--- Tahir Wood <twood at uwc.ac.za> wrote:
>
> Tahir: Undoubtedly true. I find myself amazed at the
> vulgarity of some
> of Lenin's notions. Like: socialism = soviets plus
> electrification or:
> socialism = the banks taken over by the people's
> state, etc.
Yes, it's unbelievable how unsophisticated the Bolsheviks could be. I cannot believe how people in the West have managed to recast Lenin and Trotsky as brilliant intellectuals.
> Tahir: I'm not sure that this part is true at all.
> Peasant populism?
> Where do you find this in Lenin, for example?
>
I think Woj is talking about the post-Lenin period mainly, and about popular support for the Bolsheviks previously (to the extent that they had popular support). If you look at the propaganda and the records left by ordinary people at the time, it's clear IMO that they thought of themselves as part of a chilliastic, messianic movement. Not much different from the Pugachev uprising. I have a good book at home, Sovetskie Lyudi (Soviet People), that prints parts of diaries written by people in the Soviet era as part of a larger sociological analysis, and it's quite clear, to me at least. I've been thinking of translating parts of it.
Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit!
ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ËÞÁÎ, ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ÆÈÒÜ!
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