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"Harold Shukman introduces Redefining Stalinism, a collection of articles published 50 years after Stalin's death. With the opening of Soviet archives to an unprecedented degree since the demise of the USSR, totalitarian and revisionist arguments about Stalin and the Stalinist system can be more closely explored."--Jacket

The article presents, in a synthetic manner, the mechanism of introducing the Stalinist system in Poland and describes its essence. It points to the importance of – until now given less value in the relevant literature – the mechanism of elimination of institutions and persons representing the constitutional order and state-creating social fabric, as well as introducing in their place representatives of the lowest social classes and institutions impersonating Polish centres of power, but in fact fully dependent on the USSR. The text focuses on political and social issues, as well as on the extensive ­repression apparatus. ; The article presents, in a synthetic manner, the mechanism of introducing the Stalinist system in Poland and describes its essence. It points to the importance of – until now given less value in the relevant literature – the mechanism of elimination of institutions and persons representing the constitutional order and state-creating social fabric, as well as introducing in their place representatives of the lowest social classes and institutions impersonating Polish centres of power, but in fact fully dependent on the USSR. The text focuses on political and social issues, as well as on the extensive ­repression apparatus.

Democracy & socialism are not separate concepts; socialism is a development of democratic relations. However, it has long been common to identify Stalinism with socialism. Stalinism can be defined in terms of state ownership, merging party & state power & suspending social power, suspension of democracy within the party, & limitations on individual liberty. These policies are essentially counterrevolutionary. Stalinism was not the inevitable result of the October Revolution, nor was it due to the underdevelopment of Russia; rather, it derived from the inner limitations of Bolshevism, including vanguardism, a one-party system, & growing detachment from the international workers' movement. The Stalinist system continues to exist as a bureaucratized political society whose primary end is not emancipation of the Wc but consolidation & maintenance of power. Rejection of this system of existing socialism opens a possibility of its rehabilitation. W. H. Stoddard.