Around the Nation: October 3, 2007

Eight-session class begins, taught by Rick Wolff. This course uses Marxian class analysis to examine the rise and collapse of the USSR between 1917 and 1989. We will study how capitalist, socialist and communist class structures coexisted inside the USSR and shaped the following: the 1917 revolution and civil war, Lenin’s New Economic Policy, Stalin’s industrialization and agricultural collectivization, post-WW2 Soviet growth, and the 1980s collapse. We aim to draw important lessons for the left today from the achievements and failures of the Soviet system. The central text will be Class Theory and History: Capitalism, Communism and the USSR, by Stephen Ressnick and Richard Wolff. It is available in paperback in bookstores and via the Internet. Further readings will be provided. Richard Wolff teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts. Among other works, he is the author, with Stephen Ressnick, of Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy, and New Departures in Marxian Theory. Sliding scale: $75-$95, free for Brecht Forum subscribers. Brecht Forum, 51 West Street (A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 to 14th St.), 212-242-4201.

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