Yet, precisely because the bureaucracy is not a new ruling class but a parasitic cancer on the working class and society as a whole, its removal through a political revolution by the workers does not require the type of armed conflict which until now has accompanied revolutions in class societies, including modern capitalist ones. (Ernest Mandel, Socialist Register 1989, p. 176.)
All indications agree that the further course of development must inevitably lead to a clash between the culturally developed forces of the people and the bureaucratic oligarchy. There is no peaceful outcome for this crisis. The Soviet bureaucracy will not give up its positions without a fight. The development leads obviously to the road of revolution. (Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, p. 287.)