RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 397 ~ the public sector, despite the advantages, which the latter enjoys under the patronage of the communist state. Even Russian leaders, faced with the reality that the state alone simply cannot meet the nation’s needs, have admitted the importance of the private sector. State planning chief Nikoli Baibakov told the latest session of Soviet parliament: “Economic leaders should devote more attention to giving help to collective farm workers in managing their private plots.” Thus communism had done a complete U-turn since the days of Stalin when complete collectivization was considered the ideal. Now there is a grudging acceptance of the inevitability of private enterprise, and the need to assist it. It is not very difficult to see why the system of private enterprise should be so resilient in face of encroachment by the state. It is because private enterprise is not a man-made system; it is an integral part of human nature, and efforts to change human nature are doomed to failure. It had thus emerged that while excessive individual liberty could be detrimental to society,