Stalinism

May Day graphic from Revolutionary Worker 1979
Running aground: The Revolutionary Communist Party (US) and Stalinism

Emerging from the social upheavals of the 1960s, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) counted many dedicated organizers in its ranks who were inspired by the ideas and the example of Maoist China. The party used Maoist theory not only to plan for a future socialist revolution, but also to grapple with the complicated history of Stalinism and its impact on the international communist movement and the USSR. While the RCP did confront some of the dogmas and myths of Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, in the end they were unwilling and unable to effectively understand Stalinism.

The Chimes at Midnight: Trotskyism in the USSR 1926-1938
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The development of Trotsky’s analysis of the Soviet bureaucracy
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Leon Trotsky and Joseph StalinBy Thomas M. Twiss August 19, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — In his presentation, Paul Le Blanc has provided a brief account of the darkening situation in the Soviet Union in the years following the revolution, of the heroic resistance by members of the Left Opposition, and of the “deep black night” of Stalinism in the mid-late 1930s. He also summarized for us Leon Trotsky’s final theory of Soviet bureaucracy and — I think appropriately —emphasized its value for understanding that history. What I want to do is to briefly sketch the development of Trotsky’s analysis of the problem of Soviet bureaucracy in order to get a deeper understanding and appreciation of his final theory, with all of its strengths and limitations. For as Trotsky observed in a 1933 preface to a collection of his oppositional writings, “It is impossible to understand correctly either scientific or political ideas without knowing the history of their development.”
The darker the night, the brighter the star: Leon Trotsky’s struggle against Stalinism
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By Paul Le Blanc July 18, 2016 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – The title of this session – “the darker the night, the brighter the star” – is the title of the fourth and final volume of Tony Cliff’s biography of Leon Trotsky, who was a central leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution of workers and peasants, which turned the Russian Tsarist empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. One of the founders of modern Communism and the Soviet state, Trotsky is also the best known of those who fought against the degeneration of that revolution and movement brought on by a vicious bureaucratic dictatorship led by Joseph Stalin.[1]
Stephen F. Cohen on Ukraine: Meeting shows 'Kiev, not Moscow, blocking peace deal'
John Green: ‘Stasiland’ offers ‘cheap caricature’ of the GDR
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Video: Struggle and suffering: The 1946-49 Greek Civil War

For more by Doug Enaa Greene, click

Michael Lebowitz's 'The Socialist Imperative': 'A must-read for revolutionaries'
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Struggle and suffering: The 1946-49 Greek Civil War
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Thoughts on reform, revolution, social change and elections in light of SYRIZA's win
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Nikolai Bukharin: ‘The favourite of the whole party’
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The POUM: Those who would?

On January 3, 2015, historian Doug Enaa Greene led a discussion on