Russia: From Proletarian Revolution To State-capitalist Counter-revolution: Selected Writings

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From her prominent role as Leon Trotskys secretary, to the agitational and educational work conducted by her organization News and Letters, the impact of Raya Dunayevskayas thinking on the Left in the United States was both lasting and deep. This expertly edited new collection of her writings, with selections from every period of her career, will help a new generation of activists discover the key pillars of the Marxist-Humanist philosophy she helped pioneer.

Russia From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution begins with Dunayevskayas careful reading of Lenins notebooks on Hegel, which she saw as his philosophic preparation for proletarian revolution, and moves from there to her attempts to grapple with the class nature of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. This question, prompted by the march of the Red Army toward conquest of sections of Europe in the lead up to World War II, prompted a fractious debate in the international Trotskyist movement. In response, Dunayevskaya and her collaborator C.L.R. James developed a theory of State-capitalism that became the cornerstone of their intellectual and political work through the rest of the twentieth century.

Author Bio

Raya Dunayevskaya, philosopher of Marxist-Humanism, was secretary to Leon Trotsky in exile in Mexico (1937-38). Her major writings include Marxism and Freedom (1957), Philosophy and Revolution (1973), and Rosa Luxemburg, Womens Liberation, and Marxs Philosophy of Revolution (1982).

Eugene Gogol was one of Raya Dunayevksya's secretaries during the 1980s. He is author of an intellectual biography Raya Dunayevskaya: Philosopher of Marxist-Humanism. Among his other writings are: Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization, and Utopia and the Dialectic in Latin American Liberation.

Franklin Dmitryev is co-Trustee of the Raya Dunayevskaya Memorial Fund and National Organizer of News and Letters Committees. He has published numerous articles on Dunayevskayas thought, Marxist-Humanist philosophy, environmental justice, climate change, and other social issues.