The Nature of Soviet Society, Part I

Abstract

Charles Bettelheim's new book is the first volume of what promises to be a work of enormous importance for the world revolutionary socialist movement. Two further volumes, dealing respectively with the period 1924-1953 and the years since 1953, are to follow, probably within the next year or two. In this preliminary report, I propose to do three things: (1) summarize parts of the author's 40-page foreword in which he relates how the work came to be undertaken and what its purpose is; (2) indicate some of the major themes analyzed for the years 1917-1923 (from the October Revolution to Lenin's death); and (3) raise some questions of theory and method.

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