See below for contents (as in second edition, December 2015, 798 pages)
Introduction, by Sean Matgamna
Preface (Leon Trotsky and C L R James)
Chapter 1: Stalin’s Russia: a socialist community?
Chapter 2: Defend Russia in Hitler-Stalin Poland?
Chapter 3: Finland, Baltics, Romania, Iran. 1939-41: Russian imperialism?
Chapter 4: A bureaucratic-proletarian revolution?
Chapter 5: The USSR at war
Chapter 6: “Trotsky’s Red Army” in World War Two. "Bureaucratic-proletarian revolution" II
Chapter 7. Stalinist Russia: degenerated workers’ state or exploitative class society?
Chapter 8. Petty-bourgeois opposition, proletarian party?
Chapter 9. Legends of the fall
Chapter 10. Leon Trotsky is dead? Long live Trotsky!
Chapter 11. War and the USA
Chapter 12. The revolutionary party
Chapter 13. The working class is central
Essays
Introduction: The two Trotskys
Timeline
Glossary
Preface: Against the Stream: Leon Trotsky and C L R James
PART 1: STALINISM
Chapter 1: Stalin’s Russia: a socialist community? — Earl Browder, Max Shachtman
“The only really existing socialism”: Earl Browder
“Stalin murdered the socialists”: Max Shachtman (Debate from 1950)
PART 2: THE GREAT SCHISM
Chapter 2: Defend Russia in Hitler-Stalin Poland? — James P Cannon, Max Shachtman
“Unconditional defence of USSR”: James P Cannon
“The question of today is Stalin’s invasion of Poland”: Max Shachtman
(Debate, 1939)
“The real danger is those who identify the USSR with fascist states for the benefit of the USA and UK”: Leon Trotsky
Chapter 3: Finland, Baltics, Romania, Iran. 1939-41: Russian imperialism? — SWP majority and minority
“It is Finnish workers’ duty to be Soviet partisans”: SWP
“Stalin’s reactionary wars”: Herman Benson
“Finland: for Soviet patriotism!”: SWP
“Invasion of Finland serves only the Kremlin”: SWP minority
(Exchanges, 1939)
“We condemn the invasion; we defend the Soviet Union”: Albert Goldman
“The hue and cry about poor little Finland”: Max Shachtman
“In Finland, essentially Stalin was at war with imperialism”: Albert Goldman
“Taking stock of the Russo-Finnish war”: Leon Trotsky
“Invasion of Baltics: a defensive move against Germany”: Felix Morrow
“Baltics: reactionary imperialism”: Labor Action
“Bessarabia: a workers’ state has a right and duty to extend its base”: Albert Goldman
“Stalin seizes eastern Romania for revenues, power, and prestige”: Joseph Carter
“Iran: not all invasions are bad”: Albert Goldman
“Iran: imperialist aggression”: New International
Chapter 4: A bureaucratic-proletarian revolution? — Leon Trotsky, Max Shachtman
“Revolutionary in character, military-bureaucratic in form”: Leon Trotsky
“A civil war, and the Red Army is on the side of the workers”: Leon Trotsky
“Bureaucratic-proletarian revolution is not desirable and not possible”: Max Shachtman
“Civil war is a fact”: Leon Trotsky. (Debate, 1939-40)
“The Mensheviks split over the USSR”: John G Wright
“Mensheviks hail Stalin’s ‘war-revolution’”: Louis Jacobs
Chapter 5: The USSR at war — Max Shachtman, James P Cannon
“Hitler invades Russia”: Max Shachtman
“We call on Stalin to revive soviets and promise liberation to German workers”: SWP
“The Revolution in Russia is still alive”: James P Cannon. (Confrontation, 1941)
“Only the Russian soldiers have something to fight for”: George Breitman “Hitler’s invasion proves Stalin’s moves in were defensive”: Albert Goldman
“How to explain USSR’s defeats?”: SWP
“We are the best defenders of the USSR”: SWP
“Defend the socialist achievements of the USSR!”: George Clarke
“Victories show Russian masses accept Trotsky’s view of USSR under Stalin”: Albert Goldman
“The amazing unity of the Soviet peoples”: Bert Cochran
Chapter 6: “Trotsky’s Red Army”. Bureaucratic revolution II — SWP, Max Shachtman
“Stalin enters Poland: an impulse to workers’ revolution”: SWP
“Stalinist ‘liberation’ of Poland is an imperialist grab”: Max Shachtman
“The flags of the Red Army will combine with our own red flags”: La Vérité
(Confrontation, 1944)
“Stalin aims to subjugate Polish workers”: SWP
“Worker-guerrillas must subordinate to Red Army command”: James P Cannon
“Stalin seeks to make Trotsky’s Red Army gendarme of capitalism in Romania”: James Cowan
“SWP gives Stalin free help”: Labor Action
“Stalinism threatens to defeat workers’ revolution in Europe”: Lewis Coser
“You seem to be hypnotised by the slogan ‘defence of the USSR’”: Natalia Sedova
“The main danger for the USSR is Stalin”: Natalia Sedova
“Natalia is right!”: James P Cannon
“For you, the slogan of military defence of the USSR is fixed once and for all”: Natalia Sedova
“‘Revolutionary’ Stalinism and ‘Trotsky’s Red Army’”: Louis Jacobs
“‘Defence of the USSR’? A defence quite unlike Trotsky’s”: Eugene Shays and Dan Shelton
“The eruption of bureaucratic imperialism”: Jean van Heijenoort
“The Red Army is a friendly proletarian force”: SWP
Chapter 7: Stalinist Russia: degenerated workers’ state or exploitative class society? — Harry Braverman, Max Shachtman
“Property forms define the workers’ state”: Harry Braverman
“Stalinist state property defines a new exploitative class society”: Max Shachtman (Debate, 1944)
Chapter 8: Petty-bourgeois opposition, proletarian party? — Leon Trotsky, Max Shachtman
“A record of petty-bourgeois slidings”: Leon Trotsky
“Errors of the whole SWP, not just us”: Max Shachtman
“Class struggle within the party”: Martin Abern, Paul Bern, James Burnham, and Max Shachtman. (Debate, 1939-40)
“Trade unionists and revolutionists”: James P Cannon
PART 3: ANGELS, DEVILS, POLITICAL FOLKLORE, AND HISTORICAL FALSIFICATION
Chapter 9: Legends of the fall — Joseph Hansen and George Novack, Max Shachtman
“Resisting an assault on Marxism”: Joseph Hansen and George Novack
“No conciliation with renegades”: SWP
“The Workers Party after five years”: Max Shachtman (Confrontation, 1940-45)
“Why and how the 1940 split happened”: Max Shachtman and Ernest R McKinney
“Why we wanted our own periodical”: Max Shachtman and Ernest R McKinney
“We must deepen the split with the WP”: James P Cannon
“Answers to Comrade Cannon’s questions on the Workers Party”: Albert Goldman
“What we said would happen, and what did happen”: Albert Goldman, Felix Morrow, and Oscar Williams
“I was unready in 1940”: Max Shachtman
Chapter 10: Leon Trotsky is dead? Long live Trotsky! — James P Cannon, Max Shachtman
“To the memory of the Old Man”: James P Cannon
“What is Trotskyism?”: Max Shachtman (Confrontation, 1940-45)
“What is Leninism?”: Leon Trotsky
“Platforms and events”: Leon Trotsky
“Trotsky’s predictions triumph”: Joseph Hansen
“The revolution is very near”: James P Cannon
“Careless thinkers say the war is over”: James P Cannon
“Is the war really not over?”: Felix Morrow
“My theoretical principles of Marxism”: Arne Swabeck
“What kind of party should we build?”: Felix Morrow
“You cling to outworn formulas”: Felix Morrow
Chapter 11: War and the USA — Max Shachtman, James P Cannon
“World in flames”: Workers Party
“SWP’s first comment on US entry into war”: The Militant
“The strange silence of The Militant”: Max Shachtman
“Statement on the USA’s entry into World War ”: James P Cannon
(Exchange, 1941-2)
“Against the boss war! For a workers’ government”: Max Shachtman
“Move this anti-war resolution!”: Labor Action
“Conscription? Yes, but...”: Leon Trotsky
Chapter 12: The revolutionary party — James P Cannon, Max Shachtman
“A military organisation”: James P Cannon; Leon Trotsky
“Our Bolshevik party already exists”: James P Cannon
“The kind of party we are building”: Max Shachtman
“A homogeneous party”: SWP
“Your party is Zinovievist, not Leninist”: Max Shachtman, Ernest R McKinney
(Exchanges, 1940-6)
“The history of Bolshevism can be found in our own deeds”: James P Cannon
“Gross sentimentality, unbending rigidity, unfair attacks”: James T Farrell
“We should make revisionists hateful”: Harry Braverman
“An arbitrary, factional, self-serving attitude”: Albert Goldman
“Criticism by intellectual amateurs is an insult to the party”: James P Cannon
“Zinoviev: a great hero”: James P Cannon
“Zinovievist? I learned from Trotsky”: James P Cannon
“Don’t strangle the party”: James P Cannon
“The Bolshevisation of the party”: James P Cannon
“Keep necessary equilibrium between democracy and centralism”: Leon Trotsky
“Genuine, honest democracy”: Leon Trotsky
“No reason to hinder discussion”: Leon Trotsky
“A serious educational discussion”: Leon Trotsky
Chapter 13: The working class is central
“A letter to the workers of the USSR”: Leon Trotsky
“Trotsky’s partner, Natalia Sedova, broadcasts to the Russian workers”
“Why the working class is central”: Max Shachtman
ESSAYS
“Isaac Deutscher and the end of socialism”: Max Shachtman
“Did Stalinism grow organically out of Bolshevism?”: Max Shachtman
“Trotsky and Cannon”: Max Shachtman
“James P Cannon as historian”: Albert Glotzer
“Trotsky and his critics”: Max Shachtman
“The ABC of materialist dialectics”: Leon Trotsky
Contents of The Fate of the Russian Revolution volume one
Index
Titles given here to some of the excerpts are ours rather than those in the original. Each of chapters to contains one main debate, series of exchanges, or confrontation of opinion, and then background articles (titles in italics).
