Letter: Has Russia "Production for Use?" (1934)

Letter to the Editors from the October 1934 issue of the Socialist Standard

Has Russia "Production for Use?"

A correspondent (S.N.), writing from Waihi, asks how the S.P.G.B. justifies its attitude towards Russia in face of the following statement made by an observer of Russian conditions: —

After all, there is nothing wonderful about these (Russia’s) achievements. The simple and sufficient explanation is that in a mad world, one country is acting rationally—and is planning her industry and producing for use not for profit. . . .

The name of this observer is not given, but whoever he is, his observation is very much at fault. Nobody denies that the output of Russian industry has increased, but that can be said of many countries which make no claim to being anything but capitalistic. Whether or not those in charge of Russia can be said to be acting “rationally” depends on the point of view. From one angle it has been said that since Socialism in Russia is at present, and for many years to come, an impossibility, it is wise to come to terms with the capitalist world and enter into the mad scramble for markets which is a feature of world capitalism. At any rate, that is what Russia is doing. One outstanding instance of this is the enormous efforts Russia is making to develop the production of gold. The July issue of the Monthly Review of the Moscow Narodny Bank (an official | Soviet institution), publishes an article on gold production, from which we learn that the output of gold has been advancing rapidly. In December, 1933, it was nearly twice as great as in December, 1932, and a further great increase is planned. Russian gold output in 1933 was second largest in the world, being beaten only by Transvaal. The writer of the article in the Bank Review (A. Serebrovsky—chairman of the Central Administration of the Russian Government Gold Trust), holds out the hope that "in the near future the U.S.S.R. will assume first place in the world as a gold-producing country."

Is this rational, except on a purely capitalist basis? Of course it is not, and the Bolsheviks knew this well enough not so long ago. Did not Lenin tell us that under Socialism gold would no doubt be used for the construction of street lavatories ?

Again, this observer is quite wrong about Russia producing for use. Production for use (and this, too, the Bolsheviks once knew quite well) involves the abandonment of buying and selling, and profit-making. In Russia, however, goods are not produced for use but for sale, at a profit. The first charge on Russian industry is to meet the enormous cost (upwards of £100 millions a year) of the interest payments to the bondholders (mainly Russian citizens) who have invested money in the loans continually being raised by the Russian Government.

Quite unintentionally a pro-Bolshevik observer, Mr. Louis Fischer, who for years represented American newspapers in Moscow, showed the capitalist character of Russia in a recent article called " In Russia, Life grows Easier." He wrote: "The food situation, too, is much better than it was last winter. There is scarcely anything one cannot buy—if one has the money." (Nation, New York, June 13th, 1934. Italics ours.)

That is not production for use but production for sale, as in other capitalist countries, " to those who have the money." Ed. Comm.