract

On the Changes in Marxian Monetary Theory in the Soviet Economy

In the decades since the establishment of a socialist order ın Russia, there has been a fundamental change in the Soviet economy’s relationship to money. Initially, in line with the orientation to the Marxian economic system, money was regarded as a capitalistic category which could only lead an interim existence in a socially ordered economy. But very soon (1920) Lenin declared money to be a necessary phenomenon under the given socioeconomic conditions and encouraged the extension of relationships between commodities and money. Stalin not only continued to follow this line, but in addition gave the decisive impetus for the ‘rehabilitation’ of money from the standpoint of Soviet political economy. Since that time there is no further question of the demise of money; on the contrary, the necessity of its existence in a socialist economy of the Soviet type is emphatically stressed. For all that, no ‘theory of Soviet money’ ihas been conceived for the specific conditions of a socialist transitional economy, on the structure of which neither Marx nor Engels formulated adequate propositions. Instead, the Marxian theory of money was employed for the interpretation of monetary phenomena of Soviet socialist economies; this procedure lead to a significant change in that monetary theory, raised consıderable theoretical problems, and gave rise to a lively debate on the nature and functions of money in socialism. In the past few years, this debate has almost completely ceased. New impetus for a monetary theory debate may be imparted, however, especially by the reform conceptions advocated by the socialist countries of eastern Europe; for in those countries, deviating from traditional approaches in Soviet political economy, the question of money ın socialısm and relationship between commodities and money is’being raised anew.