Is the red flag flying? : the political economy of the Soviet Union / Albert Szymanski.

To learn about the author, read "Albert Szymanski: A Personal and Political Memoir," by Ted Goertzel, retrievable online at: https://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel/szymanski.htm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-231) and index.

1. Introduction: The nature of the Soviet Union: a critical question -- Assumptions and motivations underlying this book -- Summary of this book -- A note on sources --

2. What is a socialist society?: Criteria for categorizing social formations -- Capitalism -- Ownership, control and day-to-day operation -- Class and social class -- Ruling classes and power elites -- Mechanisms of popular control -- Forms of socialism -- Transformation of socialist societies --

3. The role of market forces: Profit and the plan -- Commodity markets and prices -- Producer goods markets -- The labour market -- Conclusion --

4. Social classes: The distribution of material rewards -- Tendencies toward the formation of social classes -- Conclusion --

5. Political processes: The formal political structure -- Public debate and public opinion formation -- Popular participation in state bodies -- The Communist Party -- Social background of the leaders -- Structural determinants of state policies -- Summary and conclusion --

6. Soviet foreign relations: the logic of trade and the uses of the military: Definitions -- Soviet foreign trade -- The Soviet military --

7. Soviet relations with Eastern Europe: Trade relations -- Economic assistance -- Co-ordinated planning -- Joint enterprises today -- Economic growth -- Economic relations before and after the mid-1950s -- The break with Yugoslavia -- Intervention in Czechoslovakia -- Hungary, 1956 -- The autonomy of Eastern Europe today --

8. Soviet Relations with the non-socialist third world: Economic assistance -- Economic assistance: the case of India -- Ownership and control of enterprises -- Trade: the case of India -- Political interventions in third world countries -- Military assistance -- Bangladesh -- Cambodia -- Angola -- The Horn of Africa -- Conclusion --

9. Soviet relations with the Socialist third world: China -- Cuba -- Conclusion --

10. The Soviet Union: retrospect and prospect: The class nature of the U.S.S.R. -- Stalin -- The origins of Soviet hegemonism -- The future of the Soviet Union -- Implications for the world struggle.

“Szymanski based his two books, Is the Red Flag Flying? (1979) and Human Rights in the Soviet Union (1982), on the published studies of Soviet sociologists and Western Sovietologists. Using this data, he attempted to evaluate the conflicting views of Soviet reality. … Nearly everyone agrees that the Communist Party was the most important institution in the Soviet Union with a pervasive influence not only in politics and economics, but nearly every sphere of Soviet life and culture. The usual view, however, is that the Communist Party is an entity apart, standing above and ruling over Soviet society with minimal input from below. In short, it is the Party and not the working class that rules…. The material presented by Szymanski challenges this view and suggests a more nuanced and organic relationship between the Party and the working class. Clearly, the nature, composition, and function of the Party has changed from the pre-revolutionary days of the Bolsheviks, but the Communist Party remained a working class, socialist party throughout the period of Soviet power, and even after…. Szymanski points to a number of ways in which the Party is organically linked to the working class: conscious recruitment of workers, working class participation in internal Party democracy; working class support for the Party, and finally the working class values of Party ideology, Marxism-Leninism….Szymanski, observes that little public debate occurs in the public meetings of the Supreme Soviet for these merely ratify decisions reached elsewhere. He notes that ‘the major forums for public debate, criticism, and public opinion formation are the mass media, together with specialized journals and conferences.’… The work of Szymanski, as well as others such as William Mandel, makes it clear that the quality of life, both physical and cultural, in the Soviet Union improved dramatically sine the time of Tsarism…. On the basis of the careful research of Szymanski, … and others, I believe that the Soviet Union was an authentic dictatorship of the proletariat, that it dramatically improved the quality of life for the peoples of the Soviet Union, that it was engaged in the process of building socialism, and that it inspired millions of others around the world in the global struggle for socialism.” -- from a talk by Eugene Ruyle