Joanna
Chris Doss wrote:
>Medvedev seems to write like a book a month. I just
>picked up his latest, "Sotsializm v Rossii?"
>(Socialism in Russia), which is about, well, socialism
>in Russia. He's a joy to translate, so I decided to
>translate some parts of it into English -- if I don't,
>know one else will! Would anybody like me to send them
>the translations? I'm going to translate his overview
>of theories on the character of the USSR this weekend.
>Here's his short forward:
>
>
>In the book that lies before the reader, I would like
>to discuss with like-minded people and opponents some
>of the problems related to the hard fate of the
>socialist idea and socialist practice in Russia. This
>is not my first book on the problems of socialism. At
>the beginning of the 1970s my book
Sotsializm i
>demokratiya,
which was written at the end of the
>1960s and contained an analysis of the problems of
>Soviet society from the point of view of an
>independent democrat and socialist, was published in
>many countries. That book was published in Russian in
>1972 by the Hertsen Foundation in Amsterdam under the
>title
Kniga o sotsialisticheskoi demokratii.
In 1981
>my book
Leninism and Western Socialism,
in which I
>continued the analysis of a number of problems of
>Soviet socialism, was published in London in English.
>In my present book, I continue this attempt, but this
>time taking into account the dramatic events connected
>with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of
>the CPSU. I prepared the first version of this book
>back in 1996 for a narrow circle of activists in the
>Socialist Party of Laborers (SPL), of which I was one
>of seven delegates. All in all, 150 copies were
>distributed among friends. I prepared the second
>version of the book for Chinese comrades after having
>participated in a large International Conference on
>the problems of socialism that was held by the
>University of Beijing in January 2002. The book was
>published in China in 2003 in Chinese under the title
>
The Historical Fate of Socialism in Russia.
I have
>now prepared a third version of the book, which is, to
>a large extent, a survey of the events that have
>occurred in the USSR and Russia, and also, in general,
>our Moscow discussions on the problems of socialism.
>We do not possess sufficient knowledge of the enormous
>and multifaceted experience accumulated during the
>20th century by socialists, social democrats, and
>communists in tens of countries, which in many areas
>turned out more successful than our Soviet and Russian
>experience, for a deeper investigation of the problems
>of socialism. Socialism, in various forms, is
>appearing today from all sides, and it is impossible
>to effectively overcome the dangers, difficulties, and
>threats arising before all mankind with developed
>technology, science, and economies and with the
>arising of new contradictions between different
>regions and civilizations without using the ideas and
>methods developed and proposed by socialists of
>different countries and different inclinations.
>Socialism and the socialist idea are relevant today
>not only for Russia, which is seeking its path and its
>new place in the world, but also for the post-Soviet
>space. The Communist leaders of earlier decades
>pretended to lecture to everyone about the
correct,
>
genuine,
and only reliable
doctrine about
>socialism. Their defeat does not, however, mean that
>we should veer away from the great and noble ideas of
>justice, solidarity, freedom, and societal well-being
>that lie at the basis of the socialist idea. It was
>such concerns with which I was occupied while I was
>working on my book.
>
>March 6, 2005
>Moscow
>
>
>Nu, zayats, pogodi!
>
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