From Ludendorff to Lenin? World War I and the Origins of Soviet Economic Planning

Abstract

The planned economy was a defining element of the Bolshevik dictatorship. In contrast to scholars who have located its intellectual roots in the classic texts of nineteenth-century Marxism, this essay situates the origins of economic planning in World War I. The text analyses the link between war and planning in Russian and German thought. In doing so, we argue that the Bolsheviks’ positive assessment of the techniques of wartime mobilisation, influenced by the work of German economist Rudolf Hilferding, was foundational to their vision of organising the economy through the state.