THE PRACTICE AND THEORY OF BOLSHEVISM

by Bertrand Russell ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 1964

Russell's 1920 primer on Bolshevism, (re-issued in toto except for the exclusion of a chapter, not written by him anyway), has long been one of those eminal studies every Marxist and Russian Revolution expert either dips into or learns about from other experts who have. A curiously luminous heirloom, (just think of the involuted commentaries spawned in the '40's and '50's), its interest remains, however, largely historical, a case of betting on the right horse. For when so many Western apologists, often disingenuously, heralded the New Jerusalem, Russell after a month's stay said- with more sorrow than anger-Nyet. He found the Soviet worker had ""no sense whatever of having been liberated from a tyranny,"" that love of power is quite as strong a motive, and quite as great a source of injustice, love of money,"" and that- forward looking- Kremlinmania would evolve from ""mere self-preservation, into a policy of imperialism."" of course Russell was then and is still a socialist; therefore postures to the effect that ""the existing capitalist system is doomed"" are as prevalent as the flaw-spotting vis-a-vis economic determinism, class warfare, the Soviet Constitution and so forth. Essentially Russell eared the movement's messianism, its doled-out dogmas, its belief in human transformation through force- in short, the means, not the ends, though even there-in the best chapters- he disowns much of Marx's philosophy, really it's Hegelianism, always Russell bete noire. Short, suggestive notes on Lenin, Trotsky, Gorki.

Pub Date: July 8, 1964

ISBN: 1165623838

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION