> It would be more accurate to say that the Bolshevik revolution, though
> impossible without the peasantry lacked the peasantry's long-term
> support, and therefore produced counterrevolution, the hallmark of
> which became Stalinism. Counterrevolution in Russia meant a backslide
> into a wholesale state-monopoly capitalist system (though this
> arguably started under Lenin, around when Fannie shot him), as well as
> further backslide into political dictatorship. It was
> counterrevolution which led to the wholesale slaughter and downright
> genocide of peasants under Stalin; I don't think we'd argue that
> peasant genocide was consistent with the worldview of the peasant
> majority in Russia.
Whatever. At any rate, history seems to tell us that revolutions are distressingly often followed by counter-revolutions. Progress is not usually so simple as "hey, we've made the Revolution -- we're on our way"!
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)