Instead of a Conclusion

Abstract

This concluding chapter addresses the paradoxes of Torgsin. Torgsin's entrepreneurial — capitalist, from a Marxist political economy point of view — methods served the victory of socialism. For the sake of gold, Torgsin sacrificed one of the fundamental Marxist principles — the class approach. Indeed, it was not the proletariat that benefited from Torgsin but the socially alien — those who had wealth. Not only were Torgsin's capitalist methods and socialist goals in ideological contradiction, but paradoxes also existed in perceptions of Torgsin among the country's leadership and ordinary contemporaries. Government documents of the time strongly emphasized Torgsin's economic as well as political importance. Its success was the key to industrialization and, therefore, to the final victory of the revolution. However, in the Soviet official political language of the 1930s, the name “Torgsin” became synonymous not with heroism but rather with philistinism, petit-bourgeoisness, soppiness, acquisitiveness, and greed. Torgsin was viewed as the antithesis of revolution.