Contradictions of the Soviet Political Economy of Socialism of the Late Period

The article examines the contradictions between the groups of Soviet political economists in their views on the content of categories, such as the place of ownership in the socialist economic system, the commodity nature of production, cooperation and universality of labor, the role of the state in the economy, and the ultimate goal of socialist production. These contradictions, both in theory and practice of socialism, must be reduced to their common basis – the contradictions in labor, i.e. in public (classbased) division of labor. The distortion of the interrelation between the sides of socialist contradictions under the slogan of updating Marxist theory had a reverse eff ect, i.e., resulted in negative practical outcomes in the economy. The author shows the instutionalization of the mentioned theoretical disagreements. Firstly, they took shape in the form of a struggle between two directions in Soviet political economy of socialism – the “official” one (represented primarily by the leadership of economic sciences at the USSR Academy of Sciences) and the competing (alternative) direction represented mainly by Tsagolov’s school and university departments of political economy. Theoretical differences between these directions are based on different methodologies – positivist and dialectical. Secondly, the theoretical defense of tendencies for the transition of pre-socialist formation elements within the framework of socialism received official support since those views were normatively enshrined in program and legal documents of the ruling party and the state; subsequently, this led to the strengthening of non-socialist aspects of contradictions in practice and ultimately to the liquidation of socialism as a social system.