Marcel van der Linden. Western Marxism and the Soviet Union.

Contents

Preface

1 – Introduction

2 – From the October Revolution to the Stalin Era (1917–29)

Kautsky and the Bolsheviks: three controversies

Levi, Luxemburg and the Bolsheviks: criticism and counter-criticism

Left-communist criticisms

Summary

3 – From Stalin’s ‘Great Leap Forwards’ to the ‘Great Patriotic War’ (1929–41)

State capitalism

Trotsky: the theory of the degenerated workers’ state

Theories of a new mode of production

Criticism

Summary

4 – From the ‘Great Patriotic War’ to the Structural Assimilation of Eastern Europe (1941–56)

The theory of the degenerated workers’ state

Theories of state capitalism

Theories of a new mode of production

Interpretations ‘without labels’

Debates and mutual criticism

Summary

5 – From the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU to the Repression of the ‘Prague Spring’ (1956–68)

Theories of state capitalism

The theory of the degenerated workers’ state

Theories of a new mode of production

Theories ‘without labels’

Summary

6 – From the Repression of the ‘Prague Spring’ to Perestroika (1968–85)

Theories of state capitalism

The theory of the degenerated workers’ state

Theories of bureaucratic collectivism

Theories of the new mode of production without a (consolidated) ruling class

Summary

7 – The Collapse and Its Aftermath: From 1985 to the Present

Theories of (state) capitalism

The theory of the degenerated workers’ state

Theories of bureaucratic collectivism

Theories of a new mode of production without a (consolidated) ruling class

Summary

8 – In Lieu of a Conclusion

9 – Meta-theoretical note