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A crisis of theory in Marxism

An introduction to two articles on the 1920s discussion on the economy of the USSR

By Bob Gould

The overthrow of the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union brought to a head a crisis in Marxist theory that had been developing for a long time.

The relative ease of bourgeois restoration in those countries and the bourgeois restoration in China, which proceeded behind the figleaf of the monopoly of power by a Stalinist party, underlined substantial unresolved problems about the nature of societies transitional between socialism and capitalism, the nature of Stalinism and other theoretical and historical questions.

Socialism as an alternative to capitalism is now more remote from mass consciousness, particularly in advanced capitalist countries, than it has been for about 100 years. The idea of socialism, what it might look like and what it might mean for the masses, is regarded as quaintly antique by the overwhelming majority.

All this highlights the need for a thorough reworking of the whole notion of what socialism would look like: its essential elements and features that would be specific to the transition to socialism.

Until Marxists do some serious work on these questions, the general idea of socialism is likely to remain in its present marginalised position.

In the early 1990s I went around energetically to meetings of different groups in the Marxist and socialist left advocating the view that a broad political discussion involving the members and leaders of all the groups was necessary to overcome the fragmentation and marginalisation that had overtaken the whole socialist movement.

This discussion would have two poles:

  • Strategy and tactics in the workers movement and the nature of Marxist organisation.
  • A program for socialist transition in the new global conditions, taking account of the lessons of the overthrow of Stalinism.

    The need for socialist renewal is widely recognised, but not much serious development has taken place yet on either of these questions, although the extraordinary energy of the people associated with the Marxist Internet Archives and its offshoots has at least made accessible to a broad public a large part of the intellectual foundations of the Marxist movement.

    Ozleft is also an effort to make available some material that can contribute to the comprehensive theoretical discussion necessary for socialist renewal.

    In particular, it's important to bring out some of the key features of previous historical experiences in the socialist movement, and attempts to construct socialism.

    An important field of study is the attempt to develop a theory of socialist transition in the young USSR before the socialist project there was destroyed by Stalinism. The Marxist Internet Archive has published some vital documents by Christian Rakovsky from the early years of the Left Opposition with critical observations on the process of Stalinisation.

    Gus Fagan's important 1980 collection, Selected Writings on Opposition in the USSR 1923-30, is out of print, so this initiative by the Marxist Internet Archive is very useful.

    The Soviet economic debates in the 1920s have been covered in several books and articles, notably by Moshe Lewin, Alec Nove and E.H. Carr.

    The two articles reproduced here for discusssion are from Slavic Review, an important journal of theory, mainly focussing on the USSR.

    One is about the life, political activity and ideas of the Soviet economist and government figure, Gregory Sokolnikov, who was generally, although loosely, associated with the Right Opposition.

    The second article is about the political views and career of Evgeny Preobrazhensky who was a member of the Left Opposition until his forced capitulation to Stalin, which was partly ideological and partly at the point of a gun.

    Both of these extremely important Soviet economsts and government figures were eventually put to death along with overwhelming majority of Old Bolsheviks of all factions, at the direct doing of the Bonapartist monster, J.V. Stalin.

    The record of their economic arguments and struggles in the early years of the USSR are a very important starting point for serious discusion of the economic questions that will face any attempt at socialist revolution, particularly in the less developed countries.

    These economic discussions in the 1920s in the USSR, were relatively public, which is clear refutation of the exaggerated Zionvievist view, painstakingly cultivated in Marxist sects, that vital strategic discussion is necessarily internal.

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