Trotsky was the first to attempt a Marxist analysis of Stalinist Russia. Based on Trotsky's analysis and the experience of the developments that followed World War II, Tony Cliff arrived at the theory of bureaucratic capitalism in 1947.
In this book, which was first published in Greece in 1983 by Parousia Publications, he thoroughly analyzes all aspects of Stalin's Russia and demonstrates the existence of an exploitative ruling class - the bureaucracy - whose motives are no different from those of Western capitalists.