Jim Farmelant wrote:
>
>
> I don't think that the Bearded One had any such illusions concerning
> the proletariat. The proletariat would eventually overthrow capitalism,
> not because they were inherently noble but because of their peculiar
> position within the capitalist mode of production which on the one
> hand oppressed them through exploitation and alienation but which
> on the other hand placed them in a strategic position which gave
> them both the motive and the potential means for waging effective
> class struggle. I think that the Bearded One took it for granted that
> exploitation and poverty would necessarily have a corrosive effect
> on human character.
>
This seems to me elementary. I would guess that in (say) 1916 the miners of Cherm were not too different from what the Czarist emigres on a trans-siberian train expected them to be in 1918 to be. For how they actually were in 1918, see Albert Rhys Williams, _Through the Russian Revolution_ (Monthly Review Press, 1967), pp. 207 ff.
Grad school can be of some use at times. I was taught at Michigan that when I criticized a position, I should paraphrase it in its strongest form, not make up opponents to knock over. I guess they don't teach this at the University of Virginia.
Carrol