What Was Bolshevism?

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-68445-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 298, 582 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1111 g

Reihe: Historical Materialism Book Series

How did the Bolsheviks see themselves? What grand narrative gave meaning to their revolutionary aspirations? The leading Western expert on Bolshevism, Lars T. Lih, answers these questions in the first-ever study of the Bolshevik outlook from Lenin to perestroika. Sharply focused case studies allow individual leaders – Lenin, Stalin, Bukharin, Trotsky, Zinoviev – to come alive and speak in their own voices, with surprising results that challenge conventional narratives left and right. What Was Bolshevism? uses novels, plays, literary criticism, photographs, statues, poetry, history textbooks, songs, and film to paint an indispensable self-portrait of Soviet civilization.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lih, Lars T

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Geschichte der Revolutionen Russische Revolution
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Revolutionäre Gruppen und Bewegungen, Bewaffnete Konflikte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Original Publication

Introduction: What Was Bolshevism?

Part 1 Overview

1 Ordinary Miracles: Lenin’s Call for Revolutionary Ambition

2 The Soviet Union and the Path to Communism

Part 2 Deferred Dreams: Against the Myth of ‘War Communism’ (1918–1921)

3 Tsiurupa’s White Beard

4 The Mystery of the ABC

5 Vlast from the Past: Stories Told by Bolsheviks

Part 3 Time of Troubles: Policies (1914–1921)

6 Grain Monopoly and Agricultural Transformation: Ideals and Necessities

7 Bolshevik Razverstka and War Communism

8 Bolsheviks at Work: The Sowing Committees of 1920

Part 4 Time of Troubles: Outlook (1914–1921)

9 Bolshevism’s ‘Services to the State’: Three Voices

10 ‘Our Position Is in the Highest Degree Tragic’: Trotsky and Bolshevik ‘Euphoria’ in 1920

11 Zinoviev: Populist Leninist

Part 5 NEP (1921–1930)

12 Political Testament: Lenin, Bukharin and the Meaning of NEP

13 Bukharin on Bolshevik ‘Illusions’: ‘War Communism’ vs. NEP

Part 6 Stalin Era (1925–1953)

14 Stalin at Work: Introduction to Stalin’s Letters to Molotov

15 Bukharin’s Bolshevik Epic: The Prison Writings

16 Show Trials in the Stalin Era: On Stage and In Court

17 Vertigo: Masks and Lies in Stalin’s Russia

18 Who Is Stalin? What Is He?

Part 7 Perestroika (1984–1991)

19 Perestroika Looks Back

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Lars T. Lih (Ph.D. 1984, Princeton University) has published extensively on Russian and Soviet history and politics. What Was Bolshevism? sums up a scholarly lifetime, combining hard-to-access articles spanning three decades along with new essays written for this volume.