The Long Retreat: Strategies to Reverse the Decline of the Left

’A man of enormous intellect, knowledge and bravery’ - Jeremy Corbyn MP

’Perhaps the most prominent Marxist thinker in the post-Soviet space’ - Open Democracy

Authoritarianism is rampant across the globe. Right-wing governments from Russia to America oversee wars from Ukraine to Palestine, while capitalism lurches from crisis to crisis, its citizens mired in poverty. Imprisoned Putin critic Boris Kagaritsky confronts this stark reality, demanding a clear strategy from the left to dismantle this ever-darkening nightmare.

As well as bringing Russian and Western thinkers into dialogue, Kagarlitsky draws upon his experiences as a Russian dissident since the latter days of the Soviet Union in this detailed analysis of leftist strategy. As a Marxist, he engages in radical ideas, including Universal Basic Income and decentralized collective ownership, as well as looking at historical and contemporary examples of revolution and dissent, covering the left’s response to the war in Ukraine.

Written just before Kagarlitsky’s imprisonment, The Long Retreat is a testament to subversive Russian literature. It asks if the left can put aside its paralyzing sectarianism and conceits of ideological purity to transform society for the benefit of the global working class. Kagarlitsky believes it can, as long as it is unafraid to look critically at its ideas and actions.

Boris Kagarlitsky is a Russian Marxist theoretician and sociologist who has been a political dissident in the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. He is the author many books, his latest being The Long Retreat: Strategies to Reverse the Decline of the Left. He was recently detained under Putin’s regime for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, and released in late 2023. Patrick Bond is Distinguished Professor at the University of Johannesburg Department of Sociology, where he directs the Centre for Social Change. He is the author of several books, including BRICS and Elite Transition. Renfrey Clarke is an Australian journalist, translator and left activist.