SOURCE: "Stalin as an Economist," in The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XXI, No. 56, 1953-54, pp. 232-39.

In the following essay, Meek examines Stalin's economic theory.

Whenever great changes in basic economic and social institutions are brought about, the theoreticians of the new order begin seeking to express its experience in generalised form. And sometimes—but only very rarely—it happens that the political leaders who usher in the changes are themselves men with a taste for theoretical generalisation, in which case both the new order and the theory of the new order may come to be constructed under the guidance of one and the same hand. This was the position with Joseph Stalin.

Stalin's work in building the theoretical foundations proceeded more or less concurrently with his direction of the work of "building socialism". In part, it took the negative form of criticism of various economic theories...