Aarhus Summer 2019 Reading Group: 30 years of 1989: What was Stalinism in power?


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Saturdays 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Dome of Visions Inge Lehmanns Gade 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark (Map)


• required / + recommended reading

recommended book: Isaac Deutscher, Marxism, Wars and Revolutions: Essays from Four Decades (Verso, 1984) [ * essays included in book]

recommended background reading: Spartacist League, Genesis of Pabloism (1972)


Week 1. The revolution betrayed | June 22, 2019

• Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where is it Going? (1936)

+ Trotsky, \“Stalinism and Bolshevism\” (1937)

+ Trotsky, letter to James P. Cannon of September 12, 1939

+ Trotsky, The USSR in War (1939)


Week 2. Stalinophilia and Stalinophobia | June 29, 2019

• Herbert Marcuse, 33 theses (1947)

• Shane Mage, \”\‘Pure democracy\’ or political revolution in Eastern Europe?\” excerpts from The Hungarian Revolution (1957) republished in Spartacist30 (Autumn 1980) pp. 10-16

• Michael Harrington, \“Marxism and democracy\” (1981)


Week 3. Crisis of Stalinism | July 6, 2019

(Recommended resource: Isaac Deutscher internet archive)

• Isaac Deutscher, \“Two Revolutions\” (1950) *

• Deutscher, \“Stalin, Mao and Korea\” (1950)

• Deutscher, \“Khrushchev on Stalin\” (1956)


Week 4. Whither Communism? | July 13, 2019

• Deutscher, \“Three trends in Communism\” (1959)

• Deutscher, \“From Stalin to Adam Smith\” (1959)

• Deutscher, \“The tragedy of the Polish Communist Party\” (1958) *

• Deutscher, 3 articles on Eastern Europe (letter to Gomulka, dialogue with Brandler, conversation with Trygve Lie) *


Week 5. Maoism? | July 20, 2019

• Deutscher, \“Three currents in Communism\” (1964)

• Deutscher, \“Maoism — its origin and outlook\” (1964) *

• Deutscher, \“Vietnam in perspective\” (1965)

• Deutscher, \“The meaning of the \‘Cultural Revolution\’\” (1966) *


Week 6. 50 years of the USSR | July 27, 2019

• Deutscher, The Unfinished Revolution: Russia 1917-67 (1967)


Week 7. Stalinism and the New Left | August 2, 2019

• Deutscher, \“Marxism in our time\” (1965) *

• Deutscher, \“Marxism and the New Left\” (1967)