Is Stalinism Socially Counter-Revolutionary?
Those who believe that the “People’s Democracies” are workers’ states, and after ‘diplomatic’ avoidance of the issue will in due course say that Mao-tse Tung’s China is also a workers’ state, claim that this is not undermining our position on Stalinism and the consistency of our world programme’, any more than the social revolution (according to Trotsky) brought about in Eastern Poland and the Baltic countries in 1939-40 did. (Trotsky did not cease to call Stalin the ‘grave-digger of the socialist revolution’, and Stalinism a socially counter- revolutionary force, in spite of the transformation of Eastern Poland and the Baltic countries into workers’ states.) They say that this argument is as good today as it was then, even though it leads to the assumption that half Europe and half Asia have been transformed into workers’ states by Stalin. This is simply nonsense, and contrary to the basic law of dialectics about the change of quantity into quality. Let us examine the argument more cl
To me the term "worker’s state" means the same thing as "proletarian dictatorship." Both Trotsky and Stalin actively promoted proletarian dictatorship. They believed in special historical mission of proletariat–destruction of capitalism creation of a just society.
P.S.
The word communism has at least two conflicting definitions. (a) It refers to social order based on justice and (b) it refers to social order established in the USSR, Poland, and many other communist countries. The first was advocated thousands of years ago (Moses, Jesus, etc.). It would be a paradise on earth, if implemented. The second one was actually implemented and in became Hell on earth. Those who are not familiar with Hell on Earth can learn a lot from my short ON-LINE book:
http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/father2/introduction.html
This easy to read book is dedicated to my father, a naive communist who was seduced by the idea of paradise on earth, and who became a victim of hell on earth.
I am Ludwik Kowalski, the author of an ON-LINE “Diary of a Former Communist: Thoughts, Feelings, Reality,” at
http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html
It is an autobiography illustrating my evolution from one extreme to another–from a devoted Stalinist to an active anti-communist. This testimony is based on a diary I kept between 1946 and 2004 (in the USSR, Poland, France and the USA).
Why am I distributing these books on-line, instead of selling them for profit? Because I want to share what I know and think about communism. The more people know about proletarian dictatorship less likely will they experience is.
Please send the above links to all who might be interested, especially to potential reviewers. Thank you in advance,
Ludwik
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