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Section III (Personalities): Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary and Theorist of Permanent Revolution
Quick questions on Trotsky on Stalinism: The Revolution Betrayed: HSC Modern History Personality
8short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Soviet Union and Where is it Going?Show answer
was written by Trotsky at Wexhall in Norway between February and August 1936. Trotsky drafted the book in Russian from his daily reading of the Soviet press (Pravda, Izvestia, Trud, Pravdivye Slova) and the Soviet statistical handbooks. Natalia Sedova prepared the manuscript.
What is the framework?Show answer
The opening chapters set out Trotsky's framework. The Soviet Union remained, in Trotsky's analysis, a workers' state because state property in the means of production survived as the dominant property form. The October Revolution's economic conquests (nationalisation of land, banking, industry, transport) had not been reversed.
What is the bureaucracy as a privileged social layer?Show answer
Trotsky devoted central chapters to the analysis of the Soviet bureaucracy as a privileged social layer. He used the official Soviet press to document:
What is soviet Thermidor?Show answer
Trotsky used the analogy of Soviet Thermidor to date the consolidation of the bureaucracy's political power. The French Revolution's Thermidor (the 9 Thermidor coup of 27 July 1794 that overthrew Robespierre) had been the bourgeoisie's conservation of the revolution's economic conquests under reactionary political forms; the Jacobin dictatorship had been replaced by the Directory.
What is political revolution?Show answer
The book's most influential single claim was that the bureaucracy could be overthrown by a "political revolution" rather than a "social revolution." Because state property remained the dominant property form, a working-class movement against the bureaucracy would not need to overturn the social regime; it would need to restore workers' democracy on the existing socialist property basis.
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is an extract from The Revolution Betrayed (1936) on the privileged bureaucracy. Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain Trotsky's analysis of Stalinism. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which The Revolution Betrayed provides an accurate analysis of the Stalinist USSR. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of Isaac Deutscher and Robert Service on The Revolution Betrayed. [10 marks]