In 1917 the working class and peasantry of Russia carried out one of the most deep-going revolutions in history. In a matter of months the country underwent an unprecedented leap from a semifeudal monarchy to a republic of the toilers, opening the world socialist revolution. Yet within ten years reaction set in. Workers and peasants were driven from power by a privileged bureaucratic social layer led by Joseph Stalin. The Revolution Betrayed explains how and why this bureaucratic caste was able to take and hold political power in the Soviet Union. The classic study of the Soviet workers state and its degeneration, this work shows the roots of the social and political crisis shaking the countries of the former Soviet Union today.