> Dear Max,
>
> You said something dismissive about wimpy anti
> Stalinist Leftists.
Whoa! I wish you had sent this to me first. I was making whimsical reference to my youthful ultra-leftism, vis-a-vis the relatively stodgy eclecticism of the revolutionaries on this list. I am a firm (well, not always and everywhere) anti-Stalinist.
At the same time, I fully take your point that given the evolution of the communist movement, many important thinkers were within the fold of the world's communist parties during Stalin's ascendancy and it would be stupid to dismiss their work out of hand on that account with the 'Stalinist' epithet. I've even read some of the stuff you mention (Lukacs, for instance, tho a long time ago).
Stalin himself was another matter -- an utter clod, ignoramus, and butcher, but you knew that.
Thanks for the citations.
mbs