SUMMARY OF THE INTERVIEW:
STALIN
AGAINST THE SOVIET BUREAUCRACY
The theme of this interview is Stalin's relationship to the Soviet bureaucracy. On the issue of the Soviet bureaucracy, Tony Clark contrasts the Marxist-Leninist view with the trotskyist view. He suggests that, while the Marxist-Leninist position on the Soviet bureaucracy is concrete, the trotskyist view is abstract. On this issue, the difference between Marxism-Leninism and trotskyism is that between the concrete and the abstract.
THE FOLLOWING POINTS ARE MADE IN THE INTERVIEW:
1.
The
Trotskyist theory of a counterrevolutionary Soviet or ‘Stalinist’ bureaucracy
is examined and contrasted to the Marxist-Leninist theory of
counterrevolutionary elements ‘within’ the Soviet bureaucracy.
2.
The
concept of a ‘counterrevolutionary Soviet bureaucracy' is regarded as one-sided
and abstract, lacking concrete content, and ignoring the heterogeneous and
contradictory nature of the real Soviet bureaucracy. This is why
Marxist-Leninists reject the Trotskyist theory, opposing it with a more
realistic theory of ‘counterrevolutionary’ elements within the Soviet
bureaucracy.
3.
The
Marxist-Leninist concept of counterrevolutionary elements within the Soviet
bureaucracy led Marxist-Leninists to reject the Trotskyist proposal for a
‘political revolution’ as a means of remedying the problems associated with the
Soviet bureaucracy.
4.
In
the interview, it is shown that Marxist-Leninists regard the Trotskyist notion
of a specifically ‘Stalinist’ bureaucracy as absurd. This notion of a
specifically ‘Stalinist bureaucracy’ is regarded as a factionally motivated
concept invented by Trotsky.
5.
The
view that Stalin drew his main support from a conservative Soviet bureaucracy,
or from conservative elements within the bureaucracy, is rejected. Indeed, the
constant purges in the Soviet Union’s state apparatus and the basic nature of
those whom they were aimed at, not only refutes the Trotskyist theory of a
specifically ‘Stalinist bureaucracy’, but also undermines the Trotskyist
argument that the main source of Stalin’s support came from a conservative
Soviet bureaucracy.
6.
It
is shown that Stalin opposed the consolidation of a bureaucratic caste, or
class within the Soviet bureaucracy, and that this opposition was related to
the purges sponsored by Stalin.
7.
The
Trotskyist view that the bureaucracy seized political power in the Soviet Union
during Stalin’s tenure is dismissed as fantasy, opposed to all the facts.
Against this Trotskyist view, Marxist-Leninists argue that the Soviet
bureaucracy, in fact, had little if any political power; consequently, there
can be no talk of a Soviet bureaucracy coming to power in the Stalin period.
Rather than having seized political power under Stalin, the Soviet bureaucracy
was probably the most politically repressed bureaucracy in modern times.
8.
In
opposition to Trotskyism, the Leninist view is adopted that the struggle
against the negative sides of Soviet bureaucracy required a patient, long-term
approach, as advanced by Lenin, and consequently Marxism-Leninism rejects the
short-termism implicit in the Trotskyist political revolution slogan. It is
suggested that political revolution would only be a justifiable slogan for
communists if a bureaucratic caste or class had actually seized political
power, which was certainly not the case in the period of Stalin.
9.
The
Trotskyists' argument that the Soviet bureaucracy had consolidated itself into
a caste and this was expressed under the banner of ‘socialism in one country’
is dismissed because Lenin himself, on the basis of the study of imperialism at
that time, put forward the theory of socialism beginning in one (or several)
countries as part of the world revolutionary process. Consequently, it is
futile to use this theoretical proposition of Lenin’s to identify a
consolidated, or specifically ‘Stalinist’ bureaucracy as the Trotskyists do.
10.
It
is pointed out that Trotskyism, which is a form of ultra-leftism, completely
ignores the contradictory nature of the struggle against bureaucracy.
Trotskyists fail to understand that in a society undergoing socialist
transformation, communists are compelled to use the bureaucracy and struggle
against it at the same time.
11.
The
conclusion is that communists can either support the concrete, Marxist-Leninist
understanding of counterrevolutionary elements ‘within’ the Soviet bureaucracy,
and the need to unmask and purge them, or they can go along with the abstract,
one-sided, Trotskyist theory of a counterrevolutionary soviet/stalinist
bureaucracy, ignoring the real heterogeneous and contradictory nature of what
was the Soviet bureaucracy.
Communist Party Alliance.
