As early as 1928 Stalin had famously insisted that “as we move forward, the resistance of the capitalist elements will increase [and] the class struggle will intensify”. Meaning, repression and state authoritarianism in some contexts should be expected to increase, not lessen, as communism remade society. After all, “we are ousting and ruining, perhaps without noticing it ourselves, by our progress towards socialism, thousands upon thousands of small and medium capitalist industrialists. Is it possible to think that these ruined people will sit in silence, not trying to organize resistance? Of
...more
