doi:10.18503/2658-3186-2025-9-1-36-41
Abstract. A lot of researches both in Russia and abroad are devoted to the study of N. I. Bukharin's works. He turned out to be not only a talented ideologist of the Bolshevik Party, but also wrote scientific works on philosophy and culture. Historians, political scientists, philosophers and biological scientists has been studying his legacy so far. However, there are very few modern researches devoted to the study of his views on the organization of labor in the early years of Soviet power, while just the opinion of N. I. Bukharin in the party was quite weighty. This article focuses on the analysis of a specific work by N. I. Bukharin “Economy of the Transition Period” written at the very peak of the Soviet government's policy of war communism. There the author examines in details the ways of organizing labor in the conditions of the “transition period”, coming to the conclusion that the main element is coercion. Moreover, classifying the entire labor population on various grounds, N. I. Bukharin believes that “concentrated violence” is shown to all – from workers to non-labor intelligentsia and “shkurniki”. Since for some people, coercion will be an element of cohesion, while for others it will be the only way to make them work for the state. Moreover, in conditions of coercion there will be no need to pay money for labor, which will also benefit the economy. Food rations will suffice. At the end N. I. Bukharin emphasizes that such way of organizing the economy cannot be applied permanently, but it is coercion that will be the most effective measure in restoring the economy and can be used for as long as the state needs.
Keywords: Bukharin, labor organization, forced labor, proletariat, economy in transition, labor productivity, militarization, dictatorship of the proletariat
Information about the author
Buryak E. М. – Associate Professor, Candidate of History, Associate Professor of the Department of World History, Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University (NMSTU).
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For citation: Buryak E. М. N. I. Bukharin on labor in the conditions of “economy in transition”, Gumanitarno-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya = Humanitarian and pedagogical Research, 2025, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 36–41. (In Russ.). doi:10.18503/2658-3186-2025-9-1-36-41.