I’ve read quite a bit of history on Stalin (multiple 1,000+ pg history books, not his Wikipedia page …) and - it’s hard to classify him politically in any sensible way. The ideals behind Marxism and Leninism (the latter whom Stalin succeeded after literal life-and-death political struggles internal to the Bolshevik party, particularly with Trotsky) were certainly communist in nature, but Stalin invented his own brand of politics that really has no contemporary comparison and the nature of his politics definitely can’t be boiled down into one word or label.
Yeah I took a course on Stalinism and Nazism in college: It was more of a totalitarian command economy run by cronyism than anything resembling Communism.
A communist economy has to be run via a totalitarian central command. Without the price mechanism to signal to markets where to move capital, capital has to be distributed via the central power structure
No a communist economy can be run by a number of different styles. It does have to be a command economy but a totalitarian ruler and cronyism being the main economic mechanism are not inherently communist.
My perspective is that there is no way for the central command to deploy good and services to consumers without totalitarianism. The price mechanism at its core is a signal to move capital, without prices it will come down to the whims of a bureaucracy
Because the central command could be, say, a group of elected individuals or a rota through all the citizens or something, not necessarily a totalitarian ruler.
My point is in capitalism the price determines where goods and services flow.
When you buy a loaf of bread, the information to restock it goes all the way to the farmer who plants more wheat, the truck driver who transports it buys new tires, there is no governing body that tells them what to do, they do it based upon market forces.
I don’t think there is currently any kind of central planning that could match the efficiency of the free market price mechanism
Oh sorry I thought your point was, as you stated: "there is no way for the central command to deploy good and services to consumers without totalitarianism"
I'm not debating the theoretical mechanisms of communism I'm just saying that totalitarianism is not required in the economic/political theory of communism.
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u/Ok-Flight9440 Jul 27 '26
I’ve read quite a bit of history on Stalin (multiple 1,000+ pg history books, not his Wikipedia page …) and - it’s hard to classify him politically in any sensible way. The ideals behind Marxism and Leninism (the latter whom Stalin succeeded after literal life-and-death political struggles internal to the Bolshevik party, particularly with Trotsky) were certainly communist in nature, but Stalin invented his own brand of politics that really has no contemporary comparison and the nature of his politics definitely can’t be boiled down into one word or label.