Fascinated by the talk of the rise of town hall meetings, community organization, and "soviet"-style units of political mobilization in Hannah Arendt's "On Revolution", I picked up a copy of Fitzpatrick's "Russian Revolution", which was not only considered one of the most informative books on the subject (or says the other reviews), but it was also half.com's cheapest. (Jaja. I just needed a map legend to get over the hill - Wikipedia would provide the vehicle for the rest of the way.)
Once an idolizer of Lenin (Senior year, baby), and to a lesser degree the early years of the Russian Revolution, the book shattered the pinch of sympathy that I had for the Red guards of Russia (most of my sympathy was washed away after reading the culturally imperialistic tales of Soviet Russia in Stalin's "The National Question" and "The Soviet House of Culture" - the later being reviewed a few weeks ago.)
The Revolution itself was quite romantic. In the face of the crumbling Czarist administration, workers and peasants alike in the absence of the bureaucratic state bound together and gave rise to organic democratic units of action, known as "Soviets" (a term which carried an erroneous definition until I read Arend). These Soviets - probably far more democratic than any possible form of representative democracy that could have been coughed up by the American Founding Fathers - succeeded in eliminating the division between public policy and community. Such carries the same flavor as Thomas Jefferson's rantings on perpetual revolution and the dangers of representative democracy.
Unfortunately, the popular and democratic revolution of the masses and their democratic soviets was hijacked by Lenin and his band of conspiring Bolsheviks; professional revolutionaries that lacked faith in the ability of the common man to devise or implement effective policies for his own good. "All Power to the Soviets" was but a hollow cry, used by Lenin and his men to skillfully snatch power from the same forces that had initiated the revolution.
The industrial drive of Stalin was even more disgusting. The damage forced upon the indigenous and ethic groups of the Soviet Union, the traditional peasant communities, to the villages and towns, and even the environment must have ushered in much quicker than any perceivable Old World colonialism or savage capitalism could ever. "National modernization, not international revolution, was the primary objective of the Soviet Communist Party," states the author. In a rush to proletarianize the "barbaric" nomadic peoples and the peasants, members of these pre-capitalist societies became labor slaves to a degree higher than possible under a the capitalist economy that the Marxists so much criticized.
The book can be purchased for about a dollar off of any of the Internet's many used book websites, so if you are interested in the subject, I suggest that you pick up a copy. The paperback copy is exceptionally flexible (facilitating the folding of the book, thus making it easier to read with one hand) and the recycled paper pages work wonders with taking notes with ball-point pens. (You know your a dork when you make comments as the one above).
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