Stalinism: Its Origin and Future. Andy Blunden 1993
Stalinism is a political creed which appeared in the Communist International in the early 1920s and dominated the politics of the workers’ movement, or at least its revolutionary wing, for 70 years. Since the break-up of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, Stalinism is no longer a dominant force and its influence has waned.
However, to imagine that Stalinism is “dead” is like believing that religion would die away with the rise of science in the nineteenth century.
Moreover, since Stalinism played such a significant role in the politics of the Twentieth Century, it is not really possible to make any analysis of that history without an understanding of Stalinism.
It is sometimes said these days that Socialism is “dead”. Socialism, as a current of political thought, will be around as long as the capitalist economic system is around and presumably much, much longer. Many of us hoped in fact that the collapse of the USSR and its Stalinist leadership would enhance the prospects of socialism, because of the final discrediting of the Stalinist distortion of Socialism. However, events since 1991 have proved that the final demise of the state created by the Russian Revolution of 1917 has generated a crisis in all political currents, and Socialism has not been immune.
In the longer term however, it remains true that the defeat of Stalinism is a necessary precursor to the triumph of Socialism, and the disintegration of the Stalinist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe should be welcomed from that standpoint. However, Stalinism was not overthrown by the workers’ movement under the banner of Socialism. It collapsed as a result of the relentless pressure of imperialism and the rottenness and corruption of the social fabric it had itself engendered, and gave way to the collapse of any form or vestige of socialism and the restoration of the most primitive and barbaric forms of capitalism.
Thus, the defeat of Stalinism by the workers movement still lies ahead of us. Should conditions arise again in the future for the growth of a new generation of Stalinists, then we will regret deeply that we have not thoroughly and exhaustively studied the nature, causes and origins of Stalinism as it has manifested itself in the past.
This volume is the first in a series of four covering the rise and fall of Stalinism. Here we begin with a sketch of the political currents in the workers movement prior to the Russian Revolution, trace the events and conditions which led to the victory of Josef Stalin within the Soviet Communist Party in 1923, and follow the development of Stalinism up to the eve of the Second World War.
The author is a Trotskyist, and the period covered in this book corresponds roughly to the life-time of Leon Trotsky. The analysis presented of the period is broadly that of Trotsky himself. However, writing in the 1990s, following the humiliation of Stalinism, when the events described are now long ago, I have tried to avoid the overly bald characterisations and rhetorical approach which was quite proper from the pen of a participant in the actual political struggle of the day.
However, even today it is impossible to write of the events following the Russian Revolution without partisanship. I make no apology for the fact that I adhere to the ideals and objectives of the leaders of the Russian Revolution and without hesitation recognise Leon Trotsky as the leader of that political current which sought to uphold and defend those ideals and objectives, and Josef Stalin as the executioner of the Russian Revolution.
This is neither to demonise Stalin nor idolise Trotsky, but simply to recognise the fact that the Russian Revolution gave birth to two opposite, hostile forces. These two political forces expressed the interests of, on the one hand, the working class which had achieved the first socialist revolution, and on the other hand, the caste of functionaries who held office in the apparatus which had been created by the Revolution.
This polarity is an essential feature of all workers’ struggles throughout history, from the very first combinations in eighteenth century Britain, to the revolutions and national liberation struggles of the post-war period and up to today as workers find themselves in conflict with the leaderships of their own trade unions and the Labor governments which rest upon them.