ialdabaoth posted:
yes of course:

Leon Trotsky, "Bureaucratism and Factional Groups"
Leon Trotsky, "Against Bureaucracy, Progressive And Unprogressive"
Leon Trotsky, "The Workers’ State, Thermidor and Bonapartism"
Leon Trotsky, “It Is Necessary to Drive the Bureaucracy and the New Aristocracy Out of the Soviets”

hope that helps, good luck with your paper

beautiful! great post.

Soviet (it would be more correct to say, anti-Soviet) bureaucratism is the product of social contradictions between the city and the village, between the proletariat and the peasantry (these two kinds of contradictions are not identical), between the national republics and districts, between the different groups of peasantry, between the different layers of the working class, between the different groups of consumers and, finally, between the Soviet state as a whole and its capitalist environment. Today, when all relationships are being translated into the language of monetary calculation, the economic contradictions come to the forefront with exceptional sharpness.

Raising itself above the toiling masses, the bureaucracy regulates these contradictions. It uses this function in order to strengthen its own domination. By its uncontrolled and self-willed rule, subject to no appeal, the bureaucracy accumulates new contradictions. Exploiting the latter, it creates the regime of bureaucratic absolutism.

The contradictions within the bureaucracy itself have led to a system of handpicking the main commanding staff; the need for discipline within the select order has led to the rule of a single person and to the cult of the infallible leader. One and the same system prevails in factory, kolkhoz, university and the government: a leader stands at the head of his faithful troop; the rest follow the leader. Stalin never was and, by his nature, never could be a leader of masses; he is the leader of bureaucratic “leaders,” their consummation, their personification.

The more complex the economic tasks become, the greater the demands and the interests of the population become, all the more sharp becomes the contradiction between the bureaucratic regime and the demands of socialist development, all the more coarsely does the bureaucracy struggle to preserve its positions, all the more cynically does it resort to violence, fraud and bribery.

The constant worsening of the political regime in face of the growth of the economy and culture – this crying fact finds its explanation in this, and this alone: that oppression, persecution and suppression serve today in a large measure not for the defense of the state but for the defense of the rule and privileges of the bureaucracy. This is also the source of the ever-increasing need to mask repressions by means of frauds and amalgams.

The theoretical journal of the Central Committee, Bolshevik (December 31, 1934), carries an article by Serebrovsky, On the Gold-Mining Industry of the USSR. We turn to the first page: “... under the leadership of the beloved leader of the party and the working class, Comrade Stalin ...”; three lines down: “... Comrade Stalin in a conversation with the American correspondent, Mr. Duranty ...”; five lines further down: “... the concise and precise reply of Comrade Stalin ...”; at the bottom of the page: “that’s what it means to fight for gold in the Stalinist way.” Page two: “... as our great leader, Comrade Stalin, teaches us ...”; four lines down: “... replying to their (the Bolsheviks’) report, Comrade Stalin wrote: ’Congratulations on your success’ ...”; further down on the same page: “inspired by the guidance of Comrade Stalin ...”; one line below: “... the party with Comrade Stalin at the head ...”; two lines following: “... the guidance of our party and (!!) Comrade Stalin.” Let us now turn to the conclusion of the article. In the course of half a page we read: “... the guidance of the genius leader of the party and the working class, Comrade Stalin ...”; and three lines later: “... the words of our beloved leader, Comrade Stalin ...”

Satire itself stands disarmed in the face of such a flood of sycophancy! “Beloved leaders,” one should imagine, are never in need of having declarations of love made to them five times on each page and, besides, in an article devoted not to the leader’s anniversary but to ... the mining of gold. On the other hand, the author of an article with a capacity for such fawning obviously cannot have anything in him of a revolutionist. Of such caliber is this former czarist director of large factories, bourgeois and patriot, who waged a struggle against the workers and who is today a bulwark of the regime, member of the Central Committee and 100 percent Stalinist!

getfiscal posted:
a keynesian source on why planning fell apart is "socialist planning" by michael ellman

in a nutshell i'm curious to know what his theory was

Ironicwarcriminal posted:

getfiscal posted:
a keynesian source on why planning fell apart is "socialist planning" by michael ellman

in a nutshell i'm curious to know what his theory was

basically planning contains serious logical problems that led to almost immediate abandonment of full planning and decentralization/autonomy of firms/planning continued until capitalist restoration.

ialdabaoth posted:
sorry he died

*screams "EEEEE" like the Angry BEavers*