On Fri, 6 Jun 2003 14:51:30 +0400, ChrisD(RJ) <chrisd at russiajournal.com> wrote:
>
>
> Sure, helps when you have atomized the working class and peasantry, ---
> How "atomized" were they, really? Stalin was not a hated dictator. He was
> a
> dictator who was adored. He was positively worshipped.
Cleaning the other day, found a book I thought I'd lost by Moshe Lewin. Read him? Or Gabor Rittersporn? Maybe, I could fax you a copy of this Rittorsporn piece from Telos and this Antonio Carlo and these others, once I get over you calling me all those things. Apology accepted, you excitable boy, btw, even if Lavelle has never heard the Warren Zevon song.
Atomization was an allusion to the "Soviets" as instruments of working class power and control being smashed by the early 20's long before Stalinism.
Gabor Rittersporn: Stalin in 1938: Political Defeat Behind the Rhetorical Apotheosis, Telos, #46.
Andreas Wildt: Totalitarian State Capitalism: On the Structure and Historical Function of Soviet-Type Societies, Telos #41.
Gabor T Rittersporn: The State Against Itself: Social Tensions and Political Conflict in the USSR, 1936-1938, Telos #41. http://www.angelfire.com/biz/telospress/contents41.html Review-Symposium on Soviet-Type Societies:
Participants: Tim Luke, G.L. Ulmen, Ivan Szelenyi, Zygmunt Bauman, Gabor T. Rittersporn and Graeme Gill http://www.angelfire.com/biz/telospress/contents60.html
(Both Bronner and Kellner are noted leftist academics here, btw. Since you are in Russia, you've likely never heard of them.)
The Lost Debate German Socialist Intellectuals and Totalitarianism William David Jones
Totalitarianism stands as one of the defining political ideas of this century, but precisely what the word totalitarianism means has long been at issue.
Challenging the dominant cold war-era notions deriving from a comparison of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, The Lost Debate brings to light important critiques of modern tyranny written by German socialist intellectuals before and during World War II about the definition, origins, nature, and means of overcoming totalitarianism.
William David Jones provides new evidence of this important intellectual legacy and shows how these writings articulate a critical "third path," simultaneously challenging the legacy of Nazism, the persistence of the Soviet dictatorship, and the ideological, economic, and political dominance of the Western capitalist powers.
In an era that has retooled totalitarianism and rendered cold war politics obsolete, the writings of these neglected intellectuals remain vital implements in the study of history, politics, society, ideology, and culture.
"In this post-communist era, when anything tinged with red seems suspect, William David Jones helps rescue the honor of a political tradition. This is intellectual history at its best, and the result is a new understanding of an entire body of neglected--and still relevant--scholarship." -- Stephen Bronner, author of Moments of Decision: Political History and the Crisis of Radicalism
"A first-rate piece of work." -- Douglas Kellner, author of Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity
William David Jones is on the history faculty of Mt. San Antonio College and the Claremont Graduate University.
-- Michael Pugliese