The Project for Economic Education was a non-political, non-partisan programme established with the objective of enlightening the intelligent layman on economic issues. This booklet is a publication of the Project for Economic Education, and is co-sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. It contains the textual reproduction of the seventh C D Deshmukh Lecture conducted by the India International Centre, delivered by Mr. B K Nehru entitled ‘The Retreat From Socialism’. He traces the origins and developments of modern socialism and explains its specific history in the Soviet Union. He discusses the global spread of socialism including our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s exposure to the same. He then proceeds to examine how and why socialism retreated from the global political scenario. Economically socialism was no longer considered to be a feasible policy to follow. He also discusses India’s experience with socialism and the many fallacies that were involved in our policy making due to the socialist bias.