Here’s my first discussion post for the term: Was there a danger that the Bolshevik Revolution would spread from Russia in the period 1917-1920? Stipulating up front that hindsight always provides 20/20 vision, I have to conclude that there was virtually no danger that the Bolshevik Revolution would spread beyond Russia in the aftermath of …
Tag Archives: communism
Why Did the USSR Collapse?
5.1 Is the collapse of the USSR more attributable to personality, institutional or structural features?I think the collapse of the USSR was attributable to all three of the features: personality, institutional, and structural. Presuming that Mikhail Gorbachev is the person referred to in the first regard, I think it’s fair to say that his personality …
Revisionism in Stalinist Historiography
What are the (relative) advantages of the revisionist interpretations of Stalinism? I think one of the most important advantages of the a revisionist interpretation of Stalinism is that it becomes easier through one to understand how and why Stalin undertook the mass repressions that he did. For instance, although the “traditional” historians and revisionists both …
Assessing Gorbachev
In my opinion, Mikhail Gorbachev deserves enormous credit for both the peaceful ending of the dictatorship and cold war and the decline and collapse of the Soviet state because I cannot imagine one happening without the other. Moreover, the see the decline and collapse of the USSR as having been an overwhelmingly positive thing, even …
Stalinism Without Stalin
In the “Secret Speech” from the Twentieth Party Congress, Khrushchev seems to want to both expose Stalinism for its worst excesses and maintain Stalinism, at least ideologically. In some ways, this complex stance exemplifies Khrushchev’s own strengths and weaknesses. On the former point, the selection from the speech is replete with direct attacks on Stalin, …
Inevitable Historicity 