Soviet Union, China and other Stalinisms - reading guide
Further reading guide about "state socialist" countries. Unlike many books on Stalinist societies, these texts emphasise struggles from below:
SOVIET UNION
Aufheben, 'What was the USSR?' Part I: Trotsky and state capitalism; Part II: Russia as a non-mode of production; Part III: Left communism and the Russian revolution; Part IV: Towards a theory of the deformation of value.
The Master and Margarita- Mikhail Bulgakov
The devil comes to destroy the USSR, and only a writer and his lover can stop him.
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
In a country constructed of glass, under complete surveillance and devoid of individuality, D-503 discovers he has a soul and is now in danger.
TOPICS :
A Proclamation
The Wisest of Lines
A Poem
I shall simply copy, word for word, the proclamation that appeared today in the One State Gazette:
Heart of a Dog - Mikhail Bulgakov
A scientist implants the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man into a stray dog, creating a monster. A damning critique of the New Soviet man and the Leninist program, written in 1925 it remained unpublished until 1987.
Omon Ra - Victor Pelevin
Omon Krivomazov has always wanted to be an astronaut but not everything is as it seems in the USSR's space program; cosmonauting dead dogs, bikes on the moon and no way out but up.
The soviets: their origin, development and functions - Andreu Nin
An essay on the Soviets published in 1932 by the co-founder of the Spanish POUM, sympathetic to Lenin and critical of the “profound errors committed, after the death of Lenin, by the leadership of the Communist Party”, that characterizes the Soviets as “a system of government that is infinitely more democratic than the freest bourgeois republic”.
The Soviets: Their Origin, Development and Functions – Andreu Nin
The origin and nature of the Soviets
Joe building: The Stalin memorial lecture - Jonathan Meades
A sequel of sorts to Jerry Building this time examining Stalin and the Soviet Union.
First broadcast in 2006 this documentary examines the influence and importance of Soviet architecture during the Stalin years and its role in codifying the regimes ideology.
Download link http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5ftjokgtrohyqd8
On the anniversary of the so-called "Velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia1989
The following contribution of the Class War Group is neither a chronology of events in Czechoslovakia, 1989, nor a description of them. It is an attempt at a general analysis of the so-called Velvet “Revolution”, which would classify it in the perspective of class struggle, the only perspective, which can provide it with a meaningful context and a meaningful explanation.
On the anniversary of the so-called "Velvet revolution"in Czechoslovakia 1989
Some Reminiscences of Kropotkin - Alexander Berkman
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 28 2013 22:15
It was about 1890, when the anarchist movement was still in its infancy in America. We were just a handful then, young men and women fired by the enthusiams of a sublime ideal, and passionately spreading the new faith among the population of the New York Ghetto. We held our gatherings in an obscure hall in Orchard Street, but we regarded our efforts as highly successful. Every week greater numbers attended our meetings, much interest was manifested in the revolutionary teachings, and vital questions were discussed late into the night, with deep conviction and youthful vision.
To most of us it seemed that capitalism had almost reached the limits of its fiendish possibilities, and that the Social Revolution was not far off. But there were many difficult questions and knotty problems involved in the growing movement, which we ourselves could not solve satisfactorily.
Bolsheviks shooting anarchists - Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 28 2013 22:01
Letter from Emma Goldman and Alex Berkman written to warn workers of the persecution of revolutionaries in Russia by the Bolsheviks, originally published in Freedom in 1922.
We have just received the following letter from our comrades Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, who are now stranded in Stockholm. This letter gives us the truth about the terrible persecution of Anarchists in Russia.
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