Bolsheviks
Another look at the organisation question
The following text was published in 1982, over the name “Cormack”. It is an attempt to draw lessons from the Bolshevik experience, not only for the abstract “theory of the party”, but also for the concrete problems of communist organisation we face in the here and now, when any emergence of anything you might call a revolutionary party is far, far over the horizon.
The article was written by a member of the Communist Bulletin Group, a group which had split with the British section of the International Communist Current. The article is therefore framed in part as a critique of the ICC and, tangentially, the Communist Workers Organisation, another group in the “left communist” milieu.
Introduction
Bolshevik Razverstka and War Communism
Lars T. Lih on the Bolshevik policies of war communism and what they meant for workers and peasants.
The Mystery of ABC of Communism (of Bukharin and Preobrazensky)
An academic article challenging the anti-bolshevik thesis that the bolshevik policies implemented in war communism period was an indication of their "innate" stalinism. Presenting his case on a reading of ABC of Communism, Lih questions the validity of bias against the Bolsheviks based on the idea that, they were already trying to establish state capitalism with War Communism and they were confusing state capitalism with socialism.
Social origin and educational level of the chief Bolshevik leaders in 1917
A questionnaire filled in by Bolshevik leaders in 1917 reveals their social origin and educational level:
| Name | Profession of father | Studies |
| Antonov-Ovseenko | Officer | Higher |
| Bukharin | Mathematician | ,, |
| Bubnov | ? |
Zhivoder, c.1883-1920
A short biography of Zhivoder, a revolutionary sailor who moved from Bolshevism to anarchism.
From Bolshevism to Makhnovism
The Brothers Parkhomenko: a tale of the Russian Civil War
The story of the Parkhomenko brothers, symbolic of the fratricidal struggle of the Russian Civil War
Alexander Parkhomenko is known to older Russians through the pages of the novel by Vsevelod Ivanov and the 1942 film of the same name. He was paraded as one of the great heroes of the Russian Civil War, alongside other partisan leaders like Chapaev (who also had a book and film dedicated to him). He led a Red Army detachment against the Makhnovists and eventually was killed by them.
Anarchists who turned to the Bolsheviks - Nick Heath
In these biographies, Nick Heath charts the trajectory of several leading anarchists in the Russian revolution into the service of the Bolshevik counterrevolution.
Review - Bolshevism by Rudolph Sprenger - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes review of Bolshevism by Rudolph Sprenger (Helmut Wagner), Redline Publications, 2004.
Had the revolutionary forces in Germany at the end of the First World War been successful, it is possible that Bolshevism would be no more than a footnote in the history of the workers' movement.
Worlds apart: socialism in Marx and in early Bolshevism
Paresh Chattopadhyay's article on Marx and the divergence of the Bolsheviks from his conception of socialism.
A Provisional Overview
The Communist Left in the Third International - Amadeo Bordiga
Bordiga at the 6th Enlarged Executive Meeting of the Communist International, 15th March 1926: "Since the Russian Revolution is the first great stage of the world revolution it is also our revolution. Its problems are our problems, and every militant in the revolutionary International has not only the right, but also the duty, to collaborate in their solution."
Seventy years ago the wave of proletarian strife and insurrection which had brought the 1st World War to a close was all but over. Instead of being strengthened and supported by the establishment of a European soviet republic and beyond, the Russian proletariat had been left high and dry.
