The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

464 THE FREEMAN Augustous blacksmiths, bright peasantboys, aggressive skilled workerswith foreign experience. Smallamounts of capital allowed miraclesto be worked, and soonRussia became Europe's "EasternAmerica," brimming with HoratioAlger stories.One has to admit, however, thatthe newly rich often displayedtheir freshly acquired wealth inrather crude fashion. Thus, todaya foreign embassy in Moscow ishoused in the palace of a sugarking's mistress - but this particularmillionaire was the son of aserf. Yet, we may be sure that hisincome, if .spread· evenly amonghis workers, would not materiallyhave improved their lot, whichsurely worsened after 1917.At the outbreak of World WarII the wages paid to workers werelower than before the Revolution.One has only to read the splendidwork of Manya Gordon, WorkersBefore arnd After Lenin (NewYork, 1940), to get the relevantdata. Of course, the illusion thata radical redistribution of incomefundamentally improves the Iivingstandards of the lowest classes isstill general among loose-thinkingsociologists. Socialism also feedson this erroneous belief. It is,however, the bigger cake, not thereslicing, which improves the lotof the many. And the bigger cakerequires. wise reinvestments, goodmanagement, and a high ethicalconcept of work.With the Communist Revolution,Russian industry and agriculturetook a nose dive. Thepeasant class, at first, did not· resistCommunism, because the remainderof the large and mediumestates was distributed amongthem. Lenin also permitted duringseveral years a minor trade whichquickly started to bloom. These,even to Lenin's mind, were onlytemporary concessions. Stalinliquidated not only the "NewEconomic Policy" (NEP) but alsothe independent peasantry. Firstthe kulaks were expropriated andpartly exterminated; then·the restwere crushed and collectivized.The Five-Year-Plans were put intoaction. Since then, a dark nighthad settled over the Russianeconomy.A Low Standard of LivingToday, we might get impressive(but who knows how. accurate?)statistics about production but wedo know that East German aid tothe space program has been substantial.We also k'now that machineryimported from Czechoslovakiaand Hungary abounds inthe USSR, but we fully realizethat the living standards of themasses, including the professionalclass (other than a tiny top sector),are truly miserable. Assum-