The October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect

This is a very important book, one of the very few books published since 1991 on the 'Russian question' that will compel people (this reviewer included) long wedded to different characterizations of the post - 1917 or post - 1929 Soviet regime to think through their commitments. - Loren Goldner, Insurgent Notes.

In this series of probing analytical essays, John Marot applies Robert Brenners analysis of precapitalist modes of production to early Soviet attempts at revolutionary transformation and concludes that none of the oppositional economic programs could have provided the revitalization that would have been necessary to staunch Stalinisms development. Where others have used similar analysis as justification for the view that Stalins rise to power was inevitable, Marot instead argues that a fusion of Leon Trotskys and Nikolai Bukharins proposals-the continuation of the NEP without collectivization or Five - Year Plans - could have laid the basis for an alternative to Stalinism.