State Capitalism in Russia

Over a quarter of a century after the Soviet Union’s collapse, many continue to associate socialism with Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian regime. State Capitalism in Russia, first published in 1955, offers a radically different interpretation of what happened in the decades after the Russian Revolution: that Stalin’s assault on the gains of the 1917 revolution caused the reemergence of class divisions and capitalist modes of production. This argument about the development of state capitalism became a cornerstone of an anti-Stalinist socialist movement that insisted that socialism must be founded on workers’ power and mass democracy. Long out of print, this classic work of rigorous, unflinchingly honest analysis remains essential for anyone trying to understand the degeneration of a revolution which had once inspired the world.