The Russian Question: A debate between Raya Dunayevskaya and Max Shachtman

A discussion article by Chris Ford

Published below is a rare account of a debate on the ‘Russian Question’ between by Raya Dunayevskaya and Max Shachtman, two theorists of the old Workers Party in the USA. It is important to bring to light efforts by Marxists to come to grips with the existence of Stalinism which, in the USSR and Eastern Europe whose legacy still constitutes a major block to socialist revolution. The continued existence of dictatorships calling themselves ‘communist’ which oppress millions in China, North Korea and Cuba makes it not a purely historical question. There is also an additional relevance of the discussions on the ‘Russian question’, that is that we should see it as integral to our efforts to conceptualize and project a socialist alternative to today’s age of global capitalism. It is a necessity to so that we may prevent future revolutions transforming into their opposite – another totalitarian state-capitalist society.