Contradictions of the Initial Economic Relation of Socialism: the Position of the Tsagolov School

The article considers the approach of Soviet political economy to the problem of the initial relation of production of socialism, and first of all, the approach of the school of N.A. Tsagolov – V.N. Cherkovets, which considered the planned organization of social production (POSP) as the initial relation of production of socialism. However, the author believes that the methodological principles laid down in this approach, based on the methodology of K. Marx's “Capital”, were not consistently implemented, and many real problems of the Soviet economy were not subjected to scientific analysis. The article concludes that the political and ideological conditions of the time prevented the open study of the contradictions of the POSP, and attention to these contradictions was paid either by dissidents from Marxism or by anti -communists. Now we have an opportunity, starting from the developments of the school of N.A. Tsagolov – V.N. Cherkovets, to undertake a study of the real contradictions that accompanied the formation and functioning of the EOPS in the economic system of the Soviet type. This study proceeds from the recognition of the fact of weakness of objective material prerequisites of the POSP in the USSR. The result was the social stratification of the members of the Soviet society, who were in an unequal position in the system of relations of production of planned economy. This was reflected in differences in the system of relations of production, distribution and consumption, and in their unequal political and legal status. Contradictions of this kind led to the functioning of the POSP in inadequate forms, which undermined the system of socialist social relations. At the same time, even the not fully realized potential of the POSP, manifested in inadequate forms, demonstrated significant successes in ensuring the socio-economic development of the USSR, and moreover, influenced the entire course of world development, the most striking evidence of which was the provision of socio-economic conditions for the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War against German Nazism.