Ernest Haberkern
The Fate of the Russian Revolution: Lost Texts of Critical Marxism Volume One is a significant contribution to the literature of the anti-Stalinist left. Long buried in the archives the polemics and analyses of those socialists who refused to accept the definition of Stalin's barbaric regime as a "workers' state" simply because property was nationalised and private property, large and small, was obliterated, deserve to see the light. My criticism of this anthology should in no way detract from the valuable contribution made and, in view of the promised second volume, the criticism may be premature.
Al Richardson, in his review (WL 53), rightly emphasises that the book is weak in its analysis of the structure of the regime, its contradictions, and its "laws of motion." He also notes that this anthology represents the work of "Max Shachtman... and of his co-thinkers." As I documented in my review of Peter Drucker's biography of Shachtman (WL 25 and 27) these two facts are related. There was a great deal of material on the questions that rightly concern Richardson but little of it was produced by Shachtman.