I think something of enduring value for us to do would be to scan books by Progress Publishers (60's onwards USSR), the 8 Nëntori Publishing House (or Naim Frashëri Publishing House, both Albanian), the Foreign Languages Publishing House(s) of the pre-1960's USSR, the DPRK, Vietnam, etc. These books have no copyright status anymore (well, the DPRK's does, but still) and can be put online anywhere. If you live near a University library you could either be in reach of such books or, possibly, could obtain an inter-library loan. Of course the value of each book is going to vary considerably and revisionism does rear its head in many of these works, but overall putting them online is a good thing, if not for great theoretical insight then for historical purposes. Some 1960's-80's Soviet books that are either absurdly-priced or simply not for sale anywhere: * Formation of the Socialist Economic System * Socialism and the Rational Needs of the Individual * The Transition From Capitalism to Socialism by Neznanov * Socialist Nationalisation of Industry by V. Vinogradov * Economic Policy During the Construction of Socialism in the USSR * Fundamentals of the Socialist Theory of the State and Law * Socialism: Questions of Theory by Richard Ivanovich Kosolapov * Political Economy: A Beginner's Course by Aleksandr Vladimirovich Buzuev * Economic Inequality of Nations by above * Soviet Foreign Policy: Objectives and Principles * Soviet Foreign Policy: 1917-1980 (two volumes) * What is Political Economy? by Sergeĭ Sergeevich Ilʹin and Aleksandr Samuilovich Motylev * Present-Day Non-Marxist Political Economy: A Critical Analysis * Management of Socialist Production (by Popov) * The Socialist Revolution and Its Defense: Early History of Soviet Russia * The State Law of the Socialist Countries * The Working Class in Socialist Society: Common International Features and National Distinctions * Mass Media in the USSR * The Soviet Constitution and the Myths of Sovietologists * The New Constitution of the USSR * The USSR: A Dictatorship or a Democracy? by Ludo van Eck * Communism and Cultural Heritage by Baller * Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists * Developing Countries in the Contemporary World (by Ponomarev) * Free Africa Marches * The October Revolution and Africa * USSR and Countries of Africa * Africa's Economic Problems (1965) * Organization of African Unity: 25 Years of Struggle * Neocolonialism and Africa in the 1970s * The Political Economy of Revolution: Contemporary Issues as seen from the Historical Standpoint * A Fraternal Family of Nations: A Review of Soviet Experience in Solving the National Question * The Nationalities Question: Lenin's Approach: Theory and Practice in the USSR * Solving the National Question in the USSR * Soviet Union: Political and Economic Reference Book * Nations and Social Progress * The United Soviet People (1978) * Categories and laws of the political economy of communism * Conservatism in US Ideology and Politics * Revolutionary Democracy and Communists in the East * Leninism and the Agrarian and Peasant Question (two volumes) * Soviet Democracy in the Period of Developed Socialism * U.S.S.R.: Reorganisation and Renewal * Soviets of People's Deputies: Democracy and Administration * Authoritarianism and Democracy by Kerimov * Organisation of Industry and Construction in the USSR * Law and Legal Culture in Soviet Society * The First Soviet Government. The True Story Of The * Agrarian Relations in the USSR * The Soviet State as a Subject of Civil Law * The Individual and the Microenvironment * Detente and Anti-communism * Population and socioeconomic development * The Rise of Socialist Economy: The Experience of the USSR, Other Socialist, and Socialist-oriented Developing Countries * Asian Dilemma: The Essence of Social Progress in the Transitional Period * Two Worlds-Two Monetary Systems * The Ideology of African Revolutionary Democracy * Revolutionary Democracy in Africa: Its Ideology and Policy * Two Directions of Socio-Economic Development in Africa * Africa Today: Progress, Difficulties, Perspectives * National Liberation Movement in West Africa * Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth in Developing Africa * The Teaching of Political Economy: A Critique of Non-Marxian Theories * Agricultural Co-operatives: Their Role in the Development of Socialist Agriculture in the Soviet Union * The Marxist-Leninist Teaching of Socialism and the World Today * Communism and Freedom by Kosolapov * Southern Africa: Apartheid, Colonialism, Aggression * South Africa Against Africa, 1966-1986 * African Countries' Foreign Policy by Gromyko * Agostinho Neto by Khazanov * Afghanistan, The Revolution Continues * The Developing Countries' Social Structure * Lenin: A Biography (1983) * The Birth of Nations by Volkov * Basics of Marxist-Leninist Theory (by Volkov, 1983) * Classes and the class struggle in the USSR, 1920s-1930s * Bureaucracy, Triumph and Crisis: New Thinking * Imperialism and the Developing Countries (1984) * The Heartbeat of Reform: Soviet Jurists and Political Scientists Discuss the Progress of Perestroika * What Prominent Chinese Democrats and Communists Have Said about the Soviet Union * From the missionary days to Reagan: US China policy * The Case for Perestroika (1989) * Government Regulation of the Private Sector in the USSR * Soviet Foreign Trade: Today and Tomorrow * CMEA and Third Countries; Legal Aspects of Co-operation * The Experience of Industrial Management in the Soviet Union * NEP: A Modern View (1988) * From the History of Soviet-Chinese Relations in the 1950's * The Theory of Growth of a Socialist Economy (by Anchishkin) * Inter-American Relations: From Bolivar to the Present * Perestroika and Law * Property in the USSR and the Countries of Eastern Europe * Socialist-oriented Development and Its Critics * The Socialist Working Class and Ideological Struggle * The Russian Revolutionary Tradition * The Requirements of Common Sense (1990, by Kondrashov) * The Revolution Continues: Going Back to Lenin * The Socialist Countries: Important Changes * What is the World Socialist System? * International Law: A Textbook (by Tunkin) * Lenin and the World Revolutionary Process * Participation of the Byelorussian SSR in the Struggle for the Observance of Human Rights * The Ukrainian SSR in Contemporary International Relations * The Soviet Union and the Manchurian Revolutionary Base * The Constitutions of the 16 Constituent or Union Republics of the U.S.S.R: A Comparative Analysis (86 pages) * Estonia Yesterday and Today by Johannes Käbin * Uzbekistan: Questions and Answers * Socialist Uzbekistan: A Path Equalling Centuries * Developing Countries on the Non-Capitalist Road
A guy I know might scan The State, Democracy and Legality in the USSR: Lenin's Ideas Today, a 1972 work of some 370 pages. He got it from his University library. I'd encourage anyone who goes to a College or University to check out their library and see if it has any Progress Publishers books as well.
The Breznev years were horrific: intense repression in the USSR, a series of aggressions internationally, and a pointed effort to coopt struggles all over the world for the great power interests of the USSR. I see value in studying their materials -- as a negative example -- to understand how crude imperialist politics can be formulated in quasi-Marxist phrases. But there is zero revolutionary value in books published in the USSR between 1960-1989 -- and I say that having read them (as a major political assignment) in great depth. So, if we made a list of things that needed scanning, I would start somewhere else.. there are stacks of actually-revolutionary books out of print that are unknown to many revolutinaries. Why start with the bullshit pumped out by the Soviet revisionists and capitalist roaders?
Why start with the bullshit pumped out by the Soviet revisionists and capitalist roaders? Obviously if there's alternative lists you'd like to propose, feel free. I figure the value in scanning 1960's-80's Soviet works is twofold: 1. they're definitely not copyrighted; 2. they make clear Soviet revisionism while at the same time can offer interesting information. Also it seems anti-revisionist works have a much higher chance of being uploaded to places, one only need to look at stuff like http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/erol.htm and http://www.bannedthought.net/USSR/index.htm for proof. Of course it depends on the subject a Soviet work is covering. A work dealing with the 19th-century communist movement or the October Revolution is going to be a lot more interesting than a work dealing with the path of "non-capitalist development" pursued by the Burmese Socialist Programme Party or something ridiculous like that.
I have Socialism: Questions of Theory by Kosolopov as well as a couple of others not on this list; Fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy (a Soviet textbook from 1974), and Human Rights in the USSR (written by Konstantin Chernenko in 1981). I shall scan all three when I can get my scanning software functioning properly. It seems I don't see eye-to-eye with other Marxist-Leninists on the degree to which the Soviet line was revisionist from 1964-1985. I'll go ahead and say I believe Brezhnev sharply turned the CPSU in the correct general direction from 1964-65 onward, although I readily acknowledge that ideological errors weren't fully resolved before 1985 (most---not all---of the principal leaders of the period were rather fond of Stalin and upset with Khrushchev's changes by all accounts, but were timid with regard to fully reversing them). As such, I believe there is a considerable amount of valuable information to be gleaned from the literature in this period---in particular, the textbook I mentioned. Once one ignores the drivvel about the "Dictatorship of the whole people" and "building Communism," it covers the basics of dialectical materialism and other topics quite nicely.
I think most of that is because of the historical relationship between the USSR and CPSU on one hand and Lenin and the country's position as the propagator of his teachings on the other. It's a lot easier for someone like Kim Jong Il to proclaim that the army is the most revolutionary force in society, whereas Brezhnev would find that just about impossible even though the influence of the Soviet Army and war industry did significantly increase during his leadership. Every revisionist move was done under the pretext of either "advancing" Lenin's teachings or "returning" to them, whether they were launched under Khrushchev, Brezhnev or Gorbachev.
