It has been over a decade since the accession to power of Mikhail Gorbachev and the turn of the Soviet bureaucracy to the policy of dismantling the so called "socialist" economy. Five years ago the collapse of the Soviet Union put an end to the remnants of the non-capitalist regime which was established by the October Revolution in 1917. We shall examine the economic, political and social developments currently taking place in the republics of the former Soviet Union, trace the historical roots and draw the lessons of mankind's first attempt to build a socialist society.
Collapse and destruction characterize the former Soviet economy subjected to the full weight of international capitalist competition. The bourgeois social regime is taking the countries of the former Soviet Union back to asiatic barbarism and fascism.
The Russian Revolution -- the first step of the world socialist revolution.
The Soviet Union -- neither capitalist nor socialist, but a contradictory society in transition.
Was there an alternative to Stalinism? Leon Trotsky's legacy and Marxism today.
Recommended reading: Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed; and http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/fjk/iskra.html#ARTICLES
Classes held on Wednesday evenings, 6-7 pm, room 8-105
Please contact Felix Kreisel fjk@mit.edu or at 253-8625 for further questions.