Marxism, the Updates
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Stalinism and Trotskyism in Vietnam
r Telegram: Defend the DRV-NLF! The following telegram was sent as the u.s. imperialists mined Haiphong harbor and the North Vietnamese coast. At the time Soviet bureaucrats were preparing to receive Nixon in Moscow just as their Chinese counterparts a few months earlier wined and dined him in Peking as he terror-bombed Vietnam. Embassy of the U.S.S.R. Washington, D.C. U.N. Mission of the People's Republic of China New York, N.Y. On behalf of the urgent revolutionary needs of the international working class and in accord with the inevitable aims of our future worker~ government in the United States, we demand that you immediately expand shipment of military supplies of the highest technical quality to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and that you offer the DRV the fullest all sided assistance including necessary Russian-Chinese joint military collaboration. No other course will serve at this moment of savage imperialist escalation against the DRV and the Indochinese working people whose military victories have totally shattered the myths of the Vietnamization and pacification programs of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. signed: Political Bureau, Spartacist League of the U.S. 8 May 1972 copies to: D RV and N LF delegations, Paris -from Workers Vanguard No.9, June 1972 6 n p Stalinism and Trotskyism In• Vietnam ~···· l,~ ~ r SPARTACIST PUBLISHING co. Box 1377, G.P.O. New York, N.Y. 10001, U.S.A . • December 1976 Ho Chi Minh Ta Thu Thau CONTENTS CHAPTER I In Defense of Vietnamese Trotskyism (I:·: • >'~ Stalinism and Trotskyism in Vietnam ................... -
Programmatic Theses of the Communist Organization CONTENT
Programmatic Theses of the Communist Organization CONTENT 3 The Flame of Communism Burns On! 4 Our Worldview 5 Class society 7 The State 8 Imperialism 10 Fascism and anti-fascism 12 Proletarian internationalism 14 Proletarian women’s movement 15 The communist party 17 Socialism and Communism 20 The revolutionary strategy 22 Revolutionary Practice 24 The Fight against Opportunism and Revisionism 28 Closing Words 2 The Flame of Communism Burns On! It has been a full century since the October Revolution ushered in the first suc- cessful socialist revolution and changed the world, costing imperialism its first great defeat. Under Lenin‘s leadership in 1917, the actions of the Bolsheviks beca- The Flame of Communism Burns On! me a spark that spread like wildfire, heralding in a new epoch of revolution. Our Worldview The victory of the counter-revolution of 1989/90, the destruction of socialism, and the worldwide solidification of capitalism cost the workers movement and Class society communism greatly. Communist parties, once proud and influential - anchored in the masses and accepted as their revolutionary leadership – disappeared into The State the shadows of history. Our organizations were demolished, they lost their mass influence, they assimilated into the system under the influence of revisionism or Imperialism dissolved. A revolutionary spark as powerful as that of the October Revolution seems far from reach today. Fascism and anti-fascism Still we say: the flame of communism burns on! The ruling status quo is today Proletarian internationalism just as unbearable as it was then. Capitalism produces unimaginable wealth for the few and poverty, misery, and hardship for the many. -
FROM MAOISM to TROTSKYISM -Reprinted from WORKERS VANGUARD, No.1, October 1971
iii PREFACE The Communist Horking Collective originated tvhen a small group of Ivlaoists came together in Los Angeles to undertake an intensive investigation of the history of the communist movement in order to develop a strategy for the U.S. ,socialist revolution. Its study of the essentials of Stalinist and Maoist theory led the CWC to the inescapable conclusion that the theory of IISocialism in One Country" is in irreconcilable opposition to revolutionary internationalism. The consolidation of the CWC around Trotskyism and its systematic study of the various ostensible Trotskyist international tendencies was culminated in the fusion between the CWC and the Spartacist League in September 1971. The brief history of the Ct'lC which appeared originally in the first issue of Workers Vanguard (see page viii) alludes to the splits of the CWC's founding cadre from the Revolutionary Union (RU) and the California Communist League (CCL). To convey the genesis of this process, we have included a number of forerunner documents going back to the original split from the CPUSA on the 50th anniver sary of the October Revolution. The original resignation of comrade~ Treiger and Miller began the "floundering about for three years ••• seeking in Mao Tse Tung Thought a revolutionary al ternati ve to the revisionists." Treiger went on to help found the CWC; fUller con tinued to uphold the dogmatic tradition and declined to even answer the "Letter to a IvIao~_st" (see page 30). Why the Critique of "Tvw Stages"? The lynchpin on which all variants of the fJIaoist "t"t'lO stage" theory of revolution rest--whether applied to the advanced countries or to the colonial world--is collaboration with the ruling class or a section of it during the initial "stage." Early in its develop ment the CWC had rejected the conception as it was applied to the Un1 ted States, but believed it remained applicable to the col'onial revolution. -
'Socialism in One Country': Komsomol'tsy
Youthful Internationalism in the Age of ‘Socialism in One Country’: Komsomol’tsy, Pioneers and ‘World Revolution’ in the Interwar Period Matthias Neumann On the 1st of March 1927, two Komsomol members from the Chuvash Republic, located in the centre of European Russia, wrote an emotional letter to Comrade Stalin. Reflecting on the revolutionary upheavals in China, they attacked the inaction of the Komsomol and the party and expressed their sincere determination to self-mobilise and join the proletarian forces in China. ‘We do not need empty slogans such as “The Komsomol is prepared”’, ‘We must not live like this’ they wrote and boasted ‘we guarantee that we are able to mobilise thousands of Komsomol members who have the desire to go to China and fight in the army of the Guomindang.’ This was after all, they forcefully stressed, the purpose for which ‘our party and our Komsomol exist.’1 These youngsters were not alone in their views. As the coverage on the situation in China intensified in the Komsomol press in March, numerous similar individual and collective letters were received by party and Komsomol leaders.2 The young authors, all male as far as they were named, expressed their genuine enthusiasm for the revolution in China. The letters revealed not only a youthful romanticism for the revolutionary fight abroad and the idea of spreading the revolution, but often an underlying sense of disillusionment with the inertia of the revolutionary project at home. A few months earlier, in 1926 during the campaign against the so-called eseninshchina3, a fellow Komsomol member took a quite different view on the prospect of spreading the revolution around the world. -
The Arts in Russia Under Stalin
01_SOVMINDCH1. 12/19/03 11:23 AM Page 1 THE ARTS IN RUSSIA UNDER STALIN December 1945 The Soviet literary scene is a peculiar one, and in order to understand it few analogies from the West are of use. For a vari- ety of causes Russia has in historical times led a life to some degree isolated from the rest of the world, and never formed a genuine part of the Western tradition; indeed her literature has at all times provided evidence of a peculiarly ambivalent attitude with regard to the uneasy relationship between herself and the West, taking the form now of a violent and unsatisfied longing to enter and become part of the main stream of European life, now of a resentful (‘Scythian’) contempt for Western values, not by any means confined to professing Slavophils; but most often of an unresolved, self-conscious combination of these mutually opposed currents of feeling. This mingled emotion of love and of hate permeates the writing of virtually every well-known Russian author, sometimes rising to great vehemence in the protest against foreign influence which, in one form or another, colours the masterpieces of Griboedov, Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Herzen, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Blok. The October Revolution insulated Russia even more com- pletely, and her development became perforce still more self- regarding, self-conscious and incommensurable with that of its neighbours. It is not my purpose to trace the situation histori- cally, but the present is particularly unintelligible without at least a glance at previous events, and it would perhaps be convenient, and not too misleading, to divide its recent growth into three main stages – 1900–1928; 1928–1937; 1937 to the present – artifi- cial and over-simple though this can easily be shown to be. -
Socialism in One Country” Promoting National Identity Based on Class Identification
“Socialism in One Country” Promoting National Identity Based on Class Identification IVAN SZPAKOWSKI The Russian Empire of the Romanovs spanned thousands of miles from the Baltic to the Pacific, with a population of millions drawn from dozens of ethnic groups. Following the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks inherited the problem of holding together such a heterogeneous body. At the same time, they were forced to uphold Marxist ideology demanding worldwide revolution of the proletariat while facing the reality that despite the turmoil following the First World War no such revolution was forthcoming. In 1924 the rising Joseph Stalin, along with Nikolai Bukharin, devised the theory of “Socialism in One Country” which would become the solution to many of these problems facing the Bolsheviks. First of all, it proclaimed the ability of socialism to succeed in the Soviet Union alone, without foreign aid. Additionally, it marked a change from Lenin’s policy of self-determination for the Soviet Union’s constituent nations to Stalin’s policy of a compulsory unitary state. These non-Russian ethnics were systematically and firmly incorporated into the Soviet Union by the promotion of a proletariat class mentality. The development of the theory and policy of “Socialism in One Country” thus served to forge the unitary national identity of the Soviet Union around the concept of common Soviet class identity. The examination of this policy’s role in building a new form of national identity is dependant on a variety of sources, grouped into several subject areas. First, the origin of the term “Socialism in One Country,” its original meaning and its interpretation can be found in the speeches and writings of prominent contemporary communist leaders, chief among them: Stalin and Trotsky. -
Stalin's Purge and Its Impact on Russian Families a Pilot Study
25 Stalin's Purge and Its Impact on Russian Families A Pilot Study KATHARINE G. BAKER and JULIA B. GIPPENREITER INTRODUCTION This chapter describes a preliminary research project jointly undertaken during the winter of 1993-1994 by a Russian psychologist and an American social worker. The authors first met during KGB's presentation of Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST) at Moscow State Uni versity in 1989. During frequent meetings in subsequent years in the United States and Russia, the authors shared their thoughts about the enormous political and societal upheaval occurring in Russia in the 1990s. The wider context of Russian history in the 20th-century and its impact on contemporary events, on the functioning of families over several generations, and on the functioning of individuals living through turbulent times was central to these discussions. How did the prolonged societal nightmare of the 1920s and the 1930s affect the popula tion of the Soviet Union? What was the impact of the demented paranoia of those years of to talitarian repression on innocent citizens who tried to live "normal" lives, raise families, go to work, stay healthy, and live out their lives in peace? What was the emotional legacy of Stalin's Purge of 1937-1939 for the children and grandchildren of its victims? Does it continue to have an impact on the functioning of modern-day Russians who are struggling with new societal disruptions during the post-Communist transition to a free-market democracy? These are the questions that led to the research study presented -
The Impact of Holodomor Studies on the Understanding of the USSR
The Impact of Holodomor Studies on the Understanding of the USSR Andrea Graziosi University of Naples Federico II Abstract: This paper investigates what the Holodomor tells us about the development and dynamics of Soviet history. It starts by examining the evolving relations between Stalin and the peasantry during the Soviet Union’s first decades as well as the social, economic, moral, and psychological consequences in the USSR after 1933 following the destruction of traditional rural society. The relationship between the Holodomor and the viability of the Soviet system will then be discussed along with the opportunities that history presented to the Soviet leadership after 1945 to reverse the country’s critical 1928-29 decisions. This leadership’s awareness of the tragedies of the 1930s in the countryside, as well as of their consequences, will then be raised, before shifting the focus to the linkage between the peasant and the national questions in Soviet history. In this context the Holodomor will be discussed as a tool to solve both the peasant and the national “irritants” caused by Ukraine to both the Soviet system and Stalin’s personal power. The legacy of such a “solution” will then be addressed, including a consideration to the background of the collapse of the Soviet system from the perspective of the sustainability of a state whose past is marred by unacknowledged genocidal practices. Finally, the consequences of the growing awareness of the Holodomor’s importance and nature on the USSR’s image will be discussed. In particular, the question of the “modernity” of the Soviet system and of the “modernizing” effects of Stalin’s 1928-29 policies will be raised. -
Stalin Revolutionary in an Era of War 1St Edition Pdf, Epub, Ebook
STALIN REVOLUTIONARY IN AN ERA OF WAR 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Kevin McDermott | 9780333711224 | | | | | Stalin Revolutionary in an Era of War 1st edition PDF Book It was under this name that he went to Switzerland in the winter of , where he met with Lenin and collaborated on a theoretical work, Marxism and the National and Colonial Question. They argue that in the article On the Slogan for a United States of Europe the expression "triumph of socialism [ Seller Rating:. Vladimir Lenin died in January and by the end of that year in the second edition of the book Stalin's position started to turn around as he claimed that "the proletariat can and must build the socialist society in one country". Modern History Review. Refresh and try again. Tucker's subject, however, which isn't Mont I have admired Robert Tucker's work for decades now, and I am glad at long last to take up the first of his two volume study of Stalin. Brazil United Kingdom United States. Retrieved August 27, Egan The major difficulty is a lack of agreement about what should constitute Stalinism. Stalin and Lenin were close friends, judging from this photograph. He wrote that the concept of Stalinism was developed after by Western intellectuals so as to be able to keep alive the communist ideal. Retrieved September 20, Palgrave Macmillan UK. Antonio rated it it was amazing Jun 04, Retrieved 7 October During the quarter of a century preceding his death, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin probably exercised greater political power than any other figure in history. -
Download Download
MAOISM-ITS ORIGINS, BACKGROUND, AND OUTLOOK Isaac Deutscher WHAT does Maoism stand for? What does it represent as a political idea and as a current in contemporary communism? The need to clarify these questions has become all the more urgent because Maoism is now openly competing with other communist schools of thought for inter- national recognition. Yet before entering this competition Maoism had existed as a current, and then as the dominant trend, of Chinese communism for thirty to thirty-five years. It is under its banner that the main forces of the Chinese revolution waged the most protracted civil war in modern history; and that they won their victory in 1949, making the greatest single breach in world capitalism since the October Revolu- tion, and freeing the Soviet Union from isolation. It is hardly surprising that Maoism should at last advance politically beyond its national . boundaries and claim world-wide attention to its ideas. What is surprising is that it has not done so earlier and that it has for so long remained closed within the confines of its national experience. Maoism presents in this respect a striking contrast with Leninism. The latter also existed at first as a purely Russian school of thought; but not for long. In 1915, after the collapse of the Second International, Lenin was already the central figure in the movement for the Third International, its initiator and inspirer-Bolshevism, as a faction in the Russian Social Democratic Party, was not much older then than a decade. Before that the Bolsheviks, like other Russian socialists, had lived intensely with all the problems of international Marxism, absorbed all its experience, participated in all its controversies, and felt bound to it with unbreakable ties of intellectual, moral, and political solidarity. -
The Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine: Toward New Avenues Of
THE GREAT FAMINE IN SOVIET UKRAINE: TOWARD NEW AVENUES OF INQUIRY INTO THE HOLODOMOR A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Troy Philip Reisenauer In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major Department: History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies June 2014 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title THE GREAT FAMINE IN SOVIET UKRAINE: TOWARD NEW AVENUES OF INQUIRY INTO THE HOLODOMOR By Troy Philip Reisenauer The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Dr. John K. Cox Chair Dr. Tracy Barrett Dr. Dragan Miljkovic Approved: July 10, 2014 Dr. John K. Cox Date Department Chair ABSTRACT Famine spread across the Union of Social Soviet Republics in 1932 and 1933, a deadly though unanticipated consequence of Joseph Stalin’s attempt in 1928 to build socialism in one country through massive industrialization and forced collectivization of agriculture known as the first Five-Year Plan. This study uses published documents, collections, correspondence, memoirs, secondary sources and new insight to analyze the famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and other Soviet republics. It presents the major scholarly works on the famine, research that often mirrors the diverse views and bitter public disagreement over the issue of intentionality and the ultimate culpability of Soviet leadership. The original contribution of this study is in the analysis of newly published primary documents of the 1920s and 1930s from the Russian Presidential Archives, especially vis-à-vis the role of Stalin and his chief lieutenants at the center of power and the various representatives at the republic-level periphery. -
POLITICS, SOCIETY and STALINISM in the USSR Politics, Society and Stalinism in the USSR
POLITICS, SOCIETY AND STALINISM IN THE USSR Politics, Society and Stalinism in the USSR Edited by John Channon ~ in association with ~ PALGRAVEMACMILLAN First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world This book is published in Macmillan's Studies in Russia and East Europe series Chairman of the editorial board: Michael Branch Series ISBN 978-0-333-71018-0 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-26531-2 ISBN 978-1-349-26529-9 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-26529-9 First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21126-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Politics, society and Stalinism in the USSR I edited by John Channon. p. em.- (Studies in Russia and East Europe) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-21126-4 (cloth) I. Soviet Union-Politics and govemment-1917-1936. 2. Soviet Union-Politics and govemment-1936-1953. I. Channon, John. II. Series. DK267.P627 1998 947.08-dc21 97-40880 CIP © School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London 1998 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.