Excerpt from the book Socialism betrayed: behind the collapse of the Soviet Union, by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny. The book underlines the reasons behind the collapse of the Soviet Union by analyzing both the economic and political disputes inside the USSR.

Their work, extremely enriched by hundreds of scholarly references and analyses from various opposing accounts and studies, enlightens the reality behind the idea that the USSR from the 60’s to the early 90’s was a “classless society”.

The work focuses on the policies of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Gorbachev and their relationship to the “shadow economy” of the USSR, where illegal private property and commodity production, alongside corruption, negligence and theoretical shortcomings inside the CPSU, gave rise to a petty-bourgeoisie and even capitalists inside the Soviet Union.

The book is available to download on Library Genesis. It’s presented in an interesting and provoking read through critical questioning before dealing with the evidence. I’m halfway through it and I highly recommend the read.