This panel focuses on the numerous theories of Soviet-type society, especially theories of state capitalism, theories of degenerated workers’ states, and theories of a new mode of production. We will analyze the subversive influence of these theories relative to official ideology, and we will discuss the historically shifting roll that the theories played in movements opposed to the official system. We will investigate the development of these theories in relation to social and political developments, and we will ask how these theories might frame interpretations of the eventual collapse and replacement of the regimes that they theorized.

Keynote speakers: Hillel Ticktin, Boris Kagarlitsky
Interventions: Anna Ochkina, Jerzy Kochan