The Revolution Betrayed is one of the most important Marxist texts ofall time. It is the only serious Marxist analysis of what happened tothe Russian Revolution after the death of Lenin. In this book, Trotskyprovided a brilliant and profound analysis of Stalinism, which hasnever been improved upon, let alone superseded. With a delay of 60years, it was completely vindicated by history. Without a thorough knowledge of this work, it is impossible to understandthe reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eventssince then in Russia and on a world scale. This remarkable work predicted the fate of the USSR down to the lastdetail. In the period of so-called market reform, Russia experiencedthe biggest collapse in world economic history. Just in the first fiveyears alone, the economy contracted by a staggering sixty percent. Such a drop is unprecedented in economic history. It was like a catastrophic defeat in war. The collapse of the USSR has led to social disintegration. The elements of barbarism have all reappeared. Poverty, beggary, drunkenness, drug addiction, prostitution, crime, epidemicshave spread to an unparalleled degree. Sections of the youth are affectedby lumpenisation. At the same time, the mafia capitalists haveaccrued massive wealth by plundering the former nationalised industriesas well as the rich sources of oil and other resources. The bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet Union and its eventualfall must be carefully studied, if we are to be able to answer the questionsof the workers and youth. And the best explanation that can befound is in the pages of this wonderful classic of Marxism. Only the restoration of a nationalised planned economy can create theconditions for a revival of Russia's colossal productive potential. Butthis cannot mean a return to the old Stalinist regime. Only a regime ofreal workers' democracy, along the lines of October 1917, can provideRussia with a way out of the present impasse. As Trotsky points out ina most graphic and profound passage from The Revolution Betrayed, a nationalised planned economy needs democracy as the human bodyneeds oxygen.