Charles
Bettelheim

Class
Struggles
in the
USSR

First Period: 1917-1923

 



© 1976 by Monthly Review Press

Translated by Brian Pearce
 
Originally published as
Les luttes de classes en URSS
© 1974 by Maspero/Seuil, Paris, France


Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo,
< [email protected] (June 2000)
(Corrected and Updated January-February 2017)


    In book form the first volume of Charles Bettelheim's Class Struggles in the USSR: 1917-1923 exceeds 500 pages in length. An electronic version of the text prepared for this site would, as a single file, exceed 1.5MB! Given the very large size of this text, I have once again departed from my normal practice of making a single complete file available, and have instead divided the text into five easily managable sections and set off the author's bibliograpy and index in a separate sixth section.
    Although the subject headings and page references in the index are NOT linked to the various sections of the text, I believe the index will still prove to be useful once you have downloaded and saved all sections of the book (in one folder) on your hard drive. You will need to use two browsers at the same time: one for viewing the text (say, Netscape), and the other for viewing the index (Internet Explorer). Using Netscape's "Find..." command, key words from the index can be entered, or, you can go to specific page references by entering "page x" (where "x" is a number -- there must be a space between the word "page" and the number).
    Immediately following the table of contents in the printed edition of the text, there is a "key to abbreviations, initials, and Russian words used in the text." I have, for the convenience of the reader, included this list following the table of contents in each of the six sections prepared for this site.
    What follows is the COMPLETE table of contents for the text. You will be able to access the various sections of the text as you proceed through the listing of contents, and again at the very end of the page.


  Contents


 

[ Section 1 ]


Preface


9

Introduction to the "first period"

57


Part 1.
 


The October Revolution and the
establishment of Soviet power


 
65

1.
 

The interweaving of the revolutionary processes
between February and October 1917


69

2.
 

The dictatorship of the proletariat and class
relations on the morrow of October


91


 

[ Section 2 ]



Part 2.
 
 


Soviet power and the
transformation of class relations
between 1917 and 1921


 
 
 
133

1.
 
 

The transformation of relations between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat under the
dictatorship of the proletariat


 
135

2.

The transformation of class relations in the towns

143

3.
 

The transformation of class relations in the
countryside

210


 

[ Section 3 ]



Part 3.
 
 


The transformation of the
principal instruments of the
proletarian dictatorship


 
 
 
251

1.
 

The transformation of the central organs of
power and the administrative machinery of state


 
 255

2.
 
 

The changes in the Bolshevik Party, the
guiding instrument of the proletarian
dictatorship


 
 292

3.
 
 

The objective character of the process whereby
the state machinery of the proletarian
dictatorship acquired independence


 
329


 

[ Section 4 ]



Part 4.
 
 


The ideological and political
struggles inside the Bolshevik
Party


 
 
345

1.
 

The changes in the Bolshevik Party's relations
with the masses


347

2.
 

The ideological and political struggles in the
Bolshevik Party before the civil war


368

3.
 

The ideological and political struggles during
"war communism"


380

4.
 
 

The ideological and political struggles at the end
of "war communism" and the beginning of the
NEP


 
395


 

[ Section 5 ]



Part 5.
 
 


The balance sheet of five years of
revolution and the prospects on
the eve of Lenin's death


 
 
437

1.
 

The balance sheet drawn up by Lenin on the period of "war communism"


439

2.

The mistakes of"war communism" analyzed

451

3.

"State capitalism"

464

4.

The changes in Lenin's conception of the NEP

477

5.
 

The tasks before the Bolshevik Party at the time
of Lenin's death


506


 

[ Section 6 ]


Bibliography


531

Index

539



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