Waistline2 wrote:
"Socialism Betrayed" by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny contains an
underlying
theory grid that evolved from the evolution of the Communist Party USA . .
.
in my opinion . . . and limited to the industrial phase of development.
I read "SB" as well and also consider it worth reading, but was less
impressed. I was disappointed that the book almost solely focuses on
inner-party conflict and, contrary to what one might expect from an
historian like Roger Keeran, it presents a socialist version of the "great
man" history (if that is possible) we were supposed to have rejected from
bourgeois historians. Their conclusion: one man, specifically Mickail G. is
responsible for the collapse of the USSR, and along the way competing
personalities representing two trends in the CPSU fought over the direction
of development. Where is the working class?
Also, questions such as why a second economy necessarily arose out of the
planned economy aren't really addressed except as they relate to the history
of the personalities that dominate the book? Why would workers and the mass
of the population turn to the SE? Why would they need to? What does this say
about how the USSR was developing socialism? Does it have anything to say
about planning itself?
Also, I have to say I didn't think the unqualified (or at the most very
underqualified) defenses of Stalin were just way too much to handle.
Likewise the attacks on those in the Soviet party that criticized Stalin by
the authors of this book (and by implication everyone else), calling them
social democrats or being aligned with imperialists etc., was unconvincing.
Also, (another also) the authors handling of the question of democracy
seemed out of another era altogether.
The book does contain a lot of useful information, I think, about the Soviet
economy and some Party-related history. I'd give it 2 and 1/2 red stars.
Joel Wendland
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