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You are here: The Platypus Affiliated Society/Cincinnati 2019 Summer Reading Group: 30 years of 1989: What was Stalinism in power?

Cincinnati 2019 Summer Reading Group: 30 years of 1989: What was Stalinism in power?

Sundays 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Sidewinder Coffee
4181 Hamilton Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45223


[ β€’ 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. June 16, 2019

β€’ 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. June 23, 2019

β€’ Herbert Marcuse, 33 theses (1947)

β€’ 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

β€’ Michael Harrington, "Marxism and democracy" (1981)


Week 3. June 30, 2019

(Recommended resource: Isaac Deutscher internet archive)

β€’ Isaac Deutscher, "Two Revolutions" (1950) *

β€’ Deutscher, "Stalin, Mao and Korea" (1950)

β€’ Deutscher, "Khrushchev on Stalin" (1956)


Week 4. July 7, 2019

β€’ Deutscher, "Three trends in Communism" (1959)

β€’ Deutscher, "From Stalin to Adam Smith" (1959)

β€’ Deutscher, "The tragedy of the Polish Communist Party" (1958) *

β€’ Deutscher, 3 articles on Eastern Europe (letter to Gomulka, dialogue with Brandler, conversation with Trygve Lie) *


Week 5. July 14, 2019

β€’ Deutscher, "Three currents in Communism" (1964)

β€’ Deutscher, "Maoism β€” its origin and outlook" (1964) *

β€’ Deutscher, "Vietnam in perspective" (1965)

β€’ Deutscher, "The meaning of the 'Cultural Revolution'" (1966) *


Week 6. July 21, 2019

β€’ Deutscher, The Unfinished Revolution: Russia 1917-67 (1967)


Week 7. July 28, 2019

β€’ Deutscher, "Marxism in our time" (1965) *

β€’ Deutscher, "Marxism and the New Left" (1967)