Lenin treated state capitalism as a neutral stepping-stone to socialism

Evidence

Pollock draws not only on Hilferding’s theses, but also on Lenin’s considerations of ‘state capitalism in the proletarian state’. On the one hand, Lenin cautions that ‘[t]he proletarian state may, without changing its own nature, permit freedom to trade and the development of capitalism only within certain bounds, and only on the condition that the state regulates (supervises, controls, determines the forms and methods of, etc.) private trade and private capitalism’. However, Lenin also refers more affirmatively to state capitalism elsewhere: ‘The whole problem – in theoretical and practical terms – is to find the correct methods of directing the development of capitalism (which is to someextentandforsometimeinevitable)intothechannelsof statecapitalism, and to determine how we are to hedge it about with conditions to ensure its transformation into socialism in the near future’. For Lenin, ‘state capitalism’ meant the limited sanctioning of capitalism by the ‘proletarian state’ progressing towards socialism. According to him, as long as ‘transport and large-scale industry remain in the hands of the proletariat’, the dynamism inherent in capitalism can only be of use, which is why he greets the fear of ‘Left Communists’ concerning the ‘threat of an “evolution towards state capitalism”’ with ‘nothing short of Homeric laughter’ … However, in this polemic, Lenin ‘fatefully neglects the connection between the formal determinants of politics and economy’. Assuming that ‘capitalism contains a quasi-neutral, technical rationality of nature-appropriation which, once liberated from class-domination, would enable a free and emancipatory form of social production’, he is able to refer positively to the allegedly socialist-affirming elements of capitalism – as if these could be separated from their functional context within capitalism and implemented within socialism while maintaining their functionality. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 517

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘state capitalism’ meant specifically for Lenin within the Soviet context — limited sanctioning of capitalism by the proletarian state, not a finalized economic order.
• XREF: Connects to Pollock’s own account of state capitalism and the later Frankfurt School debate over real socialism vs state capitalism — relevant to the overall revisionist argument of this book. — connects to: The Institute viewed the Soviet economy as a variant of state capitalism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 483; Lenin wrongly treated capitalist technical rationality as separable from class domination — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 521; Lenin’s anti-left-opportunism doctrine legitimized Communist accommodation with capitalism (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Lenin’s anti-left-opportunism doctrine legitimized Communist accommodation with capitalism #exemplifies (0.88)
• Lenin’s document legitimated communist accommodation to capitalism while preserving revolutionary illusion #exemplifies (0.82) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1032
• Lenin’s rejection of left opportunism was a tactical retreat amid revolutionary defeats #qualifies (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1032