Introduction¶
Core Argument¶
This introduction establishes the polemical purpose of the entire work: to provide a scientific, critical analysis of the Soviet Union in place of the prevailing apologetic literature produced by its Western "friends." The core argument is that the bourgeois world, having failed to ignore the Soviet Union's economic achievements, has now produced a flood of favourable but intellectually dishonest writing that mistakes the Soviet present for socialism itself. Trotsky identifies three categories of this literature: dilettante left-wing journalism (exemplified by Louis Fischer and Walter Duranty), humanitarian-pacifist "communism" (represented by Henri Barbusse and Romain Rolland, whose prior biographies of Christ and Gandhi are cited as revealing), and academic economic schematisation in the tradition of German Katheder-Sozialismus (personified by Sidney and Beatrice Webb). Despite their differences, these writers share a common trait: they kowtow to the accomplished fact, having never seriously considered how socialism would arrive before the October Revolution made it convenient to do so. Their work amounts to "Bolshevism for the Cultured Bourgeoisie" or "Socialism for the Radical Tourists," offering sedative generalisations that avoid genuine political commitment.
Trotsky explicitly refuses to engage these writers in polemic, dismissing them as offering no serious grounds for debate. Instead, his investigation aims to estimate what is in order to understand what is coming to be, dwelling on the past only to illuminate the future. He makes the striking claim that, in the fundamental sense of creating a classless society based on solidarity and the harmonious satisfaction of needs, there is not yet a hint of socialism in the Soviet Union. The contradictions of Soviet society—material and cultural inequalities, governmental repression, and suppressed political struggle—are deeply different from capitalism's contradictions but remain very tense. History, he insists, merges directly with living politics: forbidden thoughts influence policy at every step.
The chapter concludes with a sharp rebuttal to those who urge caution in criticising the Soviet Union lest socialist construction be injured. Trotsky dismisses this fear as revealing not the fragility of the Soviet state but the fragility of its "friends'" sympathy with it. The enemies of the Soviet Union, he notes, already possess accurate intelligence on its weaknesses; criticism of the tendencies they consider favourable features will never aid them. The work's purpose is to show the face, not the mask. The date of composition—4th August 1936—is given, situating the text in the midst of the Moscow Trials and the consolidation of Stalin's dictatorship.