The revolution betrayed / Leon Trotsky ; translated by Max Eastman.

Originally published: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1937.

This book explores the fate of the Russian revolution after Lenin's death. Written in 1936 and published the following year, this ... profound evaluation of Stalinism from the Marxist standpoint prophesied the collapse of the Soviet Union. Trotsky employs facts, figures, and statistics to show how Stalinist policies rejected the enormous productive potential of the nationalized planned economy engendered by the October Revolution. Instead, a privileged bureaucratic social caste seized power and promoted a wasteful and corrupt bureaucratic system that ultimately self-destructed. This insider's view of what went wrong will fascinate readers of every political persuasion. -

Purpose of the present work -- Postscript -- What has been achieved -- Economic growth and the zigzags of the leadership -- Socialism and the state -- Struggle for productivity of labor -- Soviet thermidor -- Growth of equality and social antagonisms -- Family, youth and culture -- Foreign policy and the army -- Social relations in the Soviet Union -- Soviet Union in the mirror of the new constitution -- Whither the Soviet Union? -- Appendix: "Socialism in one country."