Hi Peter,
Certainly Lenin was an authoritarian socialist (I'm a Menshevik). But I don't know if it's accurate to say that Stalin simply "realized" an authoritarian regime as if it was a matter of instantiating a Platonic idea -- or rather not in the particular Stalinist form. I think the form of the authoritarian society might (perhaps) have taken different forms, if the NEP had been allowed to continue for instance... I had a conversation with Kondorsky today, who thinks highly of the Bolshies, and that is currently in my mind. Though God knows certainly all Stalin's Bolshie entourage went along with hem with nary s second thought.
--- Peter Lavelle <untimely_thoughts at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well Chris, in this case I have to disagree. Stalin
> didn't create an authoritarian regime - he merely
> realized it. Stalin's political regime and what is
> called Stalinism was created by the party he
> belonged
> to and the ideology that party believed in and
> enacted. Stalin really created little or invented
> much, he was a functionary that represented the
> ultimate praxis the ideology he and the party
> thought
> to be faith revealed. "Distortions" of
> Marxist-Leninism is a smoke screen for an idea that
> was the the antithesis of modernity.
>
> Interesting enough, the ultimate Kremlin insider
> Vladislav Surkov appears to agree...... (ref recent
> Spiegel interview).
>
> --- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > With a caveat about making parallels across
> cultural
> > lines, the situation will be comparable when a US
> > politician dies and there is a stampede at the
> > funeral
> > to see the Dead God, killing hundreds.
> >
> > As for Luke's point -- causally speaking, it's not
> > so
> > much that authoritarianism socialisms gave birth
> to
> > Stalins as that Stalins gave birth to
> authoritarian
> > socialisms.
> >
> > --- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > ^^^^
> > >
> > > CB: It wouldn't be weird times or strange guys
> if
> > > they were Americans.
> > > "Every" successful politician in U.S. history
> has
> > > built a personality cult.
> > > It's the American way. Personality cult =
> > > Celebrity.
> > >
> > > Here's a picture of George Bush kissing bavies
> and
> > > reading stories to
> > > children while Washington burns.
> > >
> > > ___________________________________
> > >
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> >
> >
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> >
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