[In his autopsy of the Second International, Lenin sets out the symptoms of revolutionary situations (which do not always result in revolutions). In this epoch of crisis and the future promise of greater crisis, we feel that the left is under-equipped to diagnose a revolutionary situation. As always, the present excerpt is provided for the […]
World history would indeed be very easy to make, if the struggle were taken up only on condition of infallibly favorable chances. It would, on the other hand, be of a very mystical nature, if “accidents” played no part. These accidents themselves fall naturally into the general course of development and are compensated again by […]
It is often alleged that Joseph Stalin purposefully fostered his own cult of personality to maintain control over the Soviet population. Let’s see what he makes of this claim in a letter he wrote to the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Youth of the Soviet Union. I am absolutely against the publication of […]
[This article was originally published by Jason Yanowitz for ‘International Socialist Review.’ We republish it here for critical discussion. Republishing does not imply endorsement of the article, its line or the ISR.] STARTING IN the 1970s, a new consensus emerged among serious scholars of the Russian Revolution. Instead of seeing the rise of Stalinism as […]
