Leon Trotsky

The Revolution Betrayed

What is the Soviet Union and Where is it Going?

(1936)


Written; 1936.
First published: 1937.
Translated. by Max Eastman.
Transcribed for the Internet: by Zodiac between August 1993 and March 1996.


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INTRODUCTION: The Purpose of the Present Work


I. – WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED

The Principal Indices of Industrial Growth
Comparative Estimates of These Achievements
Production per Capita of the Population


II. – ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE ZIGZAGS OF THE LEADERSHIP

“Military Communism”, “The New Economic Policy” (NEP) and the Course Toward the Kulak
A Sharp Turn: “The Five-Year Plan in Four Years” and “Complete Collectivization”


III. – SOCIALISM AND THE STATE

The Transitional Regime
Program and Reality
The Dual Character of the Workers’ State
“Generalized Want” and the Gendarme
The “Complete Triumph of Socialism” and the “Reinforcement of the Dictatorship”


IV. – THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PRODUCTIVITY OF LABOR

Money and Plan
“Socialist” Inflation
The Rehabilitation of the Ruble
The Stakhanov Movement


V. – THE SOVIET THERMIDOR

Why Stalin Triumphed
The Degeneration of the Bolshevik Party
The Social Roots of Thermidor


VI. – THE GROWTH OF INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL ANTAGONISMS

Want, Luxury and Speculation
The Differentiation of the Proletariat
Social Contradictions in the Collective Village
The Social Physiognomy of the Ruling Stratum


VII. – FAMILY, YOUTH AND CULTURE

Thermidor in the Family
The Struggle against the Youth
Nationality and Culture


VIII. – FOREIGN POLICY AND THE ARMY

From “World Revolution” to Status Quo
The League of Nations and the Communist International
The Red Army and Its Doctrines
The Abolition of the Militia and the Restoration of Officers’ Ranks
The Soviet Union in a War


IX. – SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE SOCIAL UNION

State Capitalism?
Is the Bureaucracy a Ruling Class?
The Question of the Character of the Soviet Union Not Yet Decided by History


X. – THE SOVIET UNION IN THE MIRROR OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION

Work “According to Ability” and Personal Property
The Soviets and Democracy
Democracy and the Party


XI. – WHITHER THE SOVIET UNION?

Bonapartism as a Regime of Crisis
The Struggle of the Bureaucracy with “the Class Enemy”
The Inevitability of a New Revolution


APPENDIX: “SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY”

The “Friends” of the Soviet Union


POSTSCRIPT


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Last updated on: 17 April 2011