The degeneration of the Russian revolution is one of the most tragic and misrepresented periods of the 20th century. Donny Gluckstein traces this complex process – and the gulf that separates the October revolution from Stalinism – through a study of the political thought of leading Bolshevik Nikolai Bukharin.
Gluckstein examines Bukharin’s development as a brilliant, if often flawed, revolutionary theorist, the enormous contradictions and pressures he faced and how, tragically, he succumbed to them. Gluckstein argues that, despite his great faults, Bukharin remained until his death inspired by the hope of the victory of socialism.
(Adapted from a review by Rob Ferguson, in Issue 64 of International Socialism Journal, Autumn 1994)