|Peter Boettke|
A few projects that I am involved with at the moment have brought me back to my original research and teaching interest in political economy -- comparative economic systems and the political and economic history of the Soviet Union. One of those projects is that I am teaching my graduate course in comparative systems this spring, but I have changed the course once again so in preparation I have been reading some new books and articles. In the process I turned to the website of Political Economy Research in Soviet Archives at the University of Warwick.
Inside that link you can find an interesting paper by Paul Gregory discussing the logic and contingency in the political struggle between Bukharin and Stalin in the 1920s. There is much to learn, I would argue, in the lessons of the 1920s from the Soviet experience -- obviously from the collapse of War Communism in 1921, but also in the contradictions of the New Economic Policy as well as the power struggle that was going on as the background to the Industrialization Debate that culminated in the adoption of the Stalinist command economy.
Such a tragic legacy, but so much to learn about economy, polity and society is we are just willing to listen to the millions of lost souls.
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