This work first appeared in the Jan. 30, 1992, issue of Workers World newspaper at a time when world imperialism was celebrating the fragmenting of the USSR and the economic inroads being made by monopoly capital.
Sam Marcy puts the problems of the socialist revolution in the Soviet Union in their historical context and in relation to developments in the worldwide struggle of the working class and the oppressed nations.
As an organizer and political leader, Marcy has been critically analyzing the development of socialism in the Soviet Union for 60 years. He has been an unwavering supporter of socialist construction and defender of the gains of the working class. Today, he has more than 20 titles in print on the worldwide struggle to end oppression and exploitation and build socialism. His works have been reprinted on every continent.
Marcy and Workers World were the first to put forward a critical Marxist analysis of the developments in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. As early as 1987, Marcy was warning of the dangers posed by capitalist and imperialist penetration of the Soviet Union. He talked of the catastrophe facing the Soviet workers and national minorities if the policy of perestroika were followed to its logical end — capitalist counterrevolution. Marcy concluded that the only way forward for Soviet socialism was through a more egalitarian socialist planning that genuinely involved the mass of Soviet workers and gave special consideration to the participation of the many nationalities.
Marcy offers a class viewpoint in the tradition of Marx, Engels and Lenin. For readers interested in pursuing this subject, the first four years of Gorbachev are thoroughly examined in Marcy's 400 — page book, Perestroika, A Marxist Critique. In the words of Donald Fiene, Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Tennessee, "Sam Marcy exhibits a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the complex changes taking place in the Soviet Union."
This pamphlet is dedicated to Dorothy Ballan — beloved wife, comrade, fighter for women's rights and determined and consistent revolutionary. Her dedication to the cause of the working class and her personal support have made my life and work possible.
— Sam Marcy
Index
1. Utopian socialist experiments | 2. Was Russian Revolution utopian?
Last updated: 15 December 2017