Lenin, Bolshevism, and Social-Democratic Political Theory
The 1905 and 1917 Soviets
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by John Marot in
Current site
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Lars Lih has contributed to our knowledge of Russian Social Democracy lately. However, serious methodological flaws bedevil this advance in knowledge. Lih’s overall approach displays a very static understanding of political ideas in relation to political movements. In the first section, ‘Lenin, the St Petersburg Bolshevik Leadership, and the 1905 Soviet’, I challenge Lih’s position that Lenin never changed his mind about bringing socialist consciousness into the working class ‘from without’. In the second section, ‘Lenin, “Old Bolshevism” and Permanent Revolution: The Soviets in 1917’, I challenge Lih’s revisionist view that Old Bolshevism’s pre-1917 goal of ‘democratic revolution to the end’ drove Lenin’s partisans to make a working-class, socialist revolution in 1917. On this singular account, Lenin’s April Theses, which called for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the transfer of all power to the soviets, was merely a further expression of Old Bolshevik politics, not a break with it, as has almost universally been held.
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Bogdanov Alexander ‘Pismo k vsem partiiny rabotnikam’ Listovski bolshevitskikh organizatsii v pervoi russkoi revoliutsii 1905–1907gg 1956 [1905] Volume 1 Moscow Gosizpolit
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Brenner Robert ‘The Paradox of Social Democracy: The American Case’ The Year Left: An American Socialist Yearbook 1985 London Verso
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Cliff Tony Lenin. 1: Building the Party (1893–1914) 1975 London Pluto Press
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Draper Hal ‘The Myth of Lenin’s “Concept of the Party”, or, What they Did to What Is to Be Done?’ 1990 available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1990/myth/myth.htm>
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Harding Neal Lenin’s Political Thought: Theory and Practice in the Democratic and Socialist Revolutions 1977 Volume 1 London Macmillan Press
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘What Is to Be Done?’ Collected Works 1962a Volume 5 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution’ Collected Works 1962b Volume 9 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Our Tasks and the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies’ Collected Works 1962c Volume 10 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Victory of the Cadets and Tasks of the Workers’ Party’ Collected Works 1962d Volume 10 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich The Reorganization of the Party Collected Works 1962e Volume 10 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Report on the Unity Congress’ Collected Works 1962f Volume 10 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Twelve Years’ Collected Works 1962g Volume 13 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Socialism and War Collected Works 1962h Volume 21 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘The April All Russia Conference’ Collected Works 1964a Volume 23 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Letters from Afar’ Collected Works 1964b Volume 23 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution’ Collected Works 1964c Volume 24 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘The Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the r.s.d.l.p. (b).’ Collected Works 1964d Volume 24 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Letters on Tactics’ Collected Works 1964e Volume 24 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘A Contribution to the History of the Question of the Dictatorship: A Note’ Collected Works 1966 Volume 31 Fourth Edition Moscow Gospolizdat
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Liebman Marcel The Russian Revolution 1970 New York Random House
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Lih Lars T. Lenin Rediscovered: ‘What Is to Be Done?’ in Context Historical Materialism 2006 Leiden Brill Book Series
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Lih Lars T. ‘Lenin Disputed’ Historical Materialism 2010 18 3 108 174
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Lih Lars T. Lenin 2011a London Reaktion Books
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Lih Lars T. ‘The Ironic Triumph of Old Bolshevism: The Debates of April 1917 in Context’ Russian History 2011b 38 199 242
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Lih Lars T. ‘Bolshevism and Revolutionary Social Democracy’ Weekly Worker 2012 6 June, available at: <http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/917/bolshevism-and-revolutionary-social-democracy/>
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Lih Lars T. , Cohen Stephen F. , English Robert , Kraus Michael & Sharlet Robert ‘Robert C. Tucker, 1918–2010’ Slavic Review 2011 70 1 242 245
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Luxemburg Rosa Lavin Patrick The Mass Strike: The Political Party and the Trade Unions 1971 [1906] New York Harper Torchbooks
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Marot John Eric The October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect: Interventions in Soviet and Russian History, Historical Materialism 2013a Chicago Haymarket Press Book Series
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Marot John Eric ‘A Maverick in European Social Democracy: Trotsky’s Political Trajectory, 1907–1917’ Science and Society 2013b 77 3 412 415
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Marx Karl Fernbach David The First International and After. Political Writings 1974 [1871] Volume 3 New York Vintage Books
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Mészáros István Marx’s Theory of Alienation 1970 New York Merlin Press
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Rabinowitch Alexander Prelude to Revolution: The Petrograd Bolsheviks and the July 1917 Uprising 1967 Bloomington Indiana University Press
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Riddell John ‘Lars Lih Online: Recent Studies on Bolshevism, Lenin, and Kautsky’ John Riddell: Marxist Essays and Commentary 2013 16 April, available at: <http://johnriddell.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/lars-lih-online-nine-recent-studies-on-bolshevism-lenin-and-kautsky/>
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Rosenberg William G. Liberals in the Russian Revolution: The Constitutional Democratic Party, 1917–1921 1974 Princeton Princeton University Press
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Schwarz Solomon M. The Russian Revolution of 1905: The Workers’ Movement and the Formation of Bolshevism and Menshevism 1967 Chicago University of Chicago Press
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Sed’maia (aprel’skaia) vserossiiskaia konferentsiia rsdrp (bol’shevikov); Petrogradskaia obshche gorodskaia konferentsiia rsdrp (bol’shevikov): Protokoly 1958 Moscow Gosizdat
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Souvarine Boris ‘Deux nouvelles biographies de Staline’ Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue Canadienne des Slavistes 1975 17 1 143 149
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Sukhanov Nikolai Nikolaevich The Russian Revolution 1917: A Personal Record 1955 [1922] London Oxford University Press
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Trotsky Leon ‘Hands off Rosa Luxemburg: Reply to the Slandering of a Revolutionist’ 1932 available at: <http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/06/luxemburg.htm>
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Trotsky Leon Eastman Max History of the Russian Revolution 1980 [1932] Volume 1 New York Monad Press
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1
Lih 2010, p. 172.
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3
Harding 1977.
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4
Lih 2006, pp. 526, 529.
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5
Luxemburg 1971, p. 11.
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6
Lenin 1962h, p. 312.
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7
Lih 2012.
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9
See e.g. Cliff 1975 and Liebman 1970.
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10
Schwarz 1967, Chapter 4.
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11
Bogdanov 1956, pp. 188–94. Schwarz mistakenly refers to this document as ‘Letter to All Party Organizations’ (Schwarz 1967, p. 183).
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12
Bogdanov 1956, pp. 191–2.
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14
Lenin 1962c, pp. 10–28.
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15
Lenin 1962c, p. 19.
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16
Lenin 1962c, p. 19.
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17
Lenin 1962c, p. 21.
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18
Lenin 1962c, p. 20.
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19
Lenin 1962c, p. 23.
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20
Lenin 1962c, pp. 24–5.
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21
Lenin 1962c, pp. 26–7.
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22
Lih 2010, p. 146, n. 88.
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23
Lenin 1962a, p. 375.
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24
Lenin 1962a, pp. 384–5.
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25
Lenin 1962a, p. 386.
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26
Lenin 1962a, p. 383.
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27
Lenin 1962e, p. 32.
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28
Lenin 1962a, p. 375.
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29
Lenin 1962g, pp. 94–113.
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30
Lenin 1962f, p. 379.
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33
Lenin 1962a, p. 440.
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34
Schwarz 1967, p. 227.
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35
Bogdanov 1956, p. 193.
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36
Bogdanov 1956, pp. 193–4.
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39
Marx 1974, p. 212.
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40
Luxemburg 1971, p. 17.
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41
Rosenberg 1974, Chapter 2. Rosenberg’s contribution remains the standard work of reference on the Kadets between 1917 and 1921. Nothing has measured up to it since its publication 40 years ago.
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42
Though Trotsky returned to Russia in May 1917, he looked this gift-horse (the April Theses) in the mouth for nearly three months before formally joining the Bolsheviks as a member of their Central Committee – despite the near identity of their politics in 1917. Trotsky’s affinity to Bolshevism became evident as early as the 1905 Revolution but it never led to political cooperation with Lenin’s partisans in the pre-1917 period. See Marot 2013b.
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43
I discuss these modifications in Marot 2013a, pp. 35–8.
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44
Trotsky 1980, p. 326.
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45
Marot 2013a, pp. 156–7.
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46
For example, Sukhanov 1955.
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47
For example, Trotsky 1980.
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48
For example, Rabinowitch 1967.
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49
Lih 2011b, p. 199.
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50
Lih 2011b, p. 217.
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51
Lih 2011b, p. 209.
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52
Lenin 1962b, pp. 76, 52. ‘There are bourgeois-democratic regimes like the one in Germany, and also like the one in England; like the one in Austria and also like those in America and Switzerland. He would be a fine Marxist indeed, who in a period of democratic revolution failed to see this difference between the degrees of democratism and the difference between its forms . . .’ (p. 52).
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53
Lih 2011b, p. 210.
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55
Lih 2011b, p. 203.
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56
Lih 2011b, p. 217.
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57
Lenin 1962b, p. 76. Lenin’s article, ‘Two Tactics of Russian Social Democracy’, explains at great length the rationale for all the resolutions of the London all-Bolshevik Congress. Along the way, he criticises the Mensheviks, presenting the Menshevik position fairly by citing copiously from authoritative Menshevik publicists and press. What a pity so few historians have adopted Lenin’s polemical methods in their own polemics. As a rule, Lenin’s presents his opponents’ position fully, hiding nothing. Lenin’s opponents often did not adhere to the same standard when attacking Lenin’s position.
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59
Lih 2011b, p. 216.
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60
Lih 2011b, p. 217.
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61
Lih 2011b, p. 217.
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62
Lenin 1964e, p. 53.
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63
Lenin 1964b, p. 325.
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64
Lih 2011b, p. 222.
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65
Lih 2011b, p. 222.
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66
Lenin 1964a, p. 241.
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67
Lih 2011b, p. 199.
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69
Lih 2011b, p. 217.
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70
Lenin 1964c, p. 22.
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71
Lih 2011b, p. 218.
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72
Lih 2011b, p. 215.
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73
Lih 2011b, p. 234.
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74
Lih 2011b, p. 216.
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75
Lih 2011b, p. 210.
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76
Lih 2011b, p. 230.
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77
Lih 2011b, p. 216.
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78
Lih 2011b, p. 199.
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80
Lenin 1964d, p. 244.
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81
Lenin 1962b, p. 264.
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82
Lenin 1964d, p. 313.
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83
Lih 2011b.
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84
Lenin 1964c, p. 23.
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85
Lenin 1964c, p. 22. Lenin repeatedly used these expressions.
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86
Trotsky 1980, p. 331.
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87
Lih 2011a, pp. 15, 13. Tucker (1918–2010) was attaché to the American embassy in Moscow from 1944 to 1953, advancing the imperial objectives of American foreign policy. He furthered them as advisor to Adlai Stevenson in 1956 when Stevenson ran for President on the Democratic ticket. Tucker entered academia in 1958 as a liberal Cold War warrior. His first work was an intellectually impoverished account of Marx’s theory of alienation, which István Mészáros demolished in a scathing critique (Mészáros 1970). Tucker went on to become one of the leading lights of American ‘Sovietology’, widely praised in the field for his two-volume psychobiography of Stalin, a work bereft of scientific value. Boris Souvarine wrote a sharp review of Volume 1 (Souvarine 1975). See Lih, Cohen, English, Kraus and Sharlet 2011 for a fulsome tribute.
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Lenin, Bolshevism, and Social-Democratic Political Theory
The 1905 and 1917 Soviets
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by John Marot in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Lars Lih has contributed to our knowledge of Russian Social Democracy lately. However, serious methodological flaws bedevil this advance in knowledge. Lih’s overall approach displays a very static understanding of political ideas in relation to political movements. In the first section, ‘Lenin, the St Petersburg Bolshevik Leadership, and the 1905 Soviet’, I challenge Lih’s position that Lenin never changed his mind about bringing socialist consciousness into the working class ‘from without’. In the second section, ‘Lenin, “Old Bolshevism” and Permanent Revolution: The Soviets in 1917’, I challenge Lih’s revisionist view that Old Bolshevism’s pre-1917 goal of ‘democratic revolution to the end’ drove Lenin’s partisans to make a working-class, socialist revolution in 1917. On this singular account, Lenin’s April Theses, which called for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the transfer of all power to the soviets, was merely a further expression of Old Bolshevik politics, not a break with it, as has almost universally been held.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 855 | 204 | 24 |
| Full Text Views | 441 | 24 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 435 | 53 | 6 |
