Aphasia or Scientific Revolution? (Discourses of Soviet Marxist and non-Marxist Economists in the 1980–1990s)

Abstract

The change of discourse among Soviet economists preceded the change in the social structure of the USSR. Due to these changes, there appeared a number of socio-economic phenomena that could not be described in terms previously known to economists of the time. This led to a painful disorder of the collective cognitive structure shared by Russian economists – aphasia. The changes that took place in the economy of the country could not be described in Marxist terms of progress: the latter did not allow the «restoration of capitalism» after many years of «mature socialism» domination. At the same time, barter, non-payments, and the financial pyramid built by the state did not fit into the liberal discourse either. The main force behind the delegitimization and destruction of the Soviet social order was the Marxists. They defined the phenomena they observed as «non-socialist», which led them to the conclusion that the bureaucracy and the nomenklatura dominated the USSR. From the ugly pseudo-socialist state, they suggested moving towards «true socialism». But the democratic transformations they proposed largely coincided with those that figured in the official authoritative Marxist discourse. Against this background the gradual transition to the dominance of the liberal economic discourse is quite natural. However, at the first stage of the political confrontation the calls for economic liberalization were accompanied by the sympathy of domestic liberals for authoritarianism A. Pinochet, which could not but cause their subsequent discredit. Nevertheless, after 1998 there was a rapid period of «normalization» of the discussion. Liberal discourse becomes the main one and acquires respectability, both in politicians’ discussions (including the communists) and in the academic environment. The discourse of Yu.V. Yaremenko made it possible to see the structural imbalance of the Soviet economy. Under these conditions, the transition to the market «cut off» most of the non-competitive industries leading to the fact that Russia was among the poor countries. The decisions to release prices and launch a decentralized mechanism for bank lending to investments were necessary to eliminate the main structural imbalances. This approach has been relegated to the periphery of economic discussions. The interpretation of the transition of speech practices from Marxism to the modern economic mainstream as a scientific revolution is a retrospective rationalization of the catastrophe that occurred. The period during which most of the judgments of Russian economists were poorly correlated with the observed phenomena. Most works of that time are now forgotten. The author characterizes now forgotten ways of discussing economic phenomena as aphasia.