NAYERI, KAMRAN.

CRITICAL THEORIES OF THE CLASS NATURE OF THE

SOVIET UNION: A MARXIAN SURVEY

The process of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European regimes and its
aftermath discredited the notion that these societies were socialist in a Marxian sense.
It has become abundantly clear that the working class in these countries did not
support the regime and often resisted and even struggled against it. Progress towards
Marxian vision of socialism depends on an honest and critical appraisal of what the
Soviet Union was and how and when it ceased to be a revolutionary society and state.

This essay critically examines three prominent critical theories of the class nature of the
Soviet Union. Attention will be focused on the internal logic of these theories, their
explanatory power, and especially their potential contribution to the development of the
Marxian theory of transition to socialism. As the mass radicalization and class
polarization in Latin America shows, the ongoing systemic crisis of the world capitalist
system and solutions being imposed by the employers and their governments not only
generate resistance and struggle but also the search for what is called in Venezuela
21
st
century socialism. A critical study of the Soviet experience is an integral part of
this search.