Vol. 76/No. 30      August 13, 2012

Below is a June 13 review by the semiofficial Iran Book News Agency of the Farsi edition of The Revolution Betrayed, What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? by Leon Trotsky, a central leader of the Russian Revolution. The book, published in Iran by Talaye Porsoo, was translated from the English edition published by Pathfinder Press.

A translation of The Revolution Betrayed, What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? has been published. Leon Trotsky, who wrote this work in 1936, has written his assessment of the Russian Revolution and the challenges facing that revolution.

IBNA reports that one may not find many similarities between the thinkers of today’s left, and the Marxist vanguard. To those interested in the experience and analysis of left thought, Trotsky’s book helps to some degree in understanding the evolution of that thought.

The capitalist crises at the present time put wind in the sails of left currents, more than before, to beat the drum of capitalism’s future demise. Seminars being organized one after the other, as well as the publishing of classic and new books in this field, can be a sign of this renewed enthusiasm. For years Pathfinder Press has been publishing books in the field of left-wing thought. The publisher stood its ground at the height of the domination of capitalism, especially in the U.S., and published books by Trotsky, Lenin, Marx and Engels, as well as thinkers of the contemporary left in the U.S. such as Jack Barnes.

Among the books published by Pathfinder and translated in Iran, one can name, U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War, Feminism and the Marxist Movement, Their Trotsky and Ours, and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.

The Revolution Betrayed is another work by Pathfinder Press, which has been translated by Masoud Saberi and published by Entesharate Talaye Porsoo.

Talaye Porsoo, so far, has published some 30 books by Pathfinder in Iran. One of the latest books from this publisher is The Revolution Betrayed, which is a scientific analysis of an important part of the history of the contemporary world.

In the preface it says, “The collapse of the Soviet Union, for many who did not know the realities and contradictions of that society, came unexpectedly and caught them by surprise. Some celebrated it and some mourned, and some in Europe and the U.S. hurriedly predicted that the event had signaled the end of history in the world. Each one presented, subjectively, an individual analysis. But these analyses were put together after the event, not before. And for this reason their effective life was very short.”

The Revolution Betrayed not only familiarizes the reader with the root causes of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the analysis it presents can help shed light on the political horizon of the coming world. Studying this book reminds one of the period when there were many contradictory theories about the Soviet communist revolution.

As Trotsky writes in the introduction to the book: “Facts win out, however, in the end. The bookstalls of all civilized countries are now loaded with books about the Soviet Union. It is no wonder. The literature dictated by blind reactionary hatred is fast dwindling. A noticeable proportion of the newest works on the Soviet Union adopt a favorable, if not even a rapturous, tone. As a sign of the improving international reputation of the parvenu state, this abundance of pro-soviet literature can only be welcomed.”

A summary of Trotsky’s views about socialism and the Soviet Union are presented in this work. He first recounts the gains of the Russian Revolution and then illustrates the various stages of the development of the Russian economy.

In subsequent chapters, Trotsky digs into the challenges that confronted the Russian communist society in that period. Then he investigates the Soviet Thermidor; The Growth of Inequality and Social Antagonisms; Family, Youth and Culture; and Foreign Policy and the Army, as challenging issues that confronted the Republic. The concluding chapters of the book are, The Character of the Soviet Union, The Soviet Union in the Mirror of the New Constitution, and Whither the Soviet Union?

Leon Trotsky was one of the central leaders of the October 1917 Russian Revolution, the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International in the first years of the Soviet Republic. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Trotsky was the essential leader of the fight for the continuity of Lenin’s communist course, opposed to the political counterrevolution whose leadership was symbolized by [Joseph] Stalin. Trotsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929, was murdered in 1940 in Mexico by Stalin’s secret police.

The first edition of The Revolution Betrayed, What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? was published with a run of 1,000 copies, 351 pages, 12,000 tomans ($6.50, current exchange rate).  
 
 
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