"The Canon and the Mushroom: Lenin, Sacredness, and Soviet collapse" 2017 (original) (raw)

The Shadow and the Substance of Lenin after 150 Years

Мир России, 2020

Citation: Marshall A. (2020) The Shadow and the Substance of Lenin after 150 Years. Mir Rossii, vol. 29, no 4, pp. 134–149. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-4-134-149 150 years since Lenin’s birth marks an anniversary that raises questions around Lenin’s meaning today and his ultimate historical legacy. By distinguishing both Lenin the man, and the cult of commemoration that for 60 years surrounded him, from the core method behind Lenin’s own thought, this article addresses the question of if and why Lenin still matters in Europe today. It does so by arguing for an Ilyenkovian reading of Lenin’s main ideas and contributions. The current condition of European politics is, to a significant degree, still a by-product of the rejection of ‘Leninism’ after 1989, Leninism having evolved after 1924 into a sociological construct designed predominantly to facilitate the accelerated industrialization of backward societies. The rejection of Leninism as an alternate form of modernity led, via a c...

Introduction: Rethinking Leninism

2009

This special section on ‘Rethinking Leninism’ emerges from sessions organized at the Society for Socialist Studies’ Annual Meetings, held at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in May 2009 at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The articles re-consider Lenin’s legacy, suggesting new ways of understanding his political thought and the implications for political strategies on the left today. Resume: Cette section speciale sur le theme ‘Re-penser le leninisme’ est le resultat de sessions organisees lors des reunions annuelles de la societe pour les etudes socialistes, qui se sont deroulees pendant le Congres des sciences humaines en mai 2009 a Carleton University a Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Les articles reinterrogent l’heritage de Lenine, suggerant des nouvelles manieres de comprendre sa pensee politique et leurs consequences en termes de strategie politique pour la gauche aujourd’hui.

Whoever Is Not Prepared to Talk About Leninism Should Also Keep Quiet About Stalinism

Rediscovering Lenin, 2019

During perestroika the critical reappraisal of Stalinism took centre stage in the Soviet debate while Leninism itself remained a positive point of reference for some time. Even post-Communist parties upheld this distinction during the upheaval. Correspondingly, in a speech at an extraordinary party congress of the Communist state party of East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party (SED), Michael Schumann summed up its quintessence in the famous phrase: ‘We are breaking irrevocably with Stalinism as a system!’ (Hornbogen et al. 1999, 179). Yet what he subsequently described were less the particular features of Stalinism so much as the structures gradually imposed in Soviet Russia and subsequently other countries under Communist state party rule after October 1917. Lenin’s era was deliberately omitted. There was talk of a ‘Stalinist line dating back to the twenties (of the twentieth century—MB)’ (Hornbogen et al. 1999, 182). As had previously been the case during perestroika, many in the...