Does the law of Value Operate within the Russian Economy?
The whole of the section of Cliff’s document on the law of value is unsound from a Marxist point of view. In the most involved and peculiar manner he argues that the law of value does not apply within the Russian economy, but only in its relations to world capitalism. He finds the basis of the law of value, not in Russian society, but in the world capitalist environment. “Let us now find out what importance the internal relations in Russia has when abstracted from the influence of world economy. “The abstraction has solved one fundamental question: that the source of the activity of the law of value is not to be found in the internal relations of Russian economy itself. In other words it has brought us so far nearer solving the problem of whether the Russian economy is subordinated to the law of value by showing us where not to look for its source.” (Cliff, page 98. Emphasis in original) According to the Marxist view, it is in exchange that the law of value manifests itself. And this h
