DOCSLIB.ORG

'Intellectuals' Comprise an Occupational Group Within, and Ideologically Supportive of the Middle Class

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'Intellectuals' Comprise an Occupational Group Within, and Ideologically Supportive of the Middle Class Notes Chapter 1 1. The following definitions are employed in this study: (a) 'Intellectuals' comprise an occupational group within, and ideologically supportive of the middle class. Their role is to produce, distribute and exchange ideas (cf. Eagleton, 1976: 59-76; Lipset and Dobson, 1972: 137-8). (b) Although it departs somewhat from the meaning of the Russian original (see Pollard, 1964) it will be useful to define the 'intelligentsia' as an occupational group of persons who (i) are structurally divorced from the middle class and (ii) produce, distribute and exchange ideas which are supportive of non-dominant classes. Following the Russian original, one member of the intelligentsia is referred to as an intelligent, more than one as intelligenty. Both are pronounced with a hard 'g'. 2. Although erring in the opposite direction is probably just as common. See, for example, (Shub, 1944). Chapter 2 1. 'As it Christians, so it Jews.' 2. Historians frequently point out that western European feudalism was in many respects quite unlike the eastern European serf system and therefore reserve the term feudalism only for the west (see Blum, 1961: goff.; Florinsky, 1947: vol. 1, 108 ff.). In order to avoid the disputes concerning this issue, I shall, following Dobb (1963 [1947]: 35), use the term feudalism as a synonym for serfdom. 3· On earlier settlements, see (Dubnow, 1916-20: vol. 1, 13-43). 4· Taking the case of northern medieval Europe to be typical, many have ignored the widespread participation of Jews in agriculture and crafts in other times and places. (See Wischnitzer, 1965). 5· The remainder were employed as clerks and assistants to Jewish businessmen, in religious occupations such as rabbi, scribe, beadle and the like, as professionals (notably doctors), as craftsmen and even as agriculturalists. 6. A computation by Weinryb (1972: 153) of blood libel accusations, charges of profanation of the holy wafer, pogroms, etc., for the period 1542-1717 reveals that such excesses were concentrated in western urban areas, thus indicating a close 'connection between false accusations plus pogroms and the competitive struggle for livelihood between burghers and the Jews'. The thesis that anti-Semitism grew with the rise of indigenous bourgeoisies in Europe was first advanced by W. Roscher (1944 [1875]). For a favourable appraisal of his argument, see (Kisch, 1944). For a critique, see (Oelsner, 1958-g). Notes 119 7. Later, when declining opportunities in the mercantile sphere necessitated the growth of Jewish artisanry, apprentices could turn only to Jewish masters, restricted as they were from Christian guilds. Thus, the concentration ofJews in particular branches of production took on a certain momentum of its own. 8. Gerschenkron (in Habbakuk and Postan, 194I -67: 706-7) argues that 'there is little evidence that in the decades preceding the emancipation the institution of serfdom had become incompatible with the growth of agricultural output'. Rather, the two main motives behind Emancipation were (a) the state's desire to increase production after humiliating defeat in the Crimean War; and, more important, (b) its desire to be saved from the dangers of peasant unrest. The reasons for Emancipation were, then, of a political rather than an economic character. The problem with Gerschenkron's view is that it involves a misunderstand­ ing on the argument I employ in the text. The contention that contradictions between forces and relations of production resulted in the abolition of serfdom does not mean that existing class relations blocked all growth of agricultural output, as Gerschenkron interprets it; it means that the growth of output as a whole was hampered by existing class relations. The evidence he cites is therefore not a refutation of the explanation I employ. (In fact, he adds weight to what he calls 'the usual sweeping generalisations' by demonstrating how serfdom acted as a 'trammel upon industrial development' [ibid.: 7 I 5; also Gerschen­ kron, I 962: I 7] ) . Furthermore, it is undoubtedly true that the state wished to increase productivity in order to catch up with the great powers and that it feared increasing peasant unrest. Such motives clearly played an important role in the decision to emancipate the serfs. However, it could be argued that both low productivity and peasant unrest were produced by the inefficiencies of the institution of serfdom itself. Political motives, in other words, derived from this social (not merely 'economic') fact. 9· Notably, an important role in the early industrialisation of Russia was played precisely by those able to escape such obligations- the religious schismatics or 'Old Believers'. They fled to the Russian hinterland, beyond the reach of the bureaucracy, when the remnants of Church democracy were being destroyed by Archbishop Nikon. Persecution caused the Old Believers to withdraw into self-sufficient communities and 'to accumulate the money which provided their only protection and power' according to Blackwell. The parallel with the Jewish community is striking. See (Blackwell, 1968: 2I2-4o; also Gerschen­ kron, I970: I-6I; Bill, I959: 18-108). 10. All this applies only to the peasants who belonged to private landowners-about 40 per cent of the total number of peasants. No attempt will be made here to discuss the complex legislation affecting the remainder. Attached to the state and the royal family, the latter were, generally speaking, rather less harshly dealt with in terms of both the size and valuation of their allotments. Nevertheless, it may safely be said that they greeted Emancipation with little more enthusiasm than the others. I I. This impression was substantiated by Professor Robert Johnson in con­ versation with the author (in Toronto, 10 Aug I976). I2. After three partitions (1772, 1793 and 1795) Poland's territory was divided among Russia, Prussia and Austria. Having succumbed to Napoleonic forces at Jena in I8o6, Prussia's share of the spoils was next transformed into the I 20 The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism Duchy ofWarsaw. The subsequent defeat of Napoleon led to the establishment of Congress Poland in IBIS as a kingdom attached to Russia. Finally, after an unsuccessful uprising in I 83 I, Congress Poland was incorporated into the Russian Empire. In this way Poland became Russia's Ireland. I3· My own views regarding this matter have been influenced by (Berkowitz, I976). I 4· In not a few cases-such as that of the Brodsky brothers, the sugar barons-wealthy Jews entered industry by first subsidising factories owned by indebted landlords and then taking over production completely. IS. Only the very wealthy could establish banks, while in railroad financing 'only the powerful and experienced railway "kings" were able to obtain the shares' (Westwood, I964: 68). Jews with middling capital were, however, able to invest in co-operative credit associations and non-interest loan societies (Dijur in Frumkin et al., I966: I38). I6. Wealthy Jews also stopped buying goods produced by the jewish community. The products made by the jewish artisan were generally oflow quality, while religious articles were no longer purchased because the wealthy tended to assimilate into Gentile society. q. A study by the jewish Colonisation Association (Evreyskago ..., I904: vol. 2, table 4I) reports soo,986 Jewish artisans in the whole Pale (i.e., including Poland). Margolin ( I908: 24S) has convincingly argued that due to faulty data-gathering techniques a more accurate figure would be at least 6oo,ooo. While I agree with Margolin's argument, I have accepted the soo,ooo figure as an estimate for the Pale exclusive of Poland. I8. Even within the Pale itself many of the large factories were, as Olga Crisp writes of the Ukrainian metallurgical industry, 'set up amidst the wild steppe' (I 9s9: 83) where Jews were forbidden to reside. (Although] ewish entrepreneurs were of course able to form joint-stock companies, retain controlling interest in their enterprises and conduct their affairs from the city [Yuditzky, n.d. ( I93o?): 69].) For further discussion of why Jews did not enter large industry, see (Brym, I976: Ss-7; Leshchinsky, I9o6; Mendelsohn, I970: 20 ff.). Chapter 3 I. By assimilation I mean the process by which one transfers one's identity from one ethnic community to another. 2. Ioffe was actually a member of the Karaite sect. The Karaites differed from other Jews in that they rejected the oral tradition (the Talmud). But given the fact that Karaism was even stricter in the demands it placed on adherents than rabbinism and that it embodied most of the key beliefs of traditional judaism, it seems acceptable to categorise Ioffe as jewish. The fact that his wife recently emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel leads one to suspect that some level of Jewish consciousness, however weak, persisted in his family. (See 'Soviet Emigrant .. .'.) 3· Nor should one attribute the non-assimilation of some wealthy Jews living within the Pale to the high social density ofjewish communities there. The wealthy 'Rothschilds' ofPinsk, for example, did not assimilate as much as one would predict on the basis of some crude measure of class position; but this probably had a great deal to do with the fact that Pinsk suffered from a lack of Notes 121 workers so that Jews were employed in the mechanised factories there. In this and other cases (e.g., that of the Ginzburg family, which continued to employ many Jews in their business operations) apparent exceptions prove the rule that assimilation was largely a function of occupational contact. See (Ginzburg, I937; Mendelsohn, I970: 28; Rabinovich, I970). 4· Some degree of acculturation (as opposed to assimilation; see Gordon, I964, for an explanation of the distinction) could and did sometimes take place even without structural integration because the objective possibility of structural integration led some Jews to go through a process of what Robert Merton ( I968 [I949]: 3 I9 ff.) calls 'anticipatory socialization'.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jewish Socialists Around Vpered1
    BORIS SAPIR JEWISH SOCIALISTS AROUND VPERED1 SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA AMONG JEWS AND VPERED The importance of the "Lavrists" or "Vperedovtsy", named after the publication Vpered (Forward) (i873-1877) founded and edited by Peter Lavrovich Lavrov, in the evolution of the socialist ideas and groups in Russia has been recognized by historians from Alphonse Thun to Franco Venturi.2 The journal's role in the dissemination of the socialist credo among Russian Jews has never been seriously disputed, although seldom recorded in concrete terms. Of the leading Lavrists only Nicolas Kuliabko-Koretskii left memoirs.3 But he, as well as Lavrov who compiled an interesting outline of the main phases of the "Narodnichestvo"4 were not exceedingly interested in the Jewish aspect of their oeuvre. They touched this topic only in passing and, if at all, referred to Liberman whose Jewish socialism captivated their imagination. There was no reason for them to indicate and to dwell on the Jewish origin of socialist Jews in their midst who never associated themselves with any Jewish cause or aspirations. The outsiders who did so many years afterwards, knew too little about the internal affairs of Vpered and, therefore, either exaggerated its influence among Jews or underestimated the importance of leading Jewish Lavrists or, which 1 With slight changes this paper was read at the YIVO Research Conference on Jewish participation in movements devoted to the cause of social progress, New York, September 10-13, '964. 1 A. Thun, Geschichte der revolutionaren Bewegung in Russland, Leipzig 1883; F. Venturi, Roots of Revolution, London i960. The reader of this journal may find a condensed treatment of the position and influence of Vpered in Boris Sapir, Unknown Chapters in the history of Vpered, in: International Review of Social History, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Lenin, What Is to Be Done.Indd
    XIII Editor’s Preface This work saw the light of day in the heat of a decisive battle for the international proletariat. What Is to Be Done? constituted the essential weapon with which to fight revisionism. This, even in its Russian form, denied the scientific nature of Marxist analysis, i.e. it excluded for the proletariat even the possibility of equip- ping itself with a strategy. What Is to Be Done? is the precious magnifying glass that allows us to reread the chapters of the history of our class from a Leninist point of view. In order to do this, we can follow the Russian script. Between 1884 and 1894, Marxist theory gathered strength, but the Marxists, among the currents of avant-garde thought, only had very few disciples. Between 1894 and 1898, the labour movement revealed its political awakening in the struggle via strikes. 1898-1902 was a period of dispersion, of theoretical and organisational eclecticism ; it was the artisanal phase of the political struggle fought by the vanguard of the Russian proletariat. What Is to Be Done? was published as the theoretical guidebook allowing that phase to be left behind. Lenin focused on the Russian precursors of revolutionary Marxism. The latter had the merit of being considered the world vanguard of the revolutionary democratic movement. Lenin hoped that the nascent social-democratic movement would be able to be nurtured with the « same devoted de- termination and vigour ». Eighteen years later, in “Left-Wing” Communism : an Infantile Disorder, he picked up this concept again and underlined it : « For about half a century – approximately from the forties to the nineties of the last century – progressive thought in XIV Lenin – What Is to Be Done Russia, oppressed by a most brutal and reactionary tsarism, sought eagerly for a correct revolutionary theory, and fol- lowed with the utmost diligence and thoroughness each and every “last word” in this sphere in Europe and America.
    [Show full text]
  • THE MENSHEVIKS in 1917 by Olegpmwkov Bachelor of Arts
    THE MENSHEVIKS IN 1917 r:. = BY OLEGpmwKOV Bachelor of Arts Moscow State Pedagogical Institute Moscow, USSR 1983 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS July 1992 THE MENSHEVIKS IN 1917 Thesis Approved: Thesis Advisor 0 Dean of the Graduate College 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Dr. George F. Jewsbury and Dr. Joel M. Jenswold for their encouragement and advice throughout my graduate program. Many thanks also go to Dr. W. Roger Biles for serving on my graduate committee. Their suggestions and support were very helpful throughout the study. To Wann Smith for his expert typing and proofing skills; to Oscar Kursner for his help in translation. My wife, Y elaina Khripkov, encouraged and supported me all the way and helped me keep the end goal constantly in sight. Thanks go to her for her undivided time in the final stages of the project. She prov 1ded moral support and was a real believer in my abilities. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. The Main Approaches to the Study of the Russian Revolution in American Historiography 2 The Study of Menshevism in the U.S. 6 Soviet Scholars on Menshevism 8 Sources 1 2 Themes and Problems 14 II. Tiffi "HONEYMOON' OF Tiffi REVOLUTION_~-~-~! 8 The Necessity for the Dual Power 1 8 The Essence and Structure of Dual Power 2 7 Establishing of the Revolutionary Defensists Policy3 5 III. THE APRIL CRISIS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES _____4 7 The First Clash.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influences of Chernyshevsky, Tkachev, and Nechaev on The
    THE INFLITENCES OF CHERNYSHEVSKY, TKA,CHEV, AI'ID NECHAEV ON TIIE POLTTTCAL THOUGHT OF V.I. LETITIN THE INFLUENCES OF CHERNySHEVSKY, TKACHEV, AND NECHASV ON THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF V.I. LENIN BY IAII GRAEI.{E WALLACE, B"A. (Hons) A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilnent of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University (c) Copyright by Ian Wallace lAct{ASTER UNIVERSITY LTBRARY I,IASTER OF ARTS (L9921 Mc}TASTER I'NIVERSITY (Political Science) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The fnfluences of Chernyshevsky, Tkachev, and Nechaev on the political thought of V.f. Lenin. AIIIHOR: Ian Graene Wallace, B.A. (Hons) (McMaster University) SIJPERVISOR: Professor Marshall Goldstein. NIJI{BER OF PAGES: v, L82 lt ABsTRACT The collapse of the Soviet Union has challenged Marxist political theory. Many people saw the collapse of the Soviet Union as a defeat of Marxisn. Most scholars of Poritical Theory rearize that Lenin did not folrow Marxist writings. However, most still consider Lenin as predominately a Marxist. This thesis witl examine the source of Lenin,s ideas on Class, the Party, and the Revolution, and will trace these differences with Marx to chernyshevsky, Tkachev, and Nechaev. rt will irrustrate the extent of the influence of Lenints Russian, non-Marxist, predecessors. Lenin did indeed study and adopt aspects of Marxisn, but he d.iffered with hin in some important areas, particularly Class, the Party, and the Revolution. Marx, writing in western Europe, sought human emancipation, whire Lenin, in backlrard, autocratic Russia, sought political emancipation from the Tsarist autocracy. This resurted in differences between the thought and writings of Lenin and Marx.
    [Show full text]
  • Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online
    A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://eprints.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Lenin and the Iskra Faction of the RSDLP 1899-1903 Richard Mullin Doctor of Philosophy Resubmission University of Sussex March 2010 1 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree ……………………………….. 2 Contents Contents.......................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements……………..…………………………………………………...4 Abstract........................................................................................................................5 Notes on Names, Texts and Dates…….....……………………..…………………...6 Chapter One: Historical and Historiographical Context…………………..…....7 i) 1899-1903 in the Context of Russian Social-Democratic History and Theory …12 ii) Historiographical Trends in the Study of Lenin and the RSDLP …………...…..23 iii) How the thesis develops
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction 11. I Have Approached This Subject in Greater Detail in J. D
    NOTES Introduction 11. I have approached this subject in greater detail in J. D. White, Karl Marx and the Intellectual Origins of Dialectical Materialism (Basingstoke and London, 1996). 12. V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 38, p. 180. 13. K. Marx, Grundrisse, translated by M. Nicolaus (Harmondsworth, 1973), p. 408. 14. N. I. Ziber, Teoriia tsennosti i kapitala D. Rikardo v sviazi s pozdneishimi dopolneniiami i raz"iasneniiami. Opyt kritiko-ekonomicheskogo issledovaniia (Kiev, 1871). 15. N. G. Chernyshevskii, ‘Dopolnenie i primechaniia na pervuiu knigu politicheskoi ekonomii Dzhon Stiuarta Millia’, Sochineniia N. Chernyshevskogo, Vol. 3 (Geneva, 1869); ‘Ocherki iz politicheskoi ekonomii (po Milliu)’, Sochineniia N. Chernyshevskogo, Vol. 4 (Geneva, 1870). Reprinted in N. G. Chernyshevskii, Polnoe sobranie sochineniy, Vol. IX (Moscow, 1949). 16. Arkhiv K. Marksa i F. Engel'sa, Vols XI–XVI. 17. M. M. Kovalevskii, Obshchinnoe zemlevladenie, prichiny, khod i posledstviia ego razlozheniia (Moscow, 1879). 18. Marx to the editorial board of Otechestvennye zapiski, November 1877, in Karl Marx Frederick Engels Collected Works, Vol. 24, pp. 196–201. 19. Marx to Zasulich, 8 March 1881, in Karl Marx Frederick Engels Collected Works, Vol. 24, pp. 346–73. 10. It was published in the journal Vestnik Narodnoi Voli, no. 5 (1886). 11. D. Riazanov, ‘V Zasulich i K. Marks’, Arkhiv K. Marksa i F. Engel'sa, Vol. 1 (1924), pp. 269–86. 12. N. F. Daniel'son, ‘Ocherki nashego poreformennogo obshch- estvennogo khoziaistva’, Slovo, no. 10 (October 1880), pp. 77–143. 13. N. F. Daniel'son, Ocherki nashego poreformennogo obshchestvennogo khozi- aistva (St Petersburg, 1893). 14. V. V. Vorontsov, Sud'by kapitalizma v Rossii (St Petersburg, 1882).
    [Show full text]
  • Bolshievik Revoluition Background Guide
    Tsar to U.S.S.R: A Joint Crisis Committee on The Bolshevik Revolution Bolshevik Revolution 1 Table of Contents Overview 3 Tsar to USSR Sta 4 Letter From the Chairs 7 Logistics of this Committee 8 Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov Family 10 Revolutionaries and the Revolution Party 11 Russo-Japanese War 12 Revolution of 1905 13 Russia and the Great War 14 Timeline 15 Characters: 16 Revolutionaries: 16 Royal Cabinet/Duma: 21 Position Paper Guiding Questions 24 Bolshevik Revolution 2 Overview The Great Empire of Russia has existed for over 450 years and the Romanovs have been in power for ⅔ of that time, but now the patched up cracks are hard to ignore. Change and innovation are slow to arrive in Russia, with the Industrial Revolution arriving decades after it emerges in Europe, making life difficult for people even before the Great War begins. Whispers of a constitutional monarchy make its way through the land as new political parties like the Constitutional Democracy Party (Cadets) emerge. The economy improves little by little but it is simply not enough to sustain the population when war begins to tear the region to shreds. The economy is in a crisis and citizens are looking for some semblance of leadership to not only improve their lives, but also their international reputation. Delegates in this joint crisis committee will get to determine the fate of Russia and her people through negotiations within their own crisis room and with delegates from the opposing side. We will begin in August of 1915 after the Russian Empire is forced to retreat from Russian Poland.
    [Show full text]
  • Workers, the Intelligentsia and Marxist Parties: St Petersburg, 1895-1917 and Shanghai, 1921-1927
    Workers, the Intelligentsia and Marxist Parties: St Petersburg, 1895-1917 and Shanghai, 1921-1927 STEVE A. SMITH* Summary: The article investigates relations between workers and intellectuals in the pre-revolutionary Bolshevik Party in St Petersburg and the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. It commences with a background examination of the social position and traditions of the intelligentsia in each country and the emergence of a stratum of so-called "conscious" workers. The position of workers in each party is then analysed, especially with respect to leadership, and the nature of tensions between workers and intellectuals explored. The investigation demonstrates that workers acquiesced in their subordination to a greater degree in Shanghai than in St Petersburg, and this and other differences are traced back to historical and cultural context. In conclusion, the implications of contextual differences are explored in order to suggest why the intelligentsia in the People's Republic of China (PRC) attracted greater odium from the party-state than its counterpart in the Soviet Union. The germ of this article lay in the observation of a paradox. Intellectuals suffered greatly under Communist regimes in both the Soviet Union and China, yet it was in China that they were singled out for repression.1 * My thanks go to Boris Kolonitskii, Jeremy Krikler, Nikolai Smirnov, Chris Ward and the participants in the conference on "Workers and the Intelligentsia in Late-Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Russia", organized by the St Petersburg section of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg in June 1995. This article is one of a number of essays that examine labour in St Petersburg and Shanghai comparatively, broadly exploring the development of class identity in relation to other forms of social identity.
    [Show full text]
  • George Plekhanov and the Marxist Turn in Russia." Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts
    Read, Christopher. "George Plekhanov and the Marxist Turn in Russia." Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts. Ed. Rachel Hammersley. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. 125–132. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 23 Sep. 2021. <http:// dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474252669.0022>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 23 September 2021, 19:53 UTC. Copyright © Rachel Hammersley 2015. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 5 George Plekhanov and the Marxist Turn in Russia C h r i s t o p h e r R e a d Th e desire to work among the people and for the people, the certitude that ‘ the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves ’ – this practical tendency of our Narodism is just as dear to me as it used to be. But its theoretical propositions seem to me, indeed, erroneous in many respects. Years of life abroad and attentive study of the social question have convinced me that the triumph of a spontaneous popular movement similar to Stepan Razin ’ s revolt or the Peasant Wars in Germany cannot satisfy the social and political needs of modern Russia, that the old forms of our national life carried within them many germs of their disintegration and that they cannot ‘ develop into a higher communist form ’ except under the immediate infl uence of a strong and well-organised workers ’ socialist party. For that reason I think that besides fi ghting absolutism the Russian revolutionaries must strive at least to work out the elements for the establishment of such a party in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Djugashvilli (Stalin), Was Born in Gori, Georgia on 21St Decembe, 1879
    Joseph Djugashvilli (Stalin), was born in Gori, Georgia on 21st Decembe, 1879. His mother, Ekaterina Djugashvilli, was married at the age of 14 and Joseph was her fourth child to be born in less than four years. The first three died and as Joseph was prone to bad health, his mother feared on several occasions that he would also die. Understandably, given this background, Joseph's mother was very protective towards him as a child. (1) Joseph's father, Vissarion Djugashvilli, was a bootmaker and his mother took in washing. He was an extremely violent man who savagely beat both his son and wife. As a child, Joseph experienced the poverty that most peasants had to endure in Russia at the end of the 19th century. (2) Soso, as he was called throughout his childhood, contacted smallpox at the age of seven. It was usually a fatal disease and for a time it looked as if he would die. Against the odds he recovered but his face remained scarred for the rest of his life and other children cruelly called him "pocky". (3) Joseph's mother was deeply religious and in 1888 she managed to obtain him a place at the local church school. Despite his health problems, he made good progress at school. However, his first language was Georgian and although he eventually learnt Russian, whenever possible, he would speak and write in his native language and never lost his distinct Georgian accent. His father died in 1890. Bertram D. Wolfe has argued "his mother, devoutly religious and with no one to devote herself to but her sole surviving child, determined to prepare him for the priesthood." (4) Stalin left school in 1894 and his academic brilliance won him a free scholarship to the Tiflis Theological Seminary.
    [Show full text]
  • Communism – the Failed Experiment, Part III |
    act ing-man.co m http://www.acting-man.com/?p=6599 Communism – the Failed Experiment, Part III | March 7, 2011 | Author Pater Tenebrarum Dear Readers, We want to thank all of you who have donated to Acting Man. We are honored by your support. All donations will be used to optimize our services f or you. Should you wish to contribute, press the button below ... (see here f or Part I and Part II) The Bolshevik Revolution 1. The Party The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was f ounded in Minsk in 1898, in an attempt to unite the major socialist f actions active in Russia at the time. In addition to the unif ication idea, the party was meant to provide an alternative to the 'Narodnichestvo', the populist revolutionary movement that was represented by the narodniky, the young people that had begun to swarm out into the countryside in an attempt to 'educate the peasantry' (the party representing the narodniky movement was the SRP, see f urther below). The major dif f erence between these parties consisted in the f act that the RSDLP adopted Marxism as its ideological f oundation (as noted in part II of this series, the Czar's censors had mistakenly allowed the Russian translation of Marx' 'Das Kapital' to be published in Russia on the grounds that it was a 'strictly scientif ic work'. Presumably the censor charged with reading the book got bored out of his skull and one of the great ironies of history was the result). The beginning of the party's existence was inauspicious – the nine delegates attending its f irst congress were soon all arrested by the Okhrana, the Czar's secret police.
    [Show full text]
  • 24. Asya Atanasova. Pavel Axelrod On
    1 ALMANACH VIA EVRASIA, 2014, 3 Asya Atanasova, Assist. Prof. Dr. in Russian History, Shumen University PAVEL AXELROD ON BOLSHEVISM Unfortunately, our society has not reached the time when ideologies like Bolshevism will forever become part of the past. Though people know them and are familiar with the horror they bring with them, today there are still people, parties and countries that proudly call themselves their followers. If we take a look at Ukraine, we shall see a bloody, fratricidal war and young people greeting each other with highly raised hands, holding Molotov cocktail and naming Stepan Bandera their idol. These young people are not only fearless when referring to themselves as fascists but they take pleasure in watching humans die. The so-called separatists are unscrupulous when destroying the enemy. The war in Ukraine today bears the modern name a hybrid war but the result is thousands of victims, mostly women and children. Human mind finds it difficult to assume such a thing, especially when it is happening some kilometres away and here in Europe. It is also hard to accept the way this very Europe that considers itself liberal and democratic, reacts to what’s going on there. Yet, what happens in Ukraine is not Europe’s fault and it is not its job to teach two democratic states how to interact. It is even more difficult to turn on the TV and see a person being decapitated. A bunch of people who want to establish “An Islamic State” that has no boundaries at the present but pretends to have many, and kills everyone daring to 2 contradict their policy.
    [Show full text]