Summer 2019: 30 years of 1989: What was Stalinism in power?
• required / + recommended reading
recommended book: Isaac Deutscher, Marxism, Wars and Revolutions: Essays from Four Decades (Verso, 1984) [ * essays included in book]
recommended background reading:
Spartacist League, Genesis of Pabloism (1972)
Week 1. The revolution betrayed | June 8, 2019
• Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where is it Going? (1936)
+ Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
+ Trotsky, letter to James P. Cannon of September 12, 1939
+ Trotsky, The USSR in War (1939)
Week 2. Stalinophilia and Stalinophobia | June 15, 2019
• Herbert Marcuse, 33 theses (1947)
• Shane Mage, "'Pure democracy' or political revolution in Eastern Europe?" excerpts from The Hungarian Revolution (1957) republished in Spartacist 30 (Autumn 1980) pp. 10-16
• Michael Harrington, "Marxism and democracy" (1981)
Week 3. Crisis of Stalinism | June 22, 2019
(Recommended resource: Isaac Deutscher internet archive)
• Isaac Deutscher, "Two Revolutions" (1950) *
• Deutscher, "Stalin, Mao and Korea" (1950)
• Deutscher, "Khrushchev on Stalin" (1956)
Week 4. Whither Communism? | June 29, 2019
• Deutscher, "Three trends in Communism" (1959)
• Deutscher, "From Stalin to Adam Smith" (1959)
• Deutscher, "The tragedy of the Polish Communist Party" (1958) *
• Deutscher, 3 articles on Eastern Europe (letter to Gomulka, dialogue with Brandler, conversation with Trygve Lie) *
Week 5. Maoism? | July 6, 2019
• Deutscher, "Three currents in Communism" (1964)
• Deutscher, "Maoism — its origin and outlook" (1964) *
• Deutscher, "Vietnam in perspective" (1965)
• Deutscher, "The meaning of the 'Cultural Revolution'" * and interview on the Cultural Revolution (1966)
Week 6. 50 years of the USSR | July 13, 2019
• Deutscher, The Unfinished Revolution: Russia 1917-67 (1967)
Week 7. Stalinism and the New Left | July 20, 2019
• Deutscher, "Marxism in our time" (1965) *
• Deutscher, "Marxism and the New Left" (1967)
