Bolsheviks

Social origin and educational level of the chief Bolshevik leaders in 1917

Bolshevik central committee 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

Soviet poster, 1920.

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

An allegorical representation of the Third International by Ivan Golikov, 1927.

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.

The "Renegade" Kautsky and his Disciple Lenin - Gilles Dauvé

Karl Kautsky

Dauvé traces the development of Lenin's ideas from Karl Kautsky and situates them within both the historical context and the Second International.

Publication Details

This article originally formed an afterword to an article by Karl Kautsky "Les trois sources du Marxisme" (The three sources of Marxism) which was reprinted in French in April 1977 by editions Spartacus. (serie B No.78).

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