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Prof. Randhir Singh`s Crisis of Socialism “ Notes in Defence of a Commitment, dealing with the why and how of the collapse of Soviet Union`s ˜actually existing socialism`, its implications and the question of socialism in our time and recognised as a pioneering work “ ˜One of the most important, if not the most important book we have read`, ˜a key to all that is going on in our world today`, ˜if there were a required reading list for the U.S. left, this should be on it`, and so on “ is now being published in six separate volumes.
This volume deals with the failed revolutionary experiment in the Soviet Union. The overriding concern is that in the absence of a Marxist explanation of what has happened in the erstwhile Soviet Union, it is socialism`s enemies` explanation “ ˜socialism has failed`, ˜Marxism is dead`, etc. “ which will continue to prevail.
It is argued that instead of socialism being attempted on a base provided by the productive achievements of capitalism “ as visualized in Marx`s main theory on the subject “ a single backward country was called upon to attempt it, and do so in the midst of a most hostile globally dominant capitalism which did not allow the Soviet Union a single day of peace during its seventy odd years of existence. Lenin recognised the predicament and, possibly, had the potential to make a creative Marxist response to this unanticipated situation. ˜Struggle and struggle alone decides, how far we shall advance`, he had insisted. But the struggle, especially after Lenin`s early departure, was not adequate enough. Logic of backwardness, compulsions of sheer survival, scientistic Marxism and economism in theory (˜theory of production forces`), flaws in the character of men who led “ all taking their toll, what got built was a grievously deformed socialism which, over time, degenerated into a sui generis exploitative system, that ultimately collapsed. As the author puts it: ˜Despite its undoubted achievements, the system ultimately failed. But it is the Soviet System, and not socialism, that failed in the Soviet Union.`isbn-9789350021163
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