The USSR in War¶
Core Argument¶
In the crucible of imperialist war, the Marxist appraisal of the USSR as a degenerated workers’ state remains unaltered by tactical pacts such as the German-Soviet agreement. Such alliances merely expose the bureaucracy’s profound contempt for the international proletariat. The central political task is therefore the revolutionary overthrow of this parasitic bureaucratic stratum, while preserving the foundational gains of nationalised property and the planned economy. This coming revolution is political, not social; the bureaucracy is not a new ruling class, for it lacks a historical mission, having become a brake on development whose power rests on the temporary conditions of backwardness and imperialist encirclement. Critics who label the bureaucracy a new ‘class’ add nothing essential to this programme, mistakenly elevating a transitional deformity into an independent social formation. The historic alternative is stark: either Stalinism is an abhorrent relapse within the transition from capitalism to socialism, or it is the first stage of a new exploiting society. No objective data compel renunciation of the socialist perspective.
The defence of the USSR cannot be separated from the international class struggle. It does not mean supporting the Kremlin bureaucracy or its imperialist allies. Renouncing defeatism toward whichever imperialist camp the USSR aligns with would mean abandoning the socialist revolution. The Comintern’s ‘defence of the USSR’ transforms the proletariat into an auxiliary force for one bourgeois camp, while some comrades, rejecting this, renounce defence entirely, conceding the opportunists’ definition. In truth, the USSR is defended through independent proletarian politics. On occupied territories, the Moscow government will likely expropriate large landowners and statify the means of production, not out of socialist principle, but because the bureaucracy will not share power with old ruling classes. This is analogous to Napoleon abolishing serfdom. However, the Kremlin’s overall politics remain reactionary and the chief obstacle to world revolution.
The statification of property in territories occupied by the Red Army is a progressive measure, yet this progressiveness is outweighed by the evil of extending bureaucratic autocracy. Nationalised property can only become a basis for socialist development if the bureaucracy is overthrown. If Hitler attacks the East, the most urgent task becomes military resistance under the slogan ‘For Socialism! For the world revolution! Against Stalin!’ The principled position on the USSR remains unchanged: war may accelerate either revolutionary regeneration or final degeneration. The question of overthrowing the bureaucracy is subordinate to preserving state property, which is itself subordinate to the world proletarian revolution.