The Collapse of Stalinism

The Collapse of Stalinism-its Causes and Consequences by Peter Taaffe

The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, and in the other Stalinist states of Europe, marked an important turning point in history.

The triumphant optimism that the fall of ‘the Wall’ would usher in a period of global peace and prosperity has long been shattered. However, the accompanying ideological offensive – that ‘socialism’ had supposedly failed – still hangs heavily on the workers’ movement today.

This compilation of articles, arranged in three sections, provides cleat answers to those false claims:

‘Stalinism, the negation of Bolshevism’, explains how these dictatorial regimes only came to power by wiping out all traces of the genuine Bolshevism that had led the 1917 revolution.

‘Why did Stalinism Collapse?’ analyses the failure of these bureaucratic regimes, but also why the leadership required to overthrow them, and to build a genuine workers’ democracy, was absent.· ‘The consequences of Stalinism’s collapse examines the rise of ‘gangster capitalism’ that replaced it, as well as the ideological offensive against socialist ideas which accompanied it.