during this period, the italian left also reviewed a number of positions which it thought had become outdated. they rejected the idea of national self-determination and began to develop their views on the war economy and capitalist decadence. much of this was carried out by vercesi, but mitchell from the belgian fraction was also a leading figure in the work. perhaps most dramatically, they also reviewed their understanding of the russian revolution and the state that had emerged from it. eventually, they came to argue that the russian state was by the late 1930s state capitalist and was not to be defended. in short, they believed there was need for a new revolution.