The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century

The Russian revolution and unfinished twentieth century, by David North, Oak Park MI, Mehring Books, 2014, xxvii + 386 pp., US$24.95 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-89363840-2The aim of David North's book is twofold: unmasking established academia's falsification of twentieth-century history, and, having re-established historical truth, enabling workers' movement to learn from history's lessons. The book is premised on claim that twentieth century is unfinished, that is, that current economic, social, and political situation is essentially similar to that 100 years earlier. Approached objectively, North argues, twentieth-century history informs social analysis and emancipatory politics; obfuscated, it disorients public and thereby reinforces class domination.The author, publicist and leader of Trotskyite movement in United States, makes no attempt to hide his frame of reference. Unfortunately, those expecting rigorous and nuanced account in best traditions of Marxist scholarship will be disappointed. The book does not engage with primary source material, nor does it advance new theoretical arguments. Rather, it is synthesis of previous scholarship, woven together into what one may label Trotskyite account of twentieth century.The book itself is collection of 15 lectures, online articles, and book reviews written over last two decades; while their subject matter is diverse, there are some common themes. First, North defends Russian revolution as a necessary, if only anticipatory, expression of the law-governed development of man, an emancipatory victory which will inevitably be repeated and expanded (65-6). Specifically, North rejects claims that Bolsheviks' support base was confined to radical intelligentsia (rather, support was strong among small but compact working class); that Bolsheviks imposed their own program on unwilling masses (rather, they raised workers' class-consciousness through suasion); and that revolution was an accidental product of Russia's military disaster (rather, both war and revolution were consequences of contradictions of imperialist capitalism).Second, invoking Lev Trotskii's concept of degenerated workers' state, North argues Stalinist regime, which coalesced in 1920s and 1930s, was neither inevitable nor Marxist. The implication is that USSR's subsequent collapse does not invalidate Marxism. Rather, North contends that Trotskyite alternative to Stalinism was both programmatically feasible (Trotskii stood for intra-party democracy and international revolution, and opposed collectivization) and historically possible (Iosif Stalin's triumph was contingent on failure of revolutions abroad, and rise of bureaucratic state domestically).Third, North establishes viability of Trotskyism by demonstrating its predictive and analytical power in accounting for twentieth-century developments. Trotskyite analysis, it is argued, accurately predicted onset of two world wars (a consequence of failing nationstates struggling to maintain economic hegemony), collapse of Soviet Union, and growing contradictions of capitalist global economy. Moreover, North makes counterfactual claim that Trotskyite victory would have precluded Holocaust, Second World War, and crimes of Stalinism.Finally, book seeks to vindicate revolutionary credentials of Marxism against revisionists seeking to make it compatible with reformism. This is achieved through an exegesis of Marxist texts, and historical excursions illustrating failure of compromise - betrayal of proletariat in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century bourgeois revolutions, and continual treason of trade unions from socialist cause. Implicitly, North's narrative suggests that Trotskyite radical revolutionary program is only truly Marxist one. …

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