Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #904010 in Books
• Published on: 1973-02-26
• Original language: Russian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 286 pages

Customer Reviews

Critique of the evolution of the russia state under Stalin
Trotsky wrote this book, his best known work, in his later years of exile before his death in 1940. 'The revolution betrayed' written in 1936 is a masterpiece in the critical examination of the evolution of Stalin's 'Socialism in one country'. In this work, Trotsky examines the future of Communism in russia, where Stalin went wrong and what changes need to be made in order for the state to become what he sees as real socialism. This book is often quoted by trotskyites and is crucial for understanding an important 'internationalist' viewpoint of Marxism that Stalin denounced. It contains some of the best critical examinations of the russian system at that moment in time in the 1930s and his summary of what needed to change in order for Russia to implement true communism or else fail in its objectives, are scarily close to the actual final outcome of the gorbachev years.

One of the great "on second thoughts" books in the history of socialism
While most of the content of this book is available online its sometimes cool to have the thing itself for the book shelf.

Trotsky begins with a defence of what he sees as the achievements of the regime he himself had been instrumental in creating out of the collapse of Czarism and deposed parliamentary provisional government, these are mainly industrial, infrastructural, modernisation of the country, there is some discussion of social and political issues too, a consideration that central plan collectivisation has been tardy.

Then its on to a grand criticism of Stalin as a great traitor and the rise of bureaucracy, the supreme irony of this is that Lenin and Trotsky had paved the way for the rise of stalin with "one party in power and the rest in prison" tactics from the outset when they overthrew the unarmed parliamentry provisional government and other opposition.

As a great "on second thoughts" book its a land mark, however its a serious shame that there ever had to be one, while Trotsky provides his own literary twists on it, labelling it casaerism, there was a huge amount of political theory both socialist and other which foreshadowed the developments Trotsky critises and its hard to see how he would have over looked it all.

The final impression the reader is left with, even if they dont know a great deal of the history surrounding the rise of Stalin and the preceeding history, is that Trotsky wrote this book with a clear idea of what it would mean and was consciously constructing a narrative within which he would fit. Its not as messianic as some socialist leaders turned writers but its definitely there.

Indispensable
One of the most important questions posed in the twentieth century was the potential for a society which is not based on profit. Trotsky's work traces the history of Russia between the takeover by the working class in 1917, to the counter-revolution led by Stalin.

Trotsky attempts to show that the defeat of the revolutionary spirit by Stalin was not inevitable, and that therefore a future revolution can hope for success.

The weakness of his analysis is to overstate the rôle of the bureaucracy in the counter revolution, or rather to understate the pressure of international capital. Under this pressure, Stalin chose to reestablish capitalism in Russia (while keeping the vocabulary of communism), and the result was a massive demoralization and confusion in the revolutionary movement whose consequences are still present today.