Stalin’s Thought on the Law of Value Under the Socialist System

Stalin elaborated on this law in 1952 in his Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R..

Firstly, by analyzing the two forms of socialist production in the Soviet state, namely, the form of the communes and the collective farms [kolkhoz], Stalin affirmed that the law of value continues to exist and operate under the socialist system.

Secondly, Stalin emphasized that the law of value under the socialist system is strictly limited by the “law of the social ownership of the means of production and the balanced development of the national economy” and have not a large space to operate. He pointed out that in the Soviet state, the law of value operated only in the sphere of commodity circulation and socialist production. Here in the sphere of commodity circulation, the law of value, in its capacity as a regulator, affects the exchange of commodities through purchase and sale, and mainly for the articles of personal consumption. In the sphere of socialist production, on the other hand, the law of value indirectly affects social production through the purchase and sale of commodities, and does not have a regulating role, since “consumer goods, which are needed to compensate the labor power expended in the process of production” appear as commodities.

Thirdly, Stalin elaborated on the role of the law of value as it occurs under the socialist system. He pointed out that in a real sense, the problems of economic accounting and profitability, the problems of costs and prices are influenced by the law of value. It not only educates economic workers to calculate the values of production accurately, to carry out production rationally and to observe the laws, but also teaches them to seek potential reserves within production, to improve the methods of production, to reduce the costs of production and to make them real leaders of social production. At the same time, because the law of value is strictly limited under the socialist system, the national economy of the country is able to avoid the enormous damage of periodical economic crises and to ensure a high and continuous growth rate.

Finally, Stalin pointed out that the law of value is a historical category connected with the existence of commodity production, and that with the disappearance of commodity production, the law of value will also disappear. In the socialist economic system, i.e., in the first phase of the development of communist society, the production of the means of production is in the forefront and the amount of labor used to produce the product is calculated by the tortuous method of the commodity, so that the law of value still exists, but it is not the regulator of production, strictly limited to a certain extent. In the second phase of communist society, the amount of labor expended on the production of goods “will be measured directly and immediately—by the amount of time, the number of hours”, so that the law of value will lose its effectiveness and disappear along with the production of commodities.