Stalinism Subject Section: Andy Blunden 1993

 

Stalinism: Its Origins & Future
by Andy Blunden, 1993

VOLUME I: Origins

Prologue: The Workers Movement from 1848 to 1917, by Chris Gaffney

Introduction

1. Origins of the Workers' Bureaucracy

  1. The Workers' Movement before the World War One; Labourism; Social-Democracy; Syndicalism; Australia; Bolshevism.
  2. The Russian Revolution; The Bolshevik Party; The role of the peasantry in the Russian Revolution; Permanent Revolution; Lenin's Policy of "Revolutionary Defeatism"; The February Revolution; The October Revolution; Women in the Russian Revolution; International Repercussions; Australia; Indonesia; The fate of the Revolution.
  3. The post-revolutionary crisis; The Civil War Begins; The German Revolution Murdered by Social-Democracy; "Military Communism", 1918 - 1921.
  4. The New Economic Policy; Preparing for the Revolution in Europe; Lenin's Last Struggles; The German Revolution: a missed opportunity.
  5. The New Course, 1923; The Reinstatement of Patriarchy; The Turning Point.

2. The Isolation of the Revolution

  1. 1924 - "Socialism in one country", Britain, China; The "Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry"; To the Brink of Counter-revolution 1926 - 1929.
  2. The 'Third Period'; 1929 - 1933; Catastrophe in Germany.
  3. The Years of Retreat 1933 - 1936, China, France, Spain; The Moscow Trials, 1936 - 1938; The Stalin-Hitler Pact 1939 - 1941, Australia.
  4. The Great Patriotic War, Australia.
  5. Stalin's Terror & the Family; Stalinism and Science and Culture; What is Stalinism?; Why did Stalin Triumph?; How the Communist International was Corrupted.
  6. Defence of the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

VOLUME II: Crisis

Introduction

1. The Aftermath of the Second World War

  1. Sell-out of the Century; The Aftermath of the War, Yugoslavia, the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, DDR; The Impact of the War on the Soviet Union; Stalinist Policy in the West, Italy, France, Britain, Australia, Greece.
  2. The "Truman Doctrine", Greece; The Effects of the Marshall Plan; Extensive Changes in the World Market; Intensive Changes in the World Market.
  3. The Post-War Overturns, Rumania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany; People's Democracy?; The last international "left turn".
  4. Stalinism & the National Liberation Struggle, Vietnam, Indonesia; The Chinese Revolution; The National Road to Socialism; Socialism in One country is a hopeless perspective.
  5. Deformed Workers States; The Theoretical Problem posed by the Post-War Overturns; 'state capitalism'; Michel Pablo; The State and social relations of production.

2. The Failure of the Political Revolution

  1. MacCarthyism and the Cold War; Anti-Communism in Australia; Why the "Iron Curtain";.
  2. Political Revolution; The Rise of the Political Revolution in Europe, Czechoslovakia 1953, East Germany 1953, Poland 1956; The Hungarian Uprising 1956.
  3. Khrushchev and the 20th Congress; The Opposition under Khrushchev; "Catching up and Overtaking the West"; Peaceful Co-Existence; Cuba; The Fall-out from Khrushchev's Secret Speech; The Decline of Stalinism.

Conclusion

VOLUME III: Decline

Introduction

1. The Sino-Soviet Split

  1. The Sino-Soviet Split; The Great Leap Forward.
  2. Maoism; "Soviet-Social imperialism"; "bloc of four classes"; "socialism in one commune".
  3. A conflict of interests; The Split in the CPA; Massacre in Indonesia.
  4. The Cultural Revolution; China comes in from the cold; China and the national liberation struggle Vietnam; The Victory of the Vietnamese Revolution; Cambodia, Angola.

2. The International Break-up of Stalinism

  1. The Prague Spring, 1968; Poland, 1968; Reaction of Communist Parties to the Prague Spring, Australia; The French General Strike; Euro-Communism, Italy, Spain, France, Australia; 'Pro-Moscow' splits; Chile 1973; .
  2. Stalinism By-passed; The Anti-Vietnam War Movement; Stalinism, Socialism and the Women's Movement of the 1970s; The Fragmentation of Stalinism; Disappearing into Social-Democracy; Fragmentation of CPs internationally presages collapse of USSR.
  3. Poland: Gdansk and Gdynia 1970, Radom 1976, The Birth of Solidarity 1980; How Solidarity Defeated Stalinism
  4. The Crisis of the Soviet Working Class; Afghanistan.

Conclusion

VOLUME IV: Collapse

Introduction

1. The Collapse of Eastern Europe

  1. The Collapse of Eastern Europe; The Crisis in the Soviet Economy.
  2. Tien An Min Square; Background; The May/June 1989 demonstrations; The demands of the Students and Workers; Declaration by the Provisional Committee of the BWIU; Significance.
  3. The Dominoes Fall in Europe; Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Germany, Yugoslavia, Albania, the Baltic States.
  4. The State in Eastern Europe; What were the main processes that affected countries in the region?; The State; The Economic Crisis; The Political Crisis; The National Crisis.

2. The Collapse of the U.S.S.R.

  1. The Collapse of the U.S.S.R.; Organised Crime and Socialism; Planning and "Command Economy"; Workers Democracy & Bureaucracy; Gorbachev & Stalin, Revisionism, Centrism; The struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin; What role did imperialism play?
  2. The Moscow Coup.
  3. Towards Capitalism or Socialism?; The State and Counter-revolution

Conclusion

VOLUME V: Aftermath

Introduction

1. The Class Struggle in Russia

  1. The Class Struggle in Russia; The Soviet Working Class and the Fall of the Workers State; A Russian Worker Speaks; The Miners Strike of 1989; The Miners Strike of 1990; The Miners Strike of March 1991; The Russian Working Class continues to struggle; The September 1993 Miners Strike.
  2. The Russian Working Class; The Strike Committees and the Soviet Trade Unions; Centralism or federalism?; Which comes first: party or union?.
  3. The Left in the USSR; The Marxist Platform; The Party of Labour; The Anarchists; The Women's Movement in the USSR.
  4. Boris Yeltsin; The Destruction of the Union; What happened to the Workers State?; The Economic Crisis after August 1991; Yeltsin's Palace Coup October 1993; Is Yeltsin a Stalinist?; Welcome to Democracy; Political Disorganisation, Organised Crime and Capitalism;

2. Beyond Moscow

  1. The 15 Republics of the former USSR, The C.I.S., The Russian Federation; Ukraine, Byelorussia, The Transcaucasian Republics, Kazakhstan, The Central Asian Republics, Prospects.
  2. The Women of Eastern Europe.
  3. Cuba.
  4. South Africa.
  5. Philippines.
  6. New Zealand.

Conclusion

Excerpts and Documents

  1. Socialism and War, Lenin 1915
  2. Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin 1916
  3. April Theses, Lenin 1917
  4. "Left-Wing" Communism - an Infantile Disorder, Lenin, 1920
  5. Lenin's Testament 1922
  6. The New Course, Trotsky 1923
  7. Permanent Revolution, Trotsky 1931
  8. Germany, What Next?, Trotsky 1931
  9. The Peasant War in China and the Proletariat, Trotsky 1932
  10. The USSR and Problems of the Transitional Epoch, Trotsky 1938
  11. The USSR and War, Trotsky 1939
  12. Interview with General Markos Vafiades, leader of ELAS 1941-1949, 1983
  13. Khrushchev's Secret Speech at the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, 1956
  14. The Chinese Road to Socialism, CI Statement, June 1989
  15. On the Class Nature of the Soviet Union, Andy Blunden, 9 Aug 1991
  16. End of an Illusion, Andy Blunden, 30 Aug 1991
  17. Declaration of Autonomy of the Manila-Rizal Regional Committee of the CPP, July 1993
  18. Central Committee Discussion paper for SACP Conference, May 1993
  19. Stalinism: State Capitalism in Russia, Declaration of the 25th CPNZ National Conference, 1993
  20. The Greek Communist Party, contributed by Michalis, March 1997

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