October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect

In these probing analytical essays, John Marot applies Robert Brenner's analysis of pre-capitalist modes of production to early Soviet attempts at revolutionary transformation, concluding that none of the oppositional economic programs were feasible. Resisting the view that Stalin's rise was inevitable, Marot hypothesizes that alternative to Stalinism was a New Economic Policy without collectivization and the Five-Year Plans.

John Eric Marot, Ph.D. (1987), University of California, Los Angeles, teaches History at Keimyung University in Korea. He has published many articles on Russian and Soviet History, notably Class Conflict, Political Competition, and Social Transformation: Critical Perspectives on the Social History of the Russian Revolution” (Revolutionary Russia, 1994) and Trotsky, the Left Opposition, and the Rise of the Stalinism: Theory and Practice” (Historical Materialism, 2006)