The events of the Russian Revolution1917 are the greatest in all of human history. For the first time in history, the exploited masses fought back and won. And yet within 10 years, the Soviet Union had degenerated into a bureaucratic and totalitarian regime, with Stalin at its head. How did this process occur? And what is Stalinism?

In 1949, Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, wrote a polemical response to Tony Cliff on the class nature of the Soviet Union, arguing against Cliff’s theory of “State Capitalism”. Ted’s response provides an in-depth Marxist analysis on a range of questions, from the transition from capitalism to socialism, to the key issues of the state and the nature of Stalinism.

To celebrate this year’s centenary of Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, we are re-publishing a series of Ted’s key writings. We begin with Ted’s pamphlet “The Rise and Fall of the Communist International”, which analyses the founding of the Third International and its decline under Stalin.