The Russian Revolution
Concomitant with my course on Cuba, I have been taking a seminar, "The Russian Revolution," on...the Russian Revolution! Approaching Thanksgiving break, we have now traced the roots of revolution all the way from the revolutionary terrorism of the 1870s and 1880s through October 1917. Of particular interest have been Vera Zasulich's memoirs, in Five Sisters: Women Against the Tsar; Leon Trotsky's histories 1905 and The Russian Revolution; Abraham Ascher's great book The Revolution of 1905: A Short History; and the unbelievable collection The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory: Visions and Revisions.
At the end of the month, I'll be presenting on Lenin's The State and Revolution and a series of shorter articles written by various Bolshevik authors on revolutionary culture. Needless to say, my enthusiasm for Lenin has waned over time, although I do continue to find his writing and theoretical contributions (along with those of Trotsky) extremely interesting. Friends in the ISO have been encouraging me to join; although flattered, I have had to tell them that, with my ambivalent attitude toward Lenin and Leninism, I don't know if they're the right organization for me. Vanguards, dictatorship, dogmatic and sectarian devotion to the "party line" frighten me. I'm far from an anarchist, but democratic centralism, at least as it is generally practiced, seems to me more about "centralism" and less about "democracy." For now, I'm happy with my political independence. And hopefully I'll have some time to get back to building an SDS chapter before too long!
At the end of the month, I'll be presenting on Lenin's The State and Revolution and a series of shorter articles written by various Bolshevik authors on revolutionary culture. Needless to say, my enthusiasm for Lenin has waned over time, although I do continue to find his writing and theoretical contributions (along with those of Trotsky) extremely interesting. Friends in the ISO have been encouraging me to join; although flattered, I have had to tell them that, with my ambivalent attitude toward Lenin and Leninism, I don't know if they're the right organization for me. Vanguards, dictatorship, dogmatic and sectarian devotion to the "party line" frighten me. I'm far from an anarchist, but democratic centralism, at least as it is generally practiced, seems to me more about "centralism" and less about "democracy." For now, I'm happy with my political independence. And hopefully I'll have some time to get back to building an SDS chapter before too long!
posted by Micah at 9:14 PM
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