Revolution, Marxism and Law

This book builds on Head’s previous work on Soviet legal scholar Evgeny Pashukanis, challenging Western academics who separate Pashukanis's theories from the complex realities of the Soviet state's decline under Stalin.

It is not, this book argues, possible to analyse the emergence of Pashukanis as a preeminent Soviet legal theorist in the 1920s, and the subsequent retractions and reversals of his theories, outside their historical context. That context includes the prior development of Marxist legal theory, the contradictions and dynamics of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the early achievements of the Soviet state in law-related fields, the emergence of the Stalinist regime, and Pashukanis’ efforts to satisfy the demands of that regime. Reviewing the trials and the cruel methods used to pursue opponents of the Stalinist regime, the book draws on newly available material to offer a thorough analysis of what exactly it was in Pashukanis’ writings that made his disappearance essential for Stalin’s regime. In our current age of economic inequality, environmental crisis, and growing disillusionment with global capitalism, this book offers a fresh perspective on what happened in the Soviet Union, separating genuine revolutionary ideals from their later distortion.

Revolution, Marxism and Law will appeal to scholars and students in legal theory, especially those interested in socialist legal theory, critical legal theory and Marxism, as well as those in other disciplines with an interest in Russia and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.