Reading Blackshirts & Reds and am at about 40% through the book. The amount of critique he is giving to how poorly the economic situation in the USSR was, how Stalin’s way of running things and how people were negligible about their jobs because there was no reason to be competitive or to do a good job is honestly a bit stark. Is this anti-communism or is this just good faith criticism?
He’s very deliberately speaking to some of the most anti-communist people on the planet, specifically in the context of defending soviet legacy just a few short years after its dissolution. He also has some pretty bad takes on China in retrospect that were far more understandable at the time he wrote the book. For me, it’s useful because it utterly demolishes the fantasy of the USSR as a widespread Orwellian torture society, with real problems far more mundane than fantastical, and tons of real working class achievements dashed by the reintroduction of capitalism.
I recommend it not for comrades, but for liberals. For comrades, something like This Soviet World is going to be both more entertaining and capable of capturing the genuine progress on the ground in the early soviet experience.