Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-18T03:24:40.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Russian Revolution: an ideology in power

from Part II - Varieties of Marxism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Neil Harding
Edited by
Terence Ball  and
Richard Bellamy
Terence Ball
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Richard Bellamy
Affiliation:
University College London
HTML view is not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Summary

The Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 marked the beginning of the global conflict between communism and capitalism that was to dominate the politics of the twentieth century and redraw the map of modern ideologies. On the mainstream left a bitter schism developed between gradualist ‘Western’ social democracy and revolutionary ‘Eastern’ communism. On the peripheries a host of splinter groupings emerged whose identities revolved around their conflicting interpretations of the Soviet experience. Socialism was, hereafter, organisationally and ideologically fractured: at war with itself.

The revolution and the Soviet experience also became, of course, the Other for many ideologies of the right and a cautionary tale for their seminal thinkers. The lapse into authoritarian or totalitarian practices was variously attributed to the pretensions of socialist states to eliminate the free market economy (Hayek 1976), their contempt for the civilising restraints of the rule of law (Friedrich 1954; Schapiro 1972) or their reckless pursuit of messianic patterns of thought that lie deep within the Western intellectual tradition (Talmon 1961; Popper 1980; Walicki, 1995).

It is clear that for both left and right the fate of revolutionary Marxism and that of the Russian Revolution were closely entwined. This chapter concerns itself with the manner in which the Bolsheviks redefined revolutionary Marxism in the twentieth century. It examines some of the disputations that surrounded the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and the theories that were developed to justify the state-building process that then ensued.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought , pp. 239 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

References

Adorno, Theodor (1973 [1966]). Negative Dialectics, New York.Google Scholar
Adorno, Theodor et al. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality, New York.Google Scholar
Aidit, D. N. (1958). Indonesian Society and the Indonesian Revolution, Jakarta.Google Scholar
Aidit, D. N. (1964). The Indonesian Revolution and the Immediate Tasks of the Communist Party of lndonesia, Peking.Google Scholar
Althusser, Louis (1971 [1969]). Lenin and Philosophy, London.Google Scholar
Althusser, Louis (1977 [1965]). For Marx, London.Google Scholar
Althusser, Louis and Balibar, Etienne (1970 [1968]). Reading Capital, London.Google Scholar
Anderson, Perry (1976). Considerations on Western Marxism, London.Google Scholar
Anderson, Perry (1983). In the Tracks of Historical Materialism, London.Google Scholar
Anweiler, O. (1974). The Soviets, New York.Google Scholar
Aron, Raymond (1957 [1955]). The Opium of the Intellectuals, London.Google Scholar
Aron, Raymond (1983). Mémoires: 50 ans de réflexions politiques, Paris.Google Scholar
Ascher, O. (1976). The Mensheviks in the Russian Revolution, London.Google Scholar
Bachelard, Gaston (1938). La formation de l’esprit scientifique, Paris.Google Scholar
Baron, Samuel H. (1963). Plekhanov. The Father of Russian Marxism, London.Google Scholar
Bauer, Otto (1907). Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie, Vienna.Google Scholar
Beauvoir, Simone (1953 [1949]). The Second Sex, London.Google Scholar
Beauvoir, Simone (1965 [1963]). Force of Circumstance, London.Google Scholar
Beauvoir, Simone (1977 [1972]). All Said and Done, London.Google Scholar
Beauvoir, Simone (1985 [1981]). Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, London.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter (1973 [1968]). Illuminations, New York.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter (1977 [1963]). The Origins of German Tragic Drama, London.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Eduard (1899). Die Vorraussetzungen des Sozialismus, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Eduard (1901). Wie ist wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus möglich?, Berlin.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Eduard (1993). The Preconditions of Socialism, ed. Tudor, Henry, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackburn, R. (1977) (ed.). Revolution and Class Struggle, London.Google Scholar
Bloch, Ernst (1964 [1918]). Geist der Utopie, Munich.Google Scholar
Bloch, Ernst (1972). Atheism in Christianity, trans. Swann, J. T.New York.Google Scholar
Bloch, Ernst (1986 [1954–1959]). The Principle of Hope, trans. Plaice, N., Plaice, S. and Knight, P., 3 vols., Oxford.Google Scholar
Bukharin, N. I. (1925). ‘K.teorii imperialisticheskogo gosudarstva’ Revoliutsiia Prava, Moscow.Google Scholar
Bukharin, N. I. (1971). Economics of the Transformation Period, New York.Google Scholar
Bukharin, N. I. (1972). Imperialism and the Accumulation of Capital, ed. Tarbuck, J., London.Google Scholar
Canguilhem, Georges (1979). Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences, Paris.Google Scholar
Carsten, Francis Ludwig (1993). Eduard Bernstein, 1850–1932, Munich.Google Scholar
Castoriadis, Cornelius, (1987 [1974]). The Imaginary Institution of Society, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Castoriadis, Cornelius,(1988). Social And Political Writings, 2 vols., Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Caute, David (1964). Communism and the French Intellectuals 1914–1960, London.Google Scholar
Chandra, N. K. (1988). The Retarded Economies, Bombay.Google Scholar
d’Encausse, H. Carrere and Schram, Stuart (1969). Marxism and Asia, London.Google Scholar
Derfler, Leslie (1991). Paul Lafargue and the Founding of French Marxism, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Descombes, Vincent (1980 [1979]). Modern French Philosophy, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Deutscher, Isaac (1954–1963). Trotsky, 3 vols., London.Google Scholar
Donald, Moira (1993). Marxism and Revolution. Karl Kautsky and the Russian Marxists, New Haven, Conn. and London.Google Scholar
Duan, Z. (1996). Marx’s Theory of Social Formation, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Elliot, Gregory (1987). Althusser: The Detour of Theory, London.Google Scholar
Feher, F., Heller, A. and Markus, G. (1983). Dictatorship over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies, Oxford.Google Scholar
Femia, Joseph (1981). Gramsci’s Political Thought: Hegemony, Consciousness and the Revolutionary Process, New York.Google Scholar
Fetscher, Iring (1965). Der Marxismus. Seine Geschichte in Dokumenten, vol. III, Munich.Google Scholar
Figes, O. (1997). A People’s Tragedy. The Russian Revolution 1891–1924, London.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1977). Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, Oxford.Google Scholar
Friedrich, C. (1954). Totalitarianism, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fromm, Erich (1971). The Crisis of Psychoanalysis: Essays on Freud, Marx and Social Psychology, New York.Google Scholar
Furet, François (1981 [1978]). Interpreting the French Revolution, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Furet, François and Ozouf, Mona (1988 [1989]) (eds.). A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, Cambridge, Mass. and London.Google Scholar
Garaudy, Roger (1945). Le communisme et la morale, Paris.Google Scholar
Gay, Peter (1962). The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism, London.Google Scholar
Geary, Dick (1987). Karl Kautsky, Manchester.Google Scholar
Geras, Norman (1976). The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg, London.Google Scholar
Gilcher-Holtey, Ingrid (1986). Das Mandat des Intellektuellen. Karl Kautsky und die Sozial Demokratie, Berlin.Google Scholar
Glucksmann, André (1975). La cuisinière et le mangeur d’hommes, Paris.Google Scholar
Goldmann, Lucien (1959). Recherches dialectiques, Paris.Google Scholar
Goldmann, Lucien (1964 [1959]). The Hidden God: A Study of Tragic Vision in the Pensées of Pascal and the Tragedies of Racine, New York.Google Scholar
Gorz, André (1982 [1980]). Farewell to the Working Class: An Essay on Post-Industrial Society, London.Google Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. Hoare, Quintin and Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, New York.Google Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio (1977) Quaderni del carcere, ed. Gerratana, V., 4 vols., Turin.Google Scholar
Gupta, B. S. (1972). Communism in Indian Politics, New York.Google Scholar
Gupta, B. S. (1980). The Comintern, India and the Colonial Question, Calcutta.Google Scholar
Hühnlich, Reinhold (1981). Karl Kautsky und der Marxismus der II. Internationale.Marburg.Google Scholar
Haimson, L. H. (1955). The Russian Marxists and the Origins of Bolshevism, Cambridge, Mass.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, N. (1984). The State in Socialist Society, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, N. (1996). Leninism, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, Neil and Taylor, Richard (1983) (eds.). Marxism in Russia. Key Documents, 1879–1906, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haupt, Georges (1972). Socialism and the Great War, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1976). The Road to Serfdom, London.Google Scholar
Held, David (1980). Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas, Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Heller, Agnes (1983) (ed.). Lukécs Revalued, New York.Google Scholar
Hilferding, Rudolf (1910). Das Finanzkapital, Vienna.Google Scholar
Horkheimer, Max (1972 [1968]). Critical Theory, New York.Google Scholar
Horkheimer, Max and Adorno, Theodor (1972 [1947]). Dialectic of Enlightenment, New York.Google Scholar
Hosking, G. (1985). A History of the Soviet Union, London.Google Scholar
Hussain, Athar and Tribe, Keith (1981). Marxism and the Agrarian Question, 2 vols., London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itoh, M. (1988). The Basic Theory of Capitalism, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, Russell (1981). Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaurès, Jean (1933). Oeuvres, Paris.Google Scholar
Jay, Martin (1973). The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923–1950, Boston.Google Scholar
Jay, Martin (1984). Marxism and Totality, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Joll, James (1955). The Second International, London.Google Scholar
Judt, Tony (1986). Marxism and the French Left, Oxford.Google Scholar
Judt, Tony (1992). Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956, Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Kanapa, Jean (1947). L’existentialisme n’est pas un humanisme, Paris.Google Scholar
Kautsky, John H. (1993). Karl Kautsky, Revolution and Democracy, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1893). Der Parlamentarismus, die Volksgesetzgebung und die Sozialdemokratie, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1899a). Die Agrarfrage, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1899b). Bernstein und das sozialdemokratische Programm, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1905) ‘Vorwart’, in Roland-Holst, H., Generalstreik und Sozialdemokratie, Dresden.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1907). Sozialismus und Kolonialpolitik, Berlin.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1909). Der Weg zur Macht, Hamburg.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1914). Der politische Massenstreik, Berlin.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1925). Die Internationale und Sowjetrussland, Berlin.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1927). Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung, Berlin.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1934). Grenzen der Gewalt, Karlsbad.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1965 [1918]). The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Ann Arbor, Mich.Google Scholar
Kautsky, Karl (1986). Selected Political Writings, ed. Patrick Goode, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kelly, Michael (1982). Modern French Marxism, Oxford.Google Scholar
Khanh, Huynh Kim (1982). Vietnamese Communism 1925–1945, Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
Khilnani, Sunil (1993). Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France, New Haven, Conn. and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kindersley, Richard (1962). The First Russian Marxists, Oxford.Google Scholar
Knight, N. (1990) (ed.). Mao Zedong on Dialectical Materialism, New York.Google Scholar
Kojève, Alexandre (1969 [1947]). An Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit, ed. Bloom, Allan, Ithaca and London.Google Scholar
Kolakowski, Leszek (1978). Main Currents of Marxism, 3 vols., Oxford.Google Scholar
Konrad, G. and Szelenyi, I. (1979). The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power, Brighton.Google Scholar
Korsch, Karl (1970 [1923]). Marxism and Philosophy, New York.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1966 [1962]). The Savage Mind, London.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude(1967 [1958]). Structural Anthropology, vol. I, London.Google Scholar
Labriola, Antonio (1966). Essays on the Materialist Conception of History, London.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Henri (1968 [1940]). Dialectical Materialism, London.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Henri and Guterman, Norbert (1934). Introduction aux morceaux choisis de Karl Marx, Paris.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1950). Selected Works, 2 vols., Moscow.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1960–1970). Collected Works, 45 vols., Moscow.Google Scholar
Lichtheim, George (1964). Marxism. A Historical and Critical Study, London.Google Scholar
Lichtheim, George (1966). Marxism in Modern France, New York.Google Scholar
Luk, M. (1990). The Origins of Chinese Bolshevism: An Ideology in the Making, 1920–1928, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lukács, Georg (1971 [1923]). History and Class Consciousness, London.Google Scholar
Lukécs, G. (1970). Lenin, A Study of the Unity of his Thought, London.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1902). Sozialreform oder Revolution?, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1906). Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften, Berlin.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1951). The Accumulation of Capital, London.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1961). Leninism or Marxism: The Russian Revolution, Ann Arbor, Mich.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1969). Politische Schriften, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa (1975). Selected Political Writings, ed. Look, Robert, London.Google Scholar
MacFarquhar, R. and Fairbank, J. (1991) (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, 15 vols., Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackerras, C. and Knight, N. (1985). Marxism in Asia, London.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert (1955a [1941]). Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, New York.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert (1955b). Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Enquiry into Freud, Boston.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert (1958). Soviet Marxism, Boston.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert (1964). One-Dimensional Man, Boston.Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1970 [1871]). The Civil War in France, Peking.Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1977). Selected Writings, ed. McLellan, D., Oxford.Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1995 [1848]). Capital, ed. McLellan, D., Oxford.Google Scholar
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1962). Selected Works, 2 vols., Moscow.Google Scholar
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1975–1986). Collected Works, 50 vols., London.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Thomas (1978). The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
McLellan, David (1979). Marxism after Marx, London.Google Scholar
Melotti, U. (1977). Marx and the Third World, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1962 [1945]). The Phenomenology of Perception, London.Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1969 [1947]). Humanism and Terror, Boston.Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1973 [1955]). Adventures of the Dialectic, Evanston, Ill.Google Scholar
Merquior, J. G. (1986). Western Marxism, London.Google Scholar
Mortimer, Rex (1979). Indonesian Communism under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics 1959–1965, Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
Nettl, J. P. (1966). Rosa Luxemburg, 2 vols., Oxford.Google Scholar
Nizan, Paul (1971 [1960]). The Watchdogs: Philosophers and the Established Order, New York and London.Google Scholar
Nove, A. (1992). An Economic History of the USSR 1917–1991, London.Google Scholar
Outhwaite, William (1994). Habermas: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Patnaik, U. (1989) (ed.). Agrarian Relations and Accumulation: The Mode of Production Debate, Bombay.Google Scholar
Plekhanov, G. V. (1961–1968). Selected Philosophical Works, 5 vols., Moscow.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1980 [1945]). The Open Society and its Enemies, 2 vols., London.Google Scholar
Poster, Mark (1975). Existential Marxism in Postwar France: From Sartre to Althusser, Princeton, N.J.Google Scholar
Protokolle der Kongresse der 2. Internationale (1900, 1904, 1907), Stuttgart.
Protokolle der Kongresse der SPD (1891–1914), Berlin.
Ram, M. (1971). Maoism in India, Delhi.Google Scholar
Rançiere, Jacques (1974). La leçon d’Althusser, Paris.Google Scholar
Roth, Michael (1988). Knowing and History: Appropriations of Hegel in Twentieth Century France, Ithaca, N.Y. and London.Google Scholar
Salvadori, Massimo (1979). Karl Kautsky and the Social Revolution, London.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1947–1976). Situations, vols. I–X, Paris.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1966 [1942]). Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, London.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1968 [1960]). Search for a Method, New York.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1969a [1952–1954]). The Communists and Peace, London.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1969b [1965]). The Spectre of Stalin, London.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1970). Between Existentialism and Marxism, London.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1985). Critique de la raison dialectique, vol. II, Paris.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1991 [1960]). Critique of Dialectical Reason, vol. I, London.Google Scholar
Sassoon, Anne Showstack (1980). Gramsci’s Politics, New York.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand (1959 [1916]). Course in General Linguistics, New York.Google Scholar
Scalapino, Robert and Lee, Chong-Sik (1972). Communism in Korea, 2 vols., Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Schapiro, L. S. (1972). Totalitarianism, London.Google Scholar
Schröder, Hans-Christoph (1968). Sozialismus und Imperialismus, Hanover.Google Scholar
Schram, S. (1974) (ed.). Mao Tse-tung Unrehearsed, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Sorel, Georges (1919). Matériaux d’une théorie du prolétariat, Paris.Google Scholar
Sozialistische Monatshefte (1900–1914), Berlin.
Stafford, David (1971). From Anarchism to Reformism: Paul Brousse, Toronto.Google Scholar
Stalin, J. (1953–1955). Works, 13 vols., Moscow.Google Scholar
Steenson, Gary P. (1978). Karl Kautsky, 1854–1938, Pittsburg.Google Scholar
Steinberg, Hans-Josef (1969). Sozialismus und Sozialdemokratie, Hanover.Google Scholar
Sukhanov, N. N. (1955). The Russian Revolution of 1917, London.Google Scholar
Talmon, J. (1961). The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, London.Google Scholar
Trager, F. (1959) (ed.). Marxism in Southeast Asia, Stanford, Calif.Google Scholar
Trotsky, Leon (1961). Te r rorism and Communism, Ann Arbor, Mich.Google Scholar
Trotsky, Leon (1962). Permanent Revolution and Results and Prospects, London.Google Scholar
Trotsky, Leon (1964). Basic Writings, ed. Howe, Irving, London.Google Scholar
Tsou, Tang (1986). The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tudor, H. and , J. M. (1993) (eds.). Marxism and Social Democracy: The Revisionist Debate, 1896–1898, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ulam, Adam B. (1969). Lenin and the Bolsheviks, London.Google Scholar
Uno, K. (1980). Principles of Political Economy: Theory of a Purely Capitalist Society, Brighton.Google Scholar
Vickery, Michael (1984). Cambodia 1975–1982, Sydney.Google Scholar
Walicki, A. (1995). Marxism and the Leap to the Kingdom of Freedom, Stanford, Calif.Google Scholar
White, Stephen (1995) (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Habermas, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wiggershaus, Rolf (1994 [1986]). The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories and Political Significance, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. (1977) (ed.). Mao Tse-tung in the Scales of History, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wolfe, B. D. (1956). Three Who Made a Revolution, London.Google Scholar
Zedong, Mao (1965–1977). Selected Works, 5 vols., Beijing.Google Scholar
Zeman, Z. A. B. and Scharlau, W. B. (1965). The Merchant of Revolution: Parvus, London.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×