Introduction¶
Core Argument¶
The centenary of the October Revolution arrives in the midst of capitalism’s deepest crisis since the Great Depression, a fact that decisively refutes the triumphalist narrative that the USSR’s collapse proved socialism’s demise. What perished was Stalinism—the bureaucratic antithesis of Bolshevik democracy—not socialism itself. The bourgeoisie’s strident anti-communist campaign is not a sign of confidence but of fear, a reaction to rising interest in Marxism as the system’s contradictions deepen.
The achievements of the USSR’s nationalised planned economy were unprecedented. From a backward, semi-feudal, largely illiterate society in 1917, it became a modern industrial power. GDP increased ninefold over fifty years and fivefold from 1945 to 1979, reaching 58 per cent of US output. It became the world’s second industrial producer, leading in oil, steel, cement, tractors and machine tools, with virtually no unemployment or inflation, a balanced budget, and a health and education system equal or superior to the West’s. It launched the first satellite and first man into space, and by the 1980s had more scientists than the US, Japan, Britain and Germany combined.
The Revolution also laid the basis for women’s emancipation, granting full legal equality and access to economic and cultural work. Sweeping reforms included equal pay, paid maternity leave, family allowances, childcare centres, legalised abortion, simplified divorce, and abolition of the concept of illegitimate children. Stalinism represented a partial setback, but post-Stalin growth brought steady improvements: female life expectancy rose from 30 to 74 years, child mortality fell by 90 per cent, and women in higher education rose from 28 per cent (1927) to 49 per cent (1970). By 1970, 75 per cent of doctors were women, and female doctors of science rose from 600 (1950) to 5,600 (1984). Capitalist restoration has since reversed these gains.
The bureaucracy, unsatisfied with its plundered privileges, passed over to capitalist restoration, transforming from a parasitic caste into a ruling class, as Trotsky predicted. This represented a regression, forcing the peoples of the former USSR to endure the “blessings” of capitalism. The Putin regime is temporarily consolidated, but its strength is illusory; Russian capitalism is built on chicken’s legs, its Achilles heel an umbilical link to world capitalism in terminal crisis. Eventually, Russian workers will recover from defeat, rediscovering the traditions of the October Revolution and genuine Bolshevism—the only way forward for workers in Russia and worldwide.