Deutscher, Lenin and the East-European Perspectives
On the History of the Theory of Socialism
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Tamás Krausz in
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The article introduces the reception of Isaac Deutscher’s work in Eastern Europe in a historical context and shows how deeply this reception was connected to the various transformations of the system, which had been established after the victory of the Russian October Revolution. The author gives a Marxist analysis of the historical development of state socialism and the various changes in Eastern-European Marxist thought which accompanied this history. He belongs to that school of thought which defines this system as state socialism, and he gives a theoretical analysis of its main characteristics, adding that 1989 failed to fulfil the expectations and hopes of many Western and Eastern-European Marxists.
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Ali Tariq ‘The Life and Death of Trotsky’ The Guardian 2009 October 31 available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/31/trotsky-stalin-service-patenaude>
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Bánfalvi Csaba ‘Isaac Deutscher potréjához [Towards a Portrait of Isaac Deutscher]’ Filozófiai Figyelő 1985 4 55 64
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Bartha Eszter Alienating Labour: Workers on the Road from Socialism to Capitalism in East Germany and Hungary 2013 Oxford Berghahn Books
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Béládi László & Krausz Tamás Sztálin. Történelmi vázlat [Stalin: A Historical Outline] 1988 Budapest Láng
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Béládi László & Krausz Tamás Stalin 1989 Moscow Politizdat
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Bence György & Kis János Mark Rakovski ‘A szovjet típusú társadalom marxista szemmel’ Magyar füzetek könyvei 1983 Volume 5 Paris Magyar füzetek kiadása
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Cliff Tony ‘The End of the Road: Deutscher’s Capitulation to Stalinism’ International Socialism 1963 I 15 available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1963/xx/deutscher.htm>
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Dale Gareth Reconstructing Karl Polanyi: Excavation and Critique 2016 London Pluto Press
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Davidson Neil ‘Isaac Deutscher: The Prophet His Biographer and the Watchtower’ International Socialism 2004 104 available at: <http://isj.org.uk/isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-his-biographer-and-the-watchtower/>
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Davidson Rjurik ‘On Rereading Isaac Deutscher’ Overland 2012 November 27 available at: <https://overland.org.au/2012/11/on-rereading-isaac-deutscher/>
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Deutscher Isaac ‘Lenin’s Last Dilemma’ The American Socialist 1959 April 5 7 available at: <https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/deutscher02.htm>
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Deutscher Isaac Stalin: A Political Biography 1967 London Oxford University Press
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Deutscher Isaac ‘Germany and Marxism’ New Left Review 1968a I 47 61 69
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Deutscher Isaac Deutscher Tamara ‘The Russian Revolution and the Jewish Problem’ The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays 1968b London Oxford University Press
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Deutscher Isaac A befejezetlen forradalom [The Unfinished Revolution] 1968c Budapest Kossuth Kiadó
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Deutscher Isaac Lenin’s Childhood 1970a London Oxford University Press
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Deutscher Isaac Russia, China, and the West: A Contemporary Chronicle, 1953–1966 1970b London Oxford University Press
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Deutscher Isaac Deutscher Tamara ‘Marxism in Our Time’ Marxism in Our Time 1971 [1965] Berkeley The Ramparts Press
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Deutscher Isaac ‘Korabeli krónika Sztálin halálától Malenkov bukásáig 1953–1966’ Adalékok Kelet-Európa történetéhez [More on the History of Eastern Europe] 1983 Volume II Budapest Független Kiadó
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Deutscher Isaac ‘Az orosz forradalom és a zsidókérdés [The Russian Revolution and the Jewish Problem]’ Zsidókérdés Kelet- és Közép-Európában. Fejlődés-Tanulmányok [The Jewish Question in East-Central Europe: Studies on Developments] 1985 Budapest ELTE, ÁJTK Department of Social Sciences
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Deutscher Isaac Sztálin. Politikai életrajz 1990 Budapest Európa Könyvkiadó
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Deutscher Isaac The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921–1929 2003 London Verso
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Ebel John ‘Forging History: Isaac Deutscher and E.H. Carr’ n.d. available at: <https://www.academia.edu/4091635/Forging_History_Isaac_Deutscher_and_E.H._Carr>
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Fehér Ferenc , Heller Ágnes & Márkus György Dictatorship over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies 1984 Oxford Basil Blackwell
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Fitzpatrick Sheila ‘The Old Man’ London Review of Books 2010 April 22 27 29 available at: <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n08/sheila-fitzpatrick/the-old-man>
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Habermas Jurgen Morgan Ben ‘What Does Socialism Mean Today? The Rectifying Revolution and the Need for New Thinking on the Left’ New Left Review 1990 I 183 3 21
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Heller Ágnes , Fehér Ferenc & Márkus György Diktatúra a szükségletek felett 1981 Budapest Cserépfalvi Kiadó
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Jacobson Julius Jacobson Julius ‘Isaac Deutscher: The Anatomy of an Apologist’ Soviet Communism and the Socialist Vision 1972 [1956] New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction Books available at: <https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/jacobson/1965/10/deutscher.htm>
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Krausz Tamás Pártviták és történettudomány [Party Debates and the Historical Sciences] 1991 Budapest Akadémiai Kiadó
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Krausz Tamás Megélt rendszerváltás [Regime Change: The Experience] 1994 Budapest Cégér
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Krausz Tamás ‘Ahistorical Political Economics’ Social Scientist 1996 24 1–3 111 127
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Krausz Tamás ‘Az 1956-os munkástanácsokról’ Eszmélet 2006 January 1 available at: <http://eszmelet.hu/krausz_tamas-az-1956-os-munkastanacsokrol/>
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Krausz Tamás Krausz ‘Előszó [Introduction]’ 2010 2010
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Krausz Tamás Vitás kérdések a Szovjetunió és Kelet-Európa xx. századi történetében Ruszisztikai Könyvek xxxiii 2011 Budapest Russica Pannonica
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Krausz Tamás ‘On the Workers’ Councils of 1956’ Hindu istenek, sziámi tigrisek Balogh András 70 éves [Hindu Gods, Siamese Tigers: For the Seventieth Birthday of András Balogh] 2014 Budapest ELTE, Új- és Jelenkori Egyetemes Történeti Tanszék
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Krausz Tamás Bethlenfalvy Balint & Fenyo Mario Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography 2015 New York Monthly Review Press
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Krausz Tamás Lukács György és a szocialista alternatíva: tanulmányok és dokumentumok 2010 Budapest Eszmélet Alapítvány
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Krausz Tamás & Szigeti Péter Államszocializmus. Értelmezések—viták—tanulságok [State Socialism: Interpretations—Debates—Lessons] 2007 Budapest L’Harmattan
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Krausz Tamás & Tütő László Válaszúton: Politikai Átmeneti korszak? Szocializmus? Kapitalizmus? 1988 Budapest ELTE, ÁJTK Department of Social Sciences
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘On Cooperation’ Collected Works 1965 [1923] Volume 33 Second English Edition Moscow Progress Publishers available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/jan/06.htm>
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich ‘Draft Theses on the Role and Functions of the Trade Unions under the New Economic Policy’ Collected Works 1971 [1922] Volume 42 Moscow Progress Publishers available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/dec/30b.htm>
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Lomax Bill Magyarország 1956 1986 Budapest Aura Kiadó
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Lukács György A társadalmi lét ontológiájáról [On the Ontology of Social Being] 1976a Volume I: Történeti fejezetek [Historical Chapters] Budapest Magvető Kiadó
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Lukács György A társadalmi lét ontológiájáról [On the Ontology of Social Being] 1976b Volume III, Prolegomena Budapest Magvető Kiadó
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Lukács Georg Fernbach David The Ontology of Social Being 1978b Volume 2: Marx’s Basic Ontological Principles London The Merlin Press
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Lukács Georg Fernbach David The Ontology of Social Being 1980 Volume 3: Labour London The Merlin Press
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Mandel Ernest Fagan Gus Beyond Perestroika: The Future of Gorbachev’s USSR 1991 Revised Edition London Verso
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Mészáros István Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition 1995 London The Merlin Press
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Mészáros István ‘Lényegi egyenlőség és lényegi demokrácia [Substantive Equality and Essential Democracy]’ Eszmélet 2015 107 5 11
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Rogovin Vadim Byla li alternativa?: Trotskizm, vzgliad cherez gody 1996 Moscow Terra
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Sartre Jean-Paul ‘Socialism in One Country’ New Left Review 1976 I 100 143 163
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Service Robert Trotsky: A Biography 2011 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
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Tőkei Ferenc Az ázsiai termelési mód kérdéséhez [On the Issue of the Asiatic Mode of Production] 1965 Budapest Kossuth Könyvkiadó
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Tőkei Ferenc A társadalmi formák elméletéhez [On the Theory of Social Formation] 1968 Budapest Kossuth Könyvkiadó
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Tütő László & Krausz Tamás ‘Lenin a szocializmusba való politikai átmenet időszakáról [Lenin on the period of political transition to socialism]’ Társadalmi Szemle 1984 39 7–8 108 116
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van der Linden Marcel Bendien Jurriaan Western Marxism and the Soviet Union: A Survey of Critical Theories and Debates Since 1917 2007 Leiden Brill Historical Materialism Book Series
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Zimmermann Susan Becker Joachim & Weissenbacher Rudy ‘Geschlechterregime und Geschlechterauseinandersetzung im ungarischen “Staatssozialismus” ’ Sozialismen. Entwicklungsmodelle von Lenin bis Nyerere 2009 Vienna Promedia
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Zimmermann Susan ‘Gender Regime and Gender Struggle in Hungarian State Socialism’ Aspasia: International Yearbook for Women’s and Gender History of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe 2010 4 1 24
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Zimmermann Susan ‘In and Out of the Cage: Hungarian Historical Writing on Women and Gender, late 1940s to late 1980s’ Aspasia: International Yearbook of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History 2014 8 125 149
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4
Deutscher 1968a.
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10
Deutscher 1968c.
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12
Deutscher 1959.
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15
Service 2011.
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In 1985, a young Hungarian author saw a highly important methodological advantage to be drawn from the message of Deutscher’s works on history: ‘Unlike some of Collingwood’s pupils however, Deutscher rejects the subjectification of history. The chance elements of history cannot be ignored when historical events are under examination, he says in his critique of Carr’s volume, History of Soviet Russia. To pretend that history is only furthered by the great necessities is equivalent to squeezing history into abstract theoretical models rather than observing it impartially in its animate flow.’ (Bánfalvi 1985, p. 64.)
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22
Lukács 1978b, pp. 76–7.
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23
Lukács 1978b, p. 157.
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24
Lukács 1978b, p. 159. (For the original Hungarian, see Krausz (ed.) 2010.)
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27
Deutscher 2003, pp. 108–9.
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29
Lukács 1976a, pp. 380–1.
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31
Krausz 2010, pp. 7–13.
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32
Cliff 1963, p. 20: ‘Deutscher is a puny figure compared to Herzen. The blood of workers spilt in Budapest does not prevent him from proceeding with his toast to Khrushchev. Deutscher opposed all the popular uprisings in Eastern Europe, from June 1953 in East Germany, to October 1956 in Poland and Hungary. He declared the latter to be counter-revolutions trying “unwittingly to put the clock back”. He cheered the Russian tanks which smashed the workers’ uprisings: “Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, and East Germany) found itself almost on the brink of bourgeois restoration at the end of the Stalin era; and only Soviet armed power (or its threat) stopped it there.” ’ In regard to 1956, Isaac Deutscher framed the question as that of a choice between socialism or capitalism. See Deutscher 1970b, as well as its Serbo-Croat and German translations.
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Jacobson 1972, p. 93. ‘The Hungarians, driven to heroic frenzy by justifiable grievances, were unwittingly turning back the clock of revolutionary progress as the insurrection moved into its counter-revolutionary “Thermidorean” phase; while the Russians sought to rewind the clock with bayonets. Not content with paradoxical clocks, Deutscher also repeated, in more civilized and temperate manner, some of the most malicious Communist canards against the Hungarian revolution. “The ascendancy of anti-Communism found its spectacular climax with Cardinal Mindszenty’s triumphal entry into Budapest to the accompaniment of the bells of all the churches of the city broadcast for the whole world to hear. The Cardinal became the spiritual head of the insurrection. A word of his now carried more weight than Nagy’s appeals. If in the classical revolutions the political initiative shifts rapidly from Right to Left, here it shifted even more rapidly from Left to Right. Parties suppressed years ago sprang back into being, among them the formidable Smallholders’ Party.” ’.
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39
See also, van der Linden 2007, pp. 50–1. In Eastern Europe, and especially Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union, we cannot speak of a notable influence upon the circles of ‘critical Marxists’ by the theory of state capitalism, which cannot be adapted to Marx’s theory of social formation, since it is simply impossible to describe the Stalinist system of profit generation as a capitalist market economy, in which accumulation of private ownership is carried on in the interests of a state bourgeoisie, with any arguments in favour simply unacceptable on empirical grounds, since the bureaucracy could not inherit even a holiday home.
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40
See on this, van der Linden 2007, p. 119.
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42
Tőkei 1965 and 1968. On the debate in the Soviet Union, see Krausz 1991, pp. 162–6. The purges of the 1930s took their toll in this field as well, one of its victims being the excellent Hungarian thinker Lajos Magyar.
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44
Sartre 1976.
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50
Fehér, Heller and Márkus 1984, pp. ix and xiii. ‘The socialist (but anti-Leninist) brand of East-European opposition that our theory represents will perhaps appeal to those Leftists whose objective is socialism as radicalised democracy, not as dictatorship of any kind.’
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51
Bence and Kis 1983. In Hungarian: Heller, Fehér and Márkus 1981.
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52
Krausz and Tütő (eds.) 1988, pp. 209ff.
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53
See also Lukács 1976b, pp. 270–1.
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60
See also Mészáros 1995, ‘the extraction of surplus-labour is regulated politically and not economically’ (pp. 630–1).
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64
Mandel 1991.
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65
See also Habermas 1990.
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66
See also Krausz 1994.
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Deutscher, Lenin and the East-European Perspectives
On the History of the Theory of Socialism
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Tamás Krausz in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The article introduces the reception of Isaac Deutscher’s work in Eastern Europe in a historical context and shows how deeply this reception was connected to the various transformations of the system, which had been established after the victory of the Russian October Revolution. The author gives a Marxist analysis of the historical development of state socialism and the various changes in Eastern-European Marxist thought which accompanied this history. He belongs to that school of thought which defines this system as state socialism, and he gives a theoretical analysis of its main characteristics, adding that 1989 failed to fulfil the expectations and hopes of many Western and Eastern-European Marxists.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 669 | 75 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 240 | 3 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 119 | 20 | 0 |
