Revolution, Counterrevolution and the Working Class in Russia: Reflections on the Eighty-Second Anniversary of the October Revolution

2000 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
David Mandel
Author(s):  
Viktor F. Isaychikov

Тhe peasant revolts, wars, and revolutions known in history had both revolutionary and reactionary sides. A particularly complex interweaving was observed in Russia (USSR) in the first third of the 20th century due to the maximum number of economic structures and classes in the country and four revolutions. The main reason for the struggle of the peasant classes, including re-volts, was poverty, caused by both agrarian overpopulation and social causes, among which the main one before the October revolution was the remnants of feudalism. All four revolutions in Russia were largely peasant revolutions, but they differed in class composition and class leader-ship. As a result of the Great October socialist revolution, a joint dictatorship of the working class and the peasantry (the petty bourgeoisie) was established in the country, not predicted by K. Marx, but foreseen by V.I. Lenin. However, the small working class after V.I. Lenin’s death could not hold on to power, and as a result of the “Stalinist” counter-revolution, an internally unstable dictatorship of the petty bourgeoisie (peasantry) was established in the country. We reveal the class processes in the peasantry that led to revolts and revolutions.


1937 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1155-1158

Twenty years ago, under the leadership of the Lenin-Stalin party, the working class and peasantry of our country overthrew the rule of the exploiters, capitalists and landlords forever, and established the dictatorship of the proletariat.


Monitor ISH ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Bernard Nežmah

The paper discusses the phenomenon of the October Revolution through the prism of Lenin’s article The State and Revolution, which describes and anticipates the mechanisms of revolutionary action intended to eliminate the exploitation of the working class and to establish a more just social order. The study compares Lenin’s theory with his revolutionary practice by accentuating the concept of ‘the curbing of capitalists’, illuminated by and examined through a series of synchronic and diachronic perspectives, which ultimately led to the formation of the term ‘enemy of the people’ (‘class enemy’). At the same time, it attempts to define and historically determine the actual duration of the October Revolution. The second part of the paper applies the concept of ‘curbing’ to the situation of artists within the Bolshevik state. Thus it presents a range of artists’ attitudes to the Revolution, which had lumped critical and independent artists together with capitalists as ‘enemies of the people’.


Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith

This chapter examines the criticisms hurled against economic ideas associated with the classical tradition in the industrial world during the first decades of the twentieth century. Karl Marx was long gone from the scene, but disturbing ideas would come from his heir, Lenin. One was the notion that the working class of the industrial countries knew no fatherland. As to the classical tradition itself, the instruction of Alfred Marshall, partly through his Principles of Economics, was now without any challenge in England. The chapter first considers money and banking during the period before discussing issues pertaining to monopolies and competition. It also looks at some important developments that influenced economic attitudes and policy during the period, including the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the migration of economists from Poland, Hungary, Austria and Romania to the West, where they would dominate economic discussions in the years ahead.


2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON GARNER

This article covers the relationship between the National Labour Confederation of Spain and the Comintern and its union adjunct the Profintern, from the Confederation's initial support for the October Revolution to its subsequent outright rejection of communist politics, with reference to the positions adopted by revolutionary syndicalist movements in other countries. During this period a small number of individuals attempted to tie the Confederation to the Communist International, but failed. The article covers an important period in Spanish labour history, and helps to explain the mistrust that would bedevil the Spanish revolutionary working-class movement until the Civil War. Previous research has presented the battle for control of the CNT as a straightforward battle between anarchists and communists. This was not the case. The pro-communists were a miniscule faction, led by men recently affiliated to the CNT and who had no understanding of the depth of rejection of politics by Confederal militants. They only managed to take control of the national committee by chance. Aware of their weakness they were forced to act in a secretive and often underhand manner. Using material not consulted in previous studies this article shows the extent of their subterfuge and of the opposition this created in the Confederation, as well as demonstrating that the CNT was not the only revolutionary organisation to reject the Bolshevik International.


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