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Marxism in Our Time.
Collected essays by the Marxist scholar examine the destruction of the Polish Communist Party, trends in the U.S.S.R. and the nature of socialist man
- GenresPhilosophyPolitics
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Isaac Deutscher
53 books148 followersIsaac Deutscher was a Polish-born Jewish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. His three-volume biography of Trotsky, in particular, was highly influential among the British New Left.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 2, 2025
Isaac Deutscher is best known as the author of the three-volume Trotsky biography The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky.
He had been a member of the Trotskyist Left Opposition in Poland, but was against the formation of a new international, believing that Stalinism could somehow “reform” itself. This explains his lack of attention to Trotsky’s work in the last few years of his life, and it also influences many of the essays here. But nevertheless, he doesn’t blunt his criticism of Stalinism. Thus, some of the essays were partly wrong at the time and will seem even more so now. But there’s almost always something worthwhile in them.
One of the most interesting is his history of the Polish Communist Party, given in interview form. After all that has been said about Rosa Luxemburg’s critique of Lenin’s “centralism,’ it may stun some people that he says “In fact, Rosa Luxemburg’s party was led in a manner very similar to that in which Lenin led the Bolshevik Party. This was due essentially to the fact that both parties were operating illegally.” Anyone who reads What Is to Be Done? objectively, not influenced by all the negative hype about it, will note that in Lenin’s view at the time the model party was the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
In her introductory remarks to the essay “Organizational question of Social Democracy” in Rosa Luxemburg Speaks, editor Mary-Alice waters suggests that Luxemburg’s attack on Lenin had at least as much to do with his position on the right of nations to self-determination as it did to “organizational questions.”
Some of the essays that may outwardly appear to be most dated have in a sense become even more true than when Deutscher wrote them. “Marxism and the New Left” and On Socialist Man, which was once a Pathfinder pamphlet, both criticize the “New Left” for their inattention to the US working class. This inattention of the middle class “left” has now become utter hostility. See Are They Rich Because They're Smart?, ‘The Clintons' Anti-working-class Record: Why Washington Hates Working People.
He had been a member of the Trotskyist Left Opposition in Poland, but was against the formation of a new international, believing that Stalinism could somehow “reform” itself. This explains his lack of attention to Trotsky’s work in the last few years of his life, and it also influences many of the essays here. But nevertheless, he doesn’t blunt his criticism of Stalinism. Thus, some of the essays were partly wrong at the time and will seem even more so now. But there’s almost always something worthwhile in them.
One of the most interesting is his history of the Polish Communist Party, given in interview form. After all that has been said about Rosa Luxemburg’s critique of Lenin’s “centralism,’ it may stun some people that he says “In fact, Rosa Luxemburg’s party was led in a manner very similar to that in which Lenin led the Bolshevik Party. This was due essentially to the fact that both parties were operating illegally.” Anyone who reads What Is to Be Done? objectively, not influenced by all the negative hype about it, will note that in Lenin’s view at the time the model party was the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
In her introductory remarks to the essay “Organizational question of Social Democracy” in Rosa Luxemburg Speaks, editor Mary-Alice waters suggests that Luxemburg’s attack on Lenin had at least as much to do with his position on the right of nations to self-determination as it did to “organizational questions.”
Some of the essays that may outwardly appear to be most dated have in a sense become even more true than when Deutscher wrote them. “Marxism and the New Left” and On Socialist Man, which was once a Pathfinder pamphlet, both criticize the “New Left” for their inattention to the US working class. This inattention of the middle class “left” has now become utter hostility. See Are They Rich Because They're Smart?, ‘The Clintons' Anti-working-class Record: Why Washington Hates Working People.
March 14, 2011
Isaac Deutscher is probably my favorite historian. There is a lot of insight in these essays, and they helped me in my ongoing study of American socialist movements. Here's one passage I underlined, about the Russian Revolution's impact on the West.
"The revolution in a precapitalist society, which nevertheless aspired to achieve socialism, produced a hybrid which in many respects looked like a parody of socialism. The western worker, however seemingly non-political, followed events very carefully and was quite aware of the famines, the hunger, and the deprivation that the people of Russia suffered after the revolution; he was aware of the terror and the persecution they were subjected to. And, unsophisticated as he was, the British worker, the German worker, and even the French one, often wondered: Is this socialism? Have we perhaps in our century-old allegiance to socialism followed a dangerous will-o'-the-wisp? Workers have been asking these questions. Uncertain, hesitant, the Western European worker has preferred to wait and see. The Russian Revolution has acted as a deterrent to revolution in the West."
"The revolution in a precapitalist society, which nevertheless aspired to achieve socialism, produced a hybrid which in many respects looked like a parody of socialism. The western worker, however seemingly non-political, followed events very carefully and was quite aware of the famines, the hunger, and the deprivation that the people of Russia suffered after the revolution; he was aware of the terror and the persecution they were subjected to. And, unsophisticated as he was, the British worker, the German worker, and even the French one, often wondered: Is this socialism? Have we perhaps in our century-old allegiance to socialism followed a dangerous will-o'-the-wisp? Workers have been asking these questions. Uncertain, hesitant, the Western European worker has preferred to wait and see. The Russian Revolution has acted as a deterrent to revolution in the West."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews