How Did Stalinism Come To Power In The USSR?
In 1917, the toilers in Russia established a workers and peasants regime and carried out one of the most deep-going revolutions in history. Within 10 years political degeneration set in and the working class was driven from power by a privileged bureaucratic layer led by Joseph Stalin. The Revolution Betrayed, is a classic study that explains how and why this bureaucratic caste was able to take political power in the Soviet Union. The book was written by Leon Trotsky, a central leader of the revolution who formed the Left Opposition in 1923 to battle this parasitic cancer and continue a communist course based on revolutionary internationalism. The following excerpt is from the chapter “The Soviet Thermidor,” a term Trotsky defined as “a triumph of the bureaucracy over the masses.” The Revolution Betrayed is copyright 1937, 1972 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission. Footnotes are by the Militant. The proletarian character of the October revolution was determined by the world sit
