Is Russia Becoming Capitalist - Marxsite.pdfVIP

Science Society, Vol. 65, No. 2, Summer 2001, 157± 181 IS RUSSIA BECOMING CAPITALIST? 157 V Is Russia Becoming Capitalist?* DAVID M. KOTZ ABSTRACT: Contrary to the common assumption and to the in- tentions of Russia’s post-Soviet rulers, Russia does not appear to be in transition to capitalism. While some features of a capi- talist mode of production have appeared in post-Soviet Russia, the working population is not being transformed into a wage- laboring class generating surplus value for a capitalist class. The new propertied class is not a capitalist class but receives the over- whelming bulk of its revenue from non-capitalist relations. The explanation for this unexpected development is found in the Western-inspired neoliberal transition strategy, which has pro- duced, not a process of primitive accumulation, but the emer- gence of a non-capitalist predatory/extractive system from the former state socialist system. Russia’s emerging predatory/extrac- tive system promises continuing technological regress, demo- graphic disaster, authoritarian rule, and possible disintegration of the Russian state. ªThis way of life doesn’ t have a name. . . . What we’ re headed for isn’ t capitalism.º Ð Tatyana A. Maslova, switchboard operator at the Biryulinskaya mine in the west Siberian town of Beryozovsky.1 * Research funding was provided by the Political Economy Research Institute at the Uni- versity of Massachusetts, Amhe