The legacies of the "Russian Question": bureaucracy, capitalism and revolution in social and political thought, 1938-2000

This project investigates the intellectual and ideological legacies of the so-called "Russian Question," which was a defining debate within the Trotskyist Fourth International during the 1930s-1940s. By following a cast of key actors who took different positions regarding this question and later went in markedly different ideological and political directions during the latter half of the 20th century, the project seeks to provide new perspectives on the history and development of socialist thought in the 20th century and the way it was shaped by different notions of the development of capitalism and the relation between state and economy.