Eugene,
I believe that you (or rather Solzhenitzyn, and the anarchists) are
referring to the horrible years of imperialist encirclement immediately
after WWI, during which time the Bolsheviks had to resort to War Communism
in order to defend the nascent revolution. These extreme measures (which
included forcibly seizing grain stores from peasants in order to feed the
Red Army and the workers in the cities) were not an example of socialism,
nor were they proposed as such. On the part of the revolutionary leaders
it was a matter of basic survival of the first workers' revolution, in the
hope that perserverance would eventually lead to an opportunity to spread
the revolution to Germany and the rest of the industrialized West.
Here's another illustrative quote:
The vicissitudes of the Russian Revolution after the Bolsheviks came to
power reveal in abundant, sadistic detail the variety of weapons which
world imperialism can bring to bear on an isolated revolutionary workers
state. From the invasion by troops of 14 different capitalist nations, to an
embargo on travel, trade and investment, to the arming of the indigenous
forces of counterrevolution, the imperialist powers did their utmost to
strangle isolated and economically devastated Soviet Russia. The world
bourgeoisies refused to coexist with a state that had ripped a huge area of
investment and exploitation out of the world market. That the workers state
held out as a bastion of world revolution for five years in isolation was
a major historical accomplishment; that in degenerated form the state
issuing from October was maintained for almost 70 years is testimony to the
incredible economic power of a planned and collectivized economy, despite
the mismanagement of the Stalinist bureaucratic caste which seized
power from the working class in early 1924. The continued historical
reverberation of the Bolshevik Revolution was illustrated by the overthrow
of capitalism and the creation of deformed workers states in the Stalinist
image in East Europe, China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba.
At 09:13 AM 6/17/00, Eugene Matusov wrote:
>Hi Peter and Nate and everybody--
>
>I want to make two brief comments on Peter's reference to Trostky and
>Nate's point.
>
>---------Peter's quote begins----------
>I suggest you read Trotsky for an analysis of the social and material
>nature of the stalinist societies, which have recently rejoined the ranks
>of market capitalism. His most explicit writing on this was The
>Revolution Betrayed in 1937 (?) in which he described the Soviet Union as
>a "degenerated workers' state," which was not socialist.
>---------Peter's quote ends------------
>
>Russian writer Solzheniztin made an interesting argument in his famous
>book "Archipelago Gulag" about Trotsky. Solzheniztin argues that Stalin
>implement Trotsky's ideas about socialism at time when Trotsky was in
>power. Things like labor camps for re-education, or treating workers as
>mobilized army were invented by Trotsky in early 20s, according to
>Solzheniztin. I did not read Trotsky much to check it, but quotes that
>Solzheniztin provided were convincing. My point is that Stalin did not
>deviate Soviet state from socialism but was a part of it. Many left-wing
>Soviet intelligencia criticized Lenin and Trotsky from the beginning of
>the communist coup using similar arguments the Peter quotes in Trotsky.
>
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