Hassan Malik
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691170169
- eISBN:
- 9780691185002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170169.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter focuses on the 1918 Bolshevik default—the largest in history—and the continuation of the financial struggle by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution from the perspective of both ...
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This chapter focuses on the 1918 Bolshevik default—the largest in history—and the continuation of the financial struggle by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution from the perspective of both bankers and Bolsheviks. In exploring the drivers of the Bolshevik decision to default, the chapter reveals that the decision was rooted partly in Bolshevik ideology but also shaped by practicalities. Considering the very possible counterfactual scenario that the Bolshevik coup in early November 1917 had failed, it is difficult to imagine a situation whereby the Provisional Government or any successor would have been able to avoid at least a fairly significant default. In this sense, investors holding on to Russian debt before, during, and after the Bolshevik Revolution not only failed to account for political factors, but also failed to remain true to the narrow financial analysis that would have dictated caution even in the absence of a Bolshevik takeover. On the Bolshevik side, the decision to default was not just consistent with the Bolsheviks' previously articulated policies, but—from both a political and economic standpoint—rational.Less
This chapter focuses on the 1918 Bolshevik default—the largest in history—and the continuation of the financial struggle by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution from the perspective of both bankers and Bolsheviks. In exploring the drivers of the Bolshevik decision to default, the chapter reveals that the decision was rooted partly in Bolshevik ideology but also shaped by practicalities. Considering the very possible counterfactual scenario that the Bolshevik coup in early November 1917 had failed, it is difficult to imagine a situation whereby the Provisional Government or any successor would have been able to avoid at least a fairly significant default. In this sense, investors holding on to Russian debt before, during, and after the Bolshevik Revolution not only failed to account for political factors, but also failed to remain true to the narrow financial analysis that would have dictated caution even in the absence of a Bolshevik takeover. On the Bolshevik side, the decision to default was not just consistent with the Bolsheviks' previously articulated policies, but—from both a political and economic standpoint—rational.
Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199241507
- eISBN:
- 9780191599835
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199241503.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter analyses the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution to throw light on the theoretical factors relating to their social and political dynamics in effecting ...
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This chapter analyses the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution to throw light on the theoretical factors relating to their social and political dynamics in effecting a transfer of power. This covers not just the weakness of the ancien régime in resisting the forces of revolution, but also that of the revolutionary forces in determining the optimal machinery of government for the post‐revolutionary state. This latter weakness can produce undesirable institutional legacies requiring decades to be dismantled.Less
This chapter analyses the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution to throw light on the theoretical factors relating to their social and political dynamics in effecting a transfer of power. This covers not just the weakness of the ancien régime in resisting the forces of revolution, but also that of the revolutionary forces in determining the optimal machinery of government for the post‐revolutionary state. This latter weakness can produce undesirable institutional legacies requiring decades to be dismantled.
Rebecca Mitchell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300208894
- eISBN:
- 9780300216493
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300208894.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
The epilogue considers the legacy of musical metaphysics among educated Russians both in the Soviet Union and among the Russian émigré community. While the utopian vision of musical metaphysics ...
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The epilogue considers the legacy of musical metaphysics among educated Russians both in the Soviet Union and among the Russian émigré community. While the utopian vision of musical metaphysics continued to underpin Soviet experimentation in music throughout the 1920s, many of Nietzsche’s orphans gradually lost faith in music’s ability to transform society; instead, music was commonly evoked as a means through which to elicit memory of an idealized Russian past.Less
The epilogue considers the legacy of musical metaphysics among educated Russians both in the Soviet Union and among the Russian émigré community. While the utopian vision of musical metaphysics continued to underpin Soviet experimentation in music throughout the 1920s, many of Nietzsche’s orphans gradually lost faith in music’s ability to transform society; instead, music was commonly evoked as a means through which to elicit memory of an idealized Russian past.
Jeremy Jennings
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203131
- eISBN:
- 9780191728587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203131.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the ...
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The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the condition of the workers, it next looks at the insurrectionary tradition associated with Jacobinism and Babeuf. It continues this discussion with an examination of the utopianism of Cabet, the state socialism of Louis Blanc, and the introduction of Marxism in France. The chapter then analyses the writings of socialists who tended to be hostile to reliance upon the State as a mechanism of working-class emancipation. This discussion looks at the work of Fourier and those of his disciples such as Considérant, Proudhon, and the later anarcho-syndicalist movement associated with the ideas of Georges Sorel. It concludes by assessing the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and the ‘Soviet myth’ upon socialism in FranceLess
The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the condition of the workers, it next looks at the insurrectionary tradition associated with Jacobinism and Babeuf. It continues this discussion with an examination of the utopianism of Cabet, the state socialism of Louis Blanc, and the introduction of Marxism in France. The chapter then analyses the writings of socialists who tended to be hostile to reliance upon the State as a mechanism of working-class emancipation. This discussion looks at the work of Fourier and those of his disciples such as Considérant, Proudhon, and the later anarcho-syndicalist movement associated with the ideas of Georges Sorel. It concludes by assessing the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and the ‘Soviet myth’ upon socialism in France
Gerry Kearns
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199230112
- eISBN:
- 9780191696411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230112.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter describes Mackinder's imperialist adventure in the Heartland itself. In 1919, the British government sent him to South Russia, the very area he had identified as pivotal for the future ...
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This chapter describes Mackinder's imperialist adventure in the Heartland itself. In 1919, the British government sent him to South Russia, the very area he had identified as pivotal for the future of Britain, to help coordinate the military and political campaigns against the Bolshevik Revolution.Less
This chapter describes Mackinder's imperialist adventure in the Heartland itself. In 1919, the British government sent him to South Russia, the very area he had identified as pivotal for the future of Britain, to help coordinate the military and political campaigns against the Bolshevik Revolution.
Norman Birnbaum
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195158595
- eISBN:
- 9780199849352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158595.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Political History
The Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet society and state that it engendered, the world Communist movement whose leadership the Soviet party expropriated, have served as screens—on which exalted ...
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The Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet society and state that it engendered, the world Communist movement whose leadership the Soviet party expropriated, have served as screens—on which exalted hopes and bitter fears have been projected, frequently with not quite sublime disregard of historical reality. The Mikhail Gorbachev reforms, the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, the total loss of whatever model function the Revolution once claimed and in some parts of the world exerted have intensified an argument that has been going on since 1917. The Revolution was not merely a coup d'état in a very backward society devastated by military defeat. The projects of the new Soviet state were not simply desperate expedients by an increasingly cynical ruling elite, determined to sanctify their profane grip on power by proclaiming an end no less sacred than the creation of a new society.Less
The Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet society and state that it engendered, the world Communist movement whose leadership the Soviet party expropriated, have served as screens—on which exalted hopes and bitter fears have been projected, frequently with not quite sublime disregard of historical reality. The Mikhail Gorbachev reforms, the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, the total loss of whatever model function the Revolution once claimed and in some parts of the world exerted have intensified an argument that has been going on since 1917. The Revolution was not merely a coup d'état in a very backward society devastated by military defeat. The projects of the new Soviet state were not simply desperate expedients by an increasingly cynical ruling elite, determined to sanctify their profane grip on power by proclaiming an end no less sacred than the creation of a new society.
Hassan Malik
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691170169
- eISBN:
- 9780691185002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170169.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This concluding chapter explains that both the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent default were intertwined and historically contingent. They emerged from a particular set of historical ...
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This concluding chapter explains that both the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent default were intertwined and historically contingent. They emerged from a particular set of historical circumstances, processes, and turning points. The events and the processes that produced them were linked by the explicitly financial character of the war the Bolsheviks waged against their opponents—be they the ancien régime, the Provisional Government, domestic class enemies, or foreign powers. Indeed, by 1917 and well before the Bolshevik takeover, a default in Russia—whether in the form of an outright cancellation of debts or a “restructuring”—had become inevitable. Three years of war had seen the Russian Empire lose critical parts of its economy to the enemy, while the strategy of relying on domestic debt markets had seen diminishing returns, forcing the government to resort to the printing press. Even by employing the latter method, the government could not keep up. Under such circumstances, even counterfeiters could not keep pace with the rate at which currency was being issued.Less
This concluding chapter explains that both the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent default were intertwined and historically contingent. They emerged from a particular set of historical circumstances, processes, and turning points. The events and the processes that produced them were linked by the explicitly financial character of the war the Bolsheviks waged against their opponents—be they the ancien régime, the Provisional Government, domestic class enemies, or foreign powers. Indeed, by 1917 and well before the Bolshevik takeover, a default in Russia—whether in the form of an outright cancellation of debts or a “restructuring”—had become inevitable. Three years of war had seen the Russian Empire lose critical parts of its economy to the enemy, while the strategy of relying on domestic debt markets had seen diminishing returns, forcing the government to resort to the printing press. Even by employing the latter method, the government could not keep up. Under such circumstances, even counterfeiters could not keep pace with the rate at which currency was being issued.
Nikolai Krementsov
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199992980
- eISBN:
- 9780199370016
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199992980.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book examines a particular fascination with the dream of immortality and the place of science and fiction in its pursuit in Russia during roughly a decade that followed the country’s political ...
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This book examines a particular fascination with the dream of immortality and the place of science and fiction in its pursuit in Russia during roughly a decade that followed the country’s political revolutions of 1917. It argues that contemporary scientific experiments aimed at the control over life, death, and disease inspired many Russian writers to conduct their own literary experiments with the ideas and techniques offered by experimental biology and medicine, which found expression in both popular-science writings and a new literary genre, science fiction. As a result of this intense, if often indirect, dialogue between science and fiction, esoteric, specialized knowledge generated by experimental biology and medicine became transformed into an influential cultural resource. This book investigates the contexts and principles of this transformation, the various groups of actors—scientists, their Bolshevik patrons, and their literary fans/critics—who participated in creating this resource and shaped its contents to their own ends, and the relative roles of science and literature in pursuing the dream of immortality in 1920s Russia. It demonstrates that this cultural resource facilitated the establishment of large specialized institutions for biomedical research, inspired numerous science fiction stories, displaced religious beliefs, and gave the centuries-old dream of immortality new forms and new meanings in Bolshevik Russia.Less
This book examines a particular fascination with the dream of immortality and the place of science and fiction in its pursuit in Russia during roughly a decade that followed the country’s political revolutions of 1917. It argues that contemporary scientific experiments aimed at the control over life, death, and disease inspired many Russian writers to conduct their own literary experiments with the ideas and techniques offered by experimental biology and medicine, which found expression in both popular-science writings and a new literary genre, science fiction. As a result of this intense, if often indirect, dialogue between science and fiction, esoteric, specialized knowledge generated by experimental biology and medicine became transformed into an influential cultural resource. This book investigates the contexts and principles of this transformation, the various groups of actors—scientists, their Bolshevik patrons, and their literary fans/critics—who participated in creating this resource and shaped its contents to their own ends, and the relative roles of science and literature in pursuing the dream of immortality in 1920s Russia. It demonstrates that this cultural resource facilitated the establishment of large specialized institutions for biomedical research, inspired numerous science fiction stories, displaced religious beliefs, and gave the centuries-old dream of immortality new forms and new meanings in Bolshevik Russia.
Laurence Senelick and Sergei Ostrovsky
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300194760
- eISBN:
- 9780300211351
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300194760.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter describes various events in the history of Soviet theater and arts from 1917 to 1919. It shows that the Bolshevik Party and Soviet government sought to make the Russian cultural legacy ...
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This chapter describes various events in the history of Soviet theater and arts from 1917 to 1919. It shows that the Bolshevik Party and Soviet government sought to make the Russian cultural legacy available to a proletarian audience and allow the disinherited to take possession of what had been withheld from them. In 1919, the eighth Party Congress adopted a program indicating that it was necessary to offer and render accessible to workers all the art treasures that emerged from the exploitation of their work and that heretofore have been at the exclusive disposal of the exploiters. The concern with preserving the theater as a medium of traditional culture is evident in the founding of the Bol'shoy Dramatic Theater in 1919. Its founders meant it to be a temple of high culture and traditional drama.Less
This chapter describes various events in the history of Soviet theater and arts from 1917 to 1919. It shows that the Bolshevik Party and Soviet government sought to make the Russian cultural legacy available to a proletarian audience and allow the disinherited to take possession of what had been withheld from them. In 1919, the eighth Party Congress adopted a program indicating that it was necessary to offer and render accessible to workers all the art treasures that emerged from the exploitation of their work and that heretofore have been at the exclusive disposal of the exploiters. The concern with preserving the theater as a medium of traditional culture is evident in the founding of the Bol'shoy Dramatic Theater in 1919. Its founders meant it to be a temple of high culture and traditional drama.
Joshua Sanborn
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199642052
- eISBN:
- 9780191774492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199642052.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Military History
This chapter begins with a description of the failed June Offensive of 1917, which brought the first period of the revolution to a close and ended any hope of a military solution to the problem of ...
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This chapter begins with a description of the failed June Offensive of 1917, which brought the first period of the revolution to a close and ended any hope of a military solution to the problem of war and revolution. The failed offensive led to a shift of strategy for many nationalist activists, who now increasingly contemplated independence rather than autonomy. At the same time, the processes of social and state collapse became acute. This was made manifest in the emergence of warlord-ism by men like General Kornilov and in ever more radical political options becoming viable. The Bolshevik Revolution is discussed in this context. The chapter ends with a treatment of the end of the Russian war effort against the Central Powers and the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.Less
This chapter begins with a description of the failed June Offensive of 1917, which brought the first period of the revolution to a close and ended any hope of a military solution to the problem of war and revolution. The failed offensive led to a shift of strategy for many nationalist activists, who now increasingly contemplated independence rather than autonomy. At the same time, the processes of social and state collapse became acute. This was made manifest in the emergence of warlord-ism by men like General Kornilov and in ever more radical political options becoming viable. The Bolshevik Revolution is discussed in this context. The chapter ends with a treatment of the end of the Russian war effort against the Central Powers and the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Józef Mackiewicz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300145694
- eISBN:
- 9780300145700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300145694.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the role of secret negotiations in Mikaszewicze on the outcome of the Polish-Bolshevik War. It suggests that Polish leader Josef Pilsudski's decision to negotiate with Soviet ...
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This chapter examines the role of secret negotiations in Mikaszewicze on the outcome of the Polish-Bolshevik War. It suggests that Polish leader Josef Pilsudski's decision to negotiate with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was based on his belief that the Bolshevik Revolution caused the weakening of Russia and that he considered the possible overthrow of Bolshevism by the counterrevolution as a potential strengthening of Russia. It also considers some of the secrets to the Riga Treaty.Less
This chapter examines the role of secret negotiations in Mikaszewicze on the outcome of the Polish-Bolshevik War. It suggests that Polish leader Josef Pilsudski's decision to negotiate with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was based on his belief that the Bolshevik Revolution caused the weakening of Russia and that he considered the possible overthrow of Bolshevism by the counterrevolution as a potential strengthening of Russia. It also considers some of the secrets to the Riga Treaty.
Nick Fischer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040023
- eISBN:
- 9780252098222
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040023.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines how the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia contributed to the rise of the Red Scare. On November 7, 1917, revolutionaries from the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic ...
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This chapter examines how the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia contributed to the rise of the Red Scare. On November 7, 1917, revolutionaries from the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party seized power in Petrograd and proclaimed the world's first socialist government. The Bolsheviks endorsed violent, class-based insurrection and policies of land and resource nationalization. News of the Bolshevik uprising intensified the wartime atmosphere in the United States, in which fear of treachery was rampant. This chapter first considers American intervention in Russia during the period 1917–1920 before discussing the emergence of the Red Scare in 1919–1920 and of anticommunism in the labor movement. It also looks at the strikes, bombings, and deportations in 1919 that offset whatever prestige the American Federation of Labor (AFL) accrued during the First World War. Finally, it describes the end of the Red Scare following US attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer's fall and the release of the National Popular Government League report.Less
This chapter examines how the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia contributed to the rise of the Red Scare. On November 7, 1917, revolutionaries from the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party seized power in Petrograd and proclaimed the world's first socialist government. The Bolsheviks endorsed violent, class-based insurrection and policies of land and resource nationalization. News of the Bolshevik uprising intensified the wartime atmosphere in the United States, in which fear of treachery was rampant. This chapter first considers American intervention in Russia during the period 1917–1920 before discussing the emergence of the Red Scare in 1919–1920 and of anticommunism in the labor movement. It also looks at the strikes, bombings, and deportations in 1919 that offset whatever prestige the American Federation of Labor (AFL) accrued during the First World War. Finally, it describes the end of the Red Scare following US attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer's fall and the release of the National Popular Government League report.
Laurence Senelick and Sergei Ostrovsky (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300194760
- eISBN:
- 9780300211351
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300194760.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book offers a panoramic history of Soviet theater from the Bolshevik Revolution to the eventual collapse of the USSR. Making use of more than eighty years' worth of archival documentation, the ...
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This book offers a panoramic history of Soviet theater from the Bolshevik Revolution to the eventual collapse of the USSR. Making use of more than eighty years' worth of archival documentation, the book examines a vital, living art form that remained innovative and exciting, growing, adapting, and flourishing despite harsh, often illogical pressures inflicted upon its creators by a totalitarian government.Less
This book offers a panoramic history of Soviet theater from the Bolshevik Revolution to the eventual collapse of the USSR. Making use of more than eighty years' worth of archival documentation, the book examines a vital, living art form that remained innovative and exciting, growing, adapting, and flourishing despite harsh, often illogical pressures inflicted upon its creators by a totalitarian government.
Jennifer Siegel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199387816
- eISBN:
- 9780199387847
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199387816.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter covers the period from the Bolshevik Revolution and repudiation of the tsarist debt through the Genoa Conference of 1922, the last serious chance for the bondholders to receive any ...
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This chapter covers the period from the Bolshevik Revolution and repudiation of the tsarist debt through the Genoa Conference of 1922, the last serious chance for the bondholders to receive any succor. Once the end of the war was in sight, the practical and theoretical implications of the Bolshevik refusal to recognize the pre-war and wartime debts accrued by their predecessors dominated Russia’s relationship with the West. The Russian refusal to pay, the French insistence that until the Russians agreed to pay they could not rejoin the community of nations in any capacity, the British vacillation between wanting Russia in the international economic system and wanting to appease their French partners in an alliance they were still trying to maintain produced an ongoing instability that kept Russia on the periphery, greatly hindered Europe’s post-war recovery, and contributed to the interwar environment of international economic and political insecurity.Less
This chapter covers the period from the Bolshevik Revolution and repudiation of the tsarist debt through the Genoa Conference of 1922, the last serious chance for the bondholders to receive any succor. Once the end of the war was in sight, the practical and theoretical implications of the Bolshevik refusal to recognize the pre-war and wartime debts accrued by their predecessors dominated Russia’s relationship with the West. The Russian refusal to pay, the French insistence that until the Russians agreed to pay they could not rejoin the community of nations in any capacity, the British vacillation between wanting Russia in the international economic system and wanting to appease their French partners in an alliance they were still trying to maintain produced an ongoing instability that kept Russia on the periphery, greatly hindered Europe’s post-war recovery, and contributed to the interwar environment of international economic and political insecurity.
Victoria Smolkin
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691174273
- eISBN:
- 9781400890101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174273.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This book discusses the history of Soviet atheism from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 until the return of religion to public life in the final years of the Soviet Union. When the Bolsheviks seized ...
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This book discusses the history of Soviet atheism from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 until the return of religion to public life in the final years of the Soviet Union. When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, they were armed with a vision: to make Communism a world without religion. More specifically, they sought to remove religion from the “sacred spaces” of Soviet life. They rejected all previous sources of authority, replacing the autocratic state with Soviet power, religious morality with class morality, and backward superstition with an enlightened, rational, and modern way of life. Despite all these earnest efforts, however, Soviet Communism never managed to overcome religion or produce an atheist society. This book examines why Soviet Communism abandoned its commitment to atheism, and whether there was a relationship between the divorce of Communism and atheism, and the divorce of the state from the Soviet Communist Party.Less
This book discusses the history of Soviet atheism from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 until the return of religion to public life in the final years of the Soviet Union. When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, they were armed with a vision: to make Communism a world without religion. More specifically, they sought to remove religion from the “sacred spaces” of Soviet life. They rejected all previous sources of authority, replacing the autocratic state with Soviet power, religious morality with class morality, and backward superstition with an enlightened, rational, and modern way of life. Despite all these earnest efforts, however, Soviet Communism never managed to overcome religion or produce an atheist society. This book examines why Soviet Communism abandoned its commitment to atheism, and whether there was a relationship between the divorce of Communism and atheism, and the divorce of the state from the Soviet Communist Party.
Alessandro Orsini
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449864
- eISBN:
- 9780801460913
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449864.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the thoughts and political practices of other revolutionaries, namely Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, and Pol Pot. Lenin is considered the greatest purifier of the world known to history. ...
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This chapter examines the thoughts and political practices of other revolutionaries, namely Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, and Pol Pot. Lenin is considered the greatest purifier of the world known to history. He achieved power and set about regenerating humanity. His political actions have enabled the effects of the gnostic recipe to be verified “in the field.” The Bolshevik Revolution also demonstrates what happens when professional revolutionaries gain power. Mao Tse-tung was one of the staunchest critics of bureaucracy, the new state bourgeoisie, corruption, and betrayal. Similar to Robespierre, Mao stood for radical catastrophism, the binary-code mentality, the obsession with purity, the identification of the Devil, and the doctrine of purification, according to which your enemies can only be exterminated. Pol Pot was a firm supporter of the Leninist organization of the Khmer Rouge. He was convinced that only a political party based on a rigid hierarchy and a fierce ideological determination would be able to transform the present world.Less
This chapter examines the thoughts and political practices of other revolutionaries, namely Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, and Pol Pot. Lenin is considered the greatest purifier of the world known to history. He achieved power and set about regenerating humanity. His political actions have enabled the effects of the gnostic recipe to be verified “in the field.” The Bolshevik Revolution also demonstrates what happens when professional revolutionaries gain power. Mao Tse-tung was one of the staunchest critics of bureaucracy, the new state bourgeoisie, corruption, and betrayal. Similar to Robespierre, Mao stood for radical catastrophism, the binary-code mentality, the obsession with purity, the identification of the Devil, and the doctrine of purification, according to which your enemies can only be exterminated. Pol Pot was a firm supporter of the Leninist organization of the Khmer Rouge. He was convinced that only a political party based on a rigid hierarchy and a fierce ideological determination would be able to transform the present world.
Tony Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625239
- eISBN:
- 9780748670918
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625239.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Published at a point when American filmmakers are deeply involved in the War on Terror, this book offers a comprehensive account of Hollywood's propaganda role during the defining ideological ...
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Published at a point when American filmmakers are deeply involved in the War on Terror, this book offers a comprehensive account of Hollywood's propaganda role during the defining ideological conflict of the twentieth century: the Cold War. In an analysis of films dating from America's first Red Scare in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the book examines the complex relationship between filmmakers, censors, politicians and government propagandists. Movies were at the centre of the Cold War's battle for hearts and minds. Hollywood's comedies, love stories, musicals, thrillers, documentaries and science fiction shockers — to list a few genres — played a critical dual role: on the one hand teaching millions of Americans why communism represented the greatest threat their country had ever faced, and on the other, selling America's liberal-capitalist ideals across the globe. Drawing on declassified government documents, studio archives and filmmakers' private papers, the book reveals the different ways in which cinematic propaganda was produced, disseminated and received by audiences during the Cold War. In the process, it blends subjects as diverse as women's fashions, McCarthyism, drug smuggling, Christianity and American cultural diplomacy in India.Less
Published at a point when American filmmakers are deeply involved in the War on Terror, this book offers a comprehensive account of Hollywood's propaganda role during the defining ideological conflict of the twentieth century: the Cold War. In an analysis of films dating from America's first Red Scare in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the book examines the complex relationship between filmmakers, censors, politicians and government propagandists. Movies were at the centre of the Cold War's battle for hearts and minds. Hollywood's comedies, love stories, musicals, thrillers, documentaries and science fiction shockers — to list a few genres — played a critical dual role: on the one hand teaching millions of Americans why communism represented the greatest threat their country had ever faced, and on the other, selling America's liberal-capitalist ideals across the globe. Drawing on declassified government documents, studio archives and filmmakers' private papers, the book reveals the different ways in which cinematic propaganda was produced, disseminated and received by audiences during the Cold War. In the process, it blends subjects as diverse as women's fashions, McCarthyism, drug smuggling, Christianity and American cultural diplomacy in India.
Balázs Trencsényi, Michal Kopeček, Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič, Maria Falina, Mónika Baár, and Maciej Janowski
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198737155
- eISBN:
- 9780191800627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198737155.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The success of the Bolshevik Revolution confirmed that economic backwardness was not necessarily an obstacle for socialism, as it triggered the radicalization of leftist movements in the region. Yet ...
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The success of the Bolshevik Revolution confirmed that economic backwardness was not necessarily an obstacle for socialism, as it triggered the radicalization of leftist movements in the region. Yet this also led to polarization of the left on questions of Soviet-Russian developments and possible cooperation with non-socialist parties, as well as agrarian and national questions. While in many countries social democracy entered the political mainstream in the 1920s, its position was undermined by the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. In turn, the Great Depression made the communist position more plausible, but the Stalinization of communist parties and the imposition of socialist realism alienated most intellectual supporters. Eventually, some radical leftists turned against the communist movement attacking its dogmatism and the Stalinist show trials. At the same time, the rise of Nazism forced leftist groups to seek a common ground, first in the form of “Popular Front” ideology, and, during the war, in the form of armed partisan movements.Less
The success of the Bolshevik Revolution confirmed that economic backwardness was not necessarily an obstacle for socialism, as it triggered the radicalization of leftist movements in the region. Yet this also led to polarization of the left on questions of Soviet-Russian developments and possible cooperation with non-socialist parties, as well as agrarian and national questions. While in many countries social democracy entered the political mainstream in the 1920s, its position was undermined by the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. In turn, the Great Depression made the communist position more plausible, but the Stalinization of communist parties and the imposition of socialist realism alienated most intellectual supporters. Eventually, some radical leftists turned against the communist movement attacking its dogmatism and the Stalinist show trials. At the same time, the rise of Nazism forced leftist groups to seek a common ground, first in the form of “Popular Front” ideology, and, during the war, in the form of armed partisan movements.
Gerald Horne
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041198
- eISBN:
- 9780252099762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252041198.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the U.S. occupation of Haiti and the Bolshevik Revolution. Claude Barnett was sufficiently insightful to realize that the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which had commenced in 1915 ...
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This chapter examines the U.S. occupation of Haiti and the Bolshevik Revolution. Claude Barnett was sufficiently insightful to realize that the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which had commenced in 1915 and was to last until 1934, was not in his or his class's interests. Moreover, as numerous African Americans moved leftward during this same period under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution and the emergent U.S. Communist Party, Barnett—though a staunch Republican—demonstrated his flexibility by seeking to accommodate them too. Unlike some in his class, Barnett did not instinctively bow to either colonialism or anticommunism. Indeed, the racial and class interests of Barnett directed him toward anticolonialism and thus, in turn, led this Republican toward aligning with a growing left-wing influence among African Americans propelled by the intensified impoverishment brought by the Great Depression.Less
This chapter examines the U.S. occupation of Haiti and the Bolshevik Revolution. Claude Barnett was sufficiently insightful to realize that the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which had commenced in 1915 and was to last until 1934, was not in his or his class's interests. Moreover, as numerous African Americans moved leftward during this same period under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution and the emergent U.S. Communist Party, Barnett—though a staunch Republican—demonstrated his flexibility by seeking to accommodate them too. Unlike some in his class, Barnett did not instinctively bow to either colonialism or anticommunism. Indeed, the racial and class interests of Barnett directed him toward anticolonialism and thus, in turn, led this Republican toward aligning with a growing left-wing influence among African Americans propelled by the intensified impoverishment brought by the Great Depression.
David Luhrssen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136769
- eISBN:
- 9780813141336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136769.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Mamoulian grew up in the multi-ethnic city of Tiflis (Tiblisi) in the Russian province of Georgia and was exposed to the culture of his Armenian heritage as well as Georgia, Russia and the wider ...
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Mamoulian grew up in the multi-ethnic city of Tiflis (Tiblisi) in the Russian province of Georgia and was exposed to the culture of his Armenian heritage as well as Georgia, Russia and the wider world. His mother, who defied conventional expectations by pursuing a theatrical career, became a proto-feminist model for many female characters in Mamoulian's films. During World War I Mamoulian became associated with Konstantin Stanislvasky's Moscow Art Theatre. Surviving the perils of the Bolshevik Revolution, he immigrated to London and began his career as a theatre director.Less
Mamoulian grew up in the multi-ethnic city of Tiflis (Tiblisi) in the Russian province of Georgia and was exposed to the culture of his Armenian heritage as well as Georgia, Russia and the wider world. His mother, who defied conventional expectations by pursuing a theatrical career, became a proto-feminist model for many female characters in Mamoulian's films. During World War I Mamoulian became associated with Konstantin Stanislvasky's Moscow Art Theatre. Surviving the perils of the Bolshevik Revolution, he immigrated to London and began his career as a theatre director.
