Stalinism: Its Origin and Future. Andy Blunden 1993
It is a fact that virtually no-one picked what was to happen in Eastern Europe and the USSR in 1989-91. Both the right-wing imperialist think-tanks and the revolutionary Marxist opponents of Stalinism observed the growing economic crisis of the Stalinist bloc and both of these understood theoretically that such an economic malaise had to show itself in politics sooner or later. But no-one picked what was going to happen or that it would happen so soon and with such sweeping and rapid effect.
The perspective of the extreme right, for the counter-revolutionary overthrow of Stalinism led by pro-imperialist paramilitary organisations bore no more resemblance to what occurred than did the perspective of workers’ uprisings led by a Trotskyist party. The US State Department and the CIA were as remote from the opposition forces as were the Trotskyist groups.
The perspective of a peaceful reform of the system under the leadership of Gorbachev held by the Western governments who supported Gorbachev against Yeltsin virtually up to the day Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR was confirmed no better than the perspective of a peaceful transition to workers’ democracy under Gorbachev’s leadership, a perspective held by many left groups to the left of Stalinism.
The perspectives of those who actually led the overturns were confirmed no better than those of Western observers either. Politics since 1989 has seen an unending procession of leaders thrown to the forefront and just as rapidly discredited and sidelined by the next turn in political events.
I use the word “collapse” to describe the events of 1989-91 to emphasise the spontaneous and negative character of what occurred. This is hardly eccentric nowadays, but at the time there was much talk of “revolution” from both Left and Right, as if a positive, historic choice was being made, as if “the old” was being thrown off in favour of liberal or socialist democracy.
The negative “bowing to the inevitable” does indeed contain a positive, but that positive has yet to be realised, and will only be realised to the extent that a popular and theoretical understanding is built of the enormous historic bye-way that was taken by Socialism after the isolation and degeneration of the Russian Revolution.
One of the positives in the story of the rise and fall of Stalinism which we can find within this most spectacular and yet most negative chapter is to see and understand the actual struggles and real contradictions which brought about the downfall of Stalinism. To be sure, these struggles and contradictions are no models for the future, but they are real. The future struggle for Socialism must proceed with an understanding of the events of 1989-91, and how they matched or failed to match the analyses and perspectives of those who witnessed them and those who participated in them.