In fact, mid-1930s is the time of the Stalin's regime going into the full-paranoia mode and tightening the screws.
That's not inconsistent with implementing a semi-capitalistic approach, it fact one theory I've herd is that the point of "tightening the screws" was to arrest any party official, how was indiscreet enough to point out that the new policy wasn't exactly communist.
There are enough Russians on LW, what are their memories and opinions on "privately held sections of farmland" and being able to find a miller to mill your sack of grain..?
I don't know much about farm policy, my family lived in a big city. But the general "barter black market" certainly existed.
That's not inconsistent with implementing a semi-capitalistic approach
It is because the freedom-control axis is very important to capitalism.
was to arrest any party official, how was indiscreet enough to point out that the new policy wasn't exactly communist.
Kinda, but it has nothing to do with capitalism. One of the traditional explanations for the purges of the 1930s was the necessity to get rid of "old bolsheviks" who were too idealistic and insufficiently obedient to fit into Stalin's Russia. That wasn't because Stalin was becoming a capitalist, that was because Stalin was becoming a dictator.
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