Before Stalinism (a continuing symposium)

The Editors

THESE TWO VIEWPOINTS continue a symposium which we began in ATC 35 on the topic of Samuel Farber’s book Before Stalinism (Verso, 1990), a critical exploration of the politics and policies of the Bolshevik party regime in the early years of the Russian Revolution. The initial responses in that issue were by Susan Weissman, Boris Kagarlitsky and Tim Wohlforth, followed in ATC 36 by David Mandel and a comment by Ernie Haberkern in response to Tim Wohlforth on the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” We publish here Tim Wohlforth’s rejoinder to Haberkern, and an essay by Bernard Rosen, who, like Wohlforth, is a long-time socialist and writer. We feel that Rosen takes up questions central to Farber’s book. The symposium as a whole will be summarized by Farber in a forthcoming issue.

May-June 1992, ATC 38