Today is the 80th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War Two. This bloody catastrophe, which claimed the lives of almost 5m Soviet troops and saw the Nazis plunge deep into Soviet territory, was facilitated by the wrecking behaviour of Stalin and the bureaucracy. 

We publish here extracts from Alan Woods’ introduction to the new Wellred Books’ edition of Ted Grant’s Russia: from Revolution to Counter-revolution, republished this year to celebrate the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In this intro, Alan discusses the enormous gains of the revolution – and how they were destroyed by Stalinist degeneration.

Continuing our commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, we publish here an introduction by Alan Woods to Trotsky’s masterpiece: the Revolution Betrayed.