A seismic shock convulsed British Communism in the wake of Nikita Khruschevs revelations about Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Russian Party in February 1956: a shock that can be understood only in relation to the history and development of the British party. British Communism was rooted in the revolutionary aspirations of a minority of British workers, but its forms politics, culture, organisation, and resilience were all bound up with the policy of the Russian Communist Party and its state. 1956 became a year of crisis for the CPGB, leading to the advent of The Reasoner and catapulting John Saville and Edward Thompson to prominence. This book documents their work reasoning why Stalin became Stalin:...an analysis has to be made unless we are to succumb once again to the error which has dogged us for so long - that of failing to make a Marxist analysis of the developments in Communist movements in general and in the Socialist countries in particular...The shock and turmoil engendered by the revelations were the result of our general failure to apply a Marxist analysis to Socialist countries and to the Soviet Union in particular. The absence of such an analysis is an admission of naivety or worse. The Failure bred Utopianism and encouraged attitudes of religious faith.

Table of Contents:
1. Foreword; 2. John McIlroy, Introduction; 3. Documents; Harry Pollitt, The Twentieth Congress of the CPSU and the Role of Stalin; The Lessons of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU; Rajani Palme Dutt, The Great Debate; John Saville, Problems of the Communist Party; Rajani Palme Dutt, New Times, New Measures; EP Thompson, Winter Wheat in Omsk; George Matthews, A Caricature of Our Party; Khrushchevs Report; Derek Kartun, Ideas and Methods of Work; 4. The Reasoner, no 1; Editorial Comments; Why We Are Publishing; Taking Stock; Ken Alexander, Democratic Centralism; EP Thompson, Reply To George Matthews; Correspondence; AL, What Is Socialism?; John McLeish, An Open Letter From a Premature Anti-Stalinist; K Hughes, Where Do We Stand Now?; R Cocker, Needed: A Party of a New Type; Documents; Letter from Steve Nelson, Daily Worker (New York); Statement by the Editorial Board, Jewish Life; Andrzej Braun, A Polish Self-Examination, Nova Kultura; 5. The Reasoner, no 2; Editorial; The Case For Socialism; Ronald L Meek, What Should We Do About The Reasoner?; Doris Lessing, A Letter To the Editors; Hyman Levy, The Place of Unorthodoxy in Marxism; Bertolt Brecht, To Posterity; John Saville, World Socialism Restated: A Comment; Readers Round-Up; Correspondence; J Lyons, Democratic Centralism; P Jordan, Discussion and Democracy; Lawrence Daly, The Long Road Back; Rodney Hilton, Labour-Communist Relations; Jim Johnson, Beware of Attempts to Stifle the Discussion; E Sleight, Marxism: Science and Dogma; P Shelley, A Lesson from History; Documents; Helena Eilstein, Problems of Free Discussion in Poland; An American Assessment of the Stalin Era; 6. Documents; Communist Party Executive Committee Statement on The Reasoner; The Reasoner: Statement by the Communist Party Executive Committee; Statement by the Executive Committee of the Communist Party on The Reasoner; 7. The Reasoner, no 3; Editorial; EP Thompson, Through the Smoke of Budapest; Sheila Lynd, Leslie Sewell, Ursula Cox, Three Letters on The Reasoner; Derek Kartun, Seeing the Trees for the Wood; Democratic Centralism; GDH Cole, Reflections; An American View, Democracy and Dissent; PH, On Democratic Centralism; De-Stalinisation; Ronald L Meek, Notes From a Polish Diary; K Simonov, On Fadeyev; Ursula Wassermann, Hungary and Socialist Democracy; John Saville, An Open Letter to R Page Arnot; Bob Davies, Some Notes on the 1937-38 Purges; Correspondence, J Young, E Martin, Stella Jull, MD, Doris Lessing, and Others; EP Thompson and John Saville, Statement by the Editors; 8. Ronald Meek, The Marxist-Leninists Song; 9. John McIlroy, John Saville and Stalinism: An Incomplete Emancipation?; 10. Paul Flewers, EP Thompson and the Soviet Experience; 11. Chronology; 12. Index.