Why did socialism not work in Russia?

Answer 1

There are two major theories as to why socialism did not work in Russia.

The first is that socialism is not capable of economic calculation and cannot determine what is wanted and needed both locally and globally because prices for all goods were fixed. These people, led by such Austrian School economists as Ludwig von Mises, Murray Newton Rothbard, Hans Hermann Hoppe and Robert Patrick Murphy, argue that socialism will inevitably lead to terrible inefficiencies from the coercive power of government. It also argues that these coercive powers lead the populace of on affected area to become extremely present-oriented, further depressing productivity as the "public sector" takes on more of the economy.

A similar view, though different in details, is followed by the Chicago School of economics.

The second theory, followed by Trotskyists such as Tony Cliff in his State Capitalism in Russia and in modern times Socialist Alternative, Socialist Worker and the Democratic Socialist Party in my Australian homeland, argues that socialism failed because it could not utilise the power of the much better educated working classes of highly industrialised nations such as Germany, France, Britain and the United States. Under this theory, if the best-educated working classes were able to take power, they could via democratically elected workers' councils with right of recall far beyond anything in today's parliaments plan the economy much more efficiently than capitalism. Under this theory, Russia was a form of capitalism akin to the West rather than a socialist nation, whereas under Austrian theory most modern Western states are largely socialist.

Answer 2

one of the forms on the gov't