Pollock judged the Soviet experiment irrelevant to socialism’s feasibility in industrialized countries.

Evidence

It would never have been possible to undertake reckless economic experiments of this sort if food production had not been able to continue largely unaffected by them, and if the population had not been satisfied with a very limited supply of industrial productsconditions which do not apply in densely populated industrial countries.’ Pollock himself expressly stated that `Ever since Marx, socialist theoreticians have all agreed that one of the necessary preconditions for establishing a socialist economic order is a highly developed capitalist economy.’ This all implied that what was happening in the Soviet Union had no implications whatever for the theoretical possibility of a socialist economic system or of a planned economy free of class domination. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the Marxian base/superstructure requirement that socialism presumes advanced capitalism — same premise that later underlies critical-theory debates over whether underdeveloped societies can leap to socialism. — connects to: Pollock’s Soviet study proved merely the possibility of organized capitalism.; Pollock’s Soviet study aimed to prove planned socialist economy possible