The Revolution Betrayed [Paperback]

Leon Trotsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1973

In 1917 workers and peasants of Russia were the motor force for one of the deepest revolutions in history. Yet within ten years a political counterrevolution by a privileged social layer whose chief spokesperson was Joseph Stalin was being consolidated. This classic study of the Soviet workers state and the degeneration of the revolution illuminates the roots of the disintegration of the Soviet bureaucracy and sharpening conflicts in and among the former republics of the USSR.

Appendix: 'Socialism in one country.' Index. Now with enlarged type.

Also available in: French, Spanish, Greek

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An important and devastating study...." -- New York Times

"Probably the most readable, significant and interesting book that has thus far come from the prolific pen of the former leader of the Red Army.... Trotsky has an intimate knowledge of and a complete command of his subject.... [T]he canvas he fills is so broad and well-balanced as to be highly instructive even to those who do not limit their investigations of Soviet affairs to the reports of the correspondents.... In a series of brief but lucid chapters the author traces the remarkable evolution through which the Soviet State has passed since 1917.... Trotsky's narrative bring[s] to the reader an echo of the passionate discussion that has taken place behind the closed doors of the high Communist bodies." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Of all Stalin's opponents Trotsky alone has produced a systematic and comprehensive critique.... [O]ne of the most influential books of this century.... a classic of Marxist literature." --New Statesman

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Pathfinder Press (February 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873482263
• ISBN-13: 978-0873482264
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The origins of Stalinism, March 13, 2003

By 

Carl Weinberg (Dahlonega, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Revolution Betrayed (Paperback)

Considering that the Soviet Union has fallen apart, that Leningrad has changed back to St. Petersburg, and that "communism" is discredited in the eyes of the pundits of the world, why would anyone want to read a book about the Soviet Union published in 1937? I'll tell you why. Because this book explains like no other book I've ever read what actually happened in the Soviet Union between the original Bolshevik Revolution and its total degeneration under the Stalinist bureaucracy; and WHY it happened. With plenty of concrete detail, it explains that Stalin and his henchmen took over the Russian Revolution NOT because revolutions are always bound to fail; and not because people are inherently corrupt; or that socialism is doomed. But because of a specific set of historical circumstances that faced the young Soviet workers' state and overwhelmed it. From this situation came Stalin and his fake version of Marxism, which Trotsky does a great job of blowing apart. For anyone who believes that there must be a better way than the dog-eat-dog system of capitalism that we live in, read this book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Stalin did, and how he did it, September 12, 2010

By 

Eric Balkan (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Revolution Betrayed (Paperback)

Reading Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed", I can see where George Orwell got the idea for "1984" from. In Stalin's world, Trotsky says, black is white, war is peace, and if you repeat today what The Great Leader said yesterday, you could be arrested for being a counter-revolutionary -- because His policy may be different today. Trotsky offers both statistics and anecdotal info to show that Russia was going in completely the wrong direction. The Stalinst system, if it can be called a system, is unstable, says Trotsky, and will either undergo yet another revolution to true socialism or backslide into capitalism. Hmm.

Karl Marx had said that government is the tool of the ruling class. So come the revolution, in the first stage of socialism, which we can call communism, the tools of production would be redistributed and economic classes would disappear as everyone becomes all one class. With no classes, there'd be no need for government, which would wither away as the society progressed through the further stages of socialism.

This was... optimistic. Clearly, the Soviet Union not only never got out of the first stage, but Stalin did everything he could to keep in that stage, replacing the old ruling class with a new one, the bureaucracy. Trotsky clearly identifies how all this had been happening. So this is the best book I've seen on how the Soviet Union completely turned its back on the ideals of the Revolution.

But... this was hardly all Stalin's doing. What Trotsky doesn't do -- and neither does Kerensky in "Catastrophe" or probably any politician -- is ever admit he made any mistakes. Trotsky talks about how the revolutionary mindset requires dissent. Dissent within the Party and dissent within the system from other parties. Yet, this is the guy who led the attack on Kronstadt when the mutinous sailors dared to call for "All power to the soviets" instead of all power to the Party. Not to mention the thousands of political dissenters and starving protestors who were arrested, tortured, and executed without trial by Lenin and Trotsky.

So, if you read this, and are inclined to think that Trotsky was a great guy, you also need to read something like Emma Goldman's "Two Years in Russia" or Bertrand Russell's "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism", both written around 1921, long before Stalin took control, to realize that the Bolsheviks were going wrong from the getgo. "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" said the early Bolsheviks. To which fellow revolutionary Victor Serge responded: "I see the broken eggs, but where's the omelette?"

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for understanding the post-Lenin USSR, October 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Revolution Betrayed (Paperback)

This is Trotsky's masterpiece work taking apart Stalinism piece by piece is his analysis of how Stalin betrayed the socialist revolution in Russia. If you want to know why the USSR has not been 'revolutionary' in the past 70 years.... here are your answers...