Socialist Construction and Marxist Theory : Bolshevism and Its Critique

This book is a collective production. Not only does it result from the combined efforts of its three accredited authors; it also owes much to many others. Its roots lie in our participation in the Political Economy Group which Gavin Williams founded in Durham in 1973. It was in discussions there that we first became aware of the mutual relevance of our apparently quite disparate individual researches, and gained the impetus to write a first draft of this book during 1974. We circulated that draft, both within and outside this Group, and the comment and criticism we received helped us immensely in writing the revised text which follows. The result, we believe, is a better book. At the same time, our revision has involved a good deal of distillation and some excision. Chapter I, for instance, represents a summary of arguments which were originally developed over 150 pages. We attempt to make good such losses in other writings, some of them already published, others still in preparation. In particular, we are writing a volume which will be in many ways a sequel to this, extending our assessment of the theoretical contribution to marxism made by Mao Tse-tung (For Mao: Essays in Historical Materialism, Macmillan, forthcoming). In this connection, we would like to make clear that our discussion in the present volume deals only with the period preceding Mao's death, though we believe that the analysis we offer provides the resources for comprehending the struggles in China which have followed. Finally, we wish to express our particular thanks to Val Gillespie, Sheila Ramsay, Teodor Shanin, Tse Kakui, and Gavin Williams, for their invaluable encouragement, assistance, and criticism throughout. Derek Sayer would like to acknowledge the help of the Social Science Research Council, whose award of a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship has enabled him to work on this project full-time during the last year. January 1977 PHILIP CORRIGAN HARVIE RAMSAY DEREK SAYER 'Letter to the Bureau of Party History.' SF, and (as 'Stalin Falsifies History') ETr. Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Marx....Pages 1-23 Bolshevism and its Critique....Pages 24-52 Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin....Pages 53-89 Mao....Pages 90-104 Bolshevism Now....Pages 105-144 ‘Never Forget Class Struggle...’....Pages 145-154 A Restatement....Pages 155-162 Back Matter....Pages 163-232