Download Lenin&rsquos Last Struggle Moshe Lewin Books
Download As PDF : Lenin&rsquos Last Struggle Moshe Lewin Books
One of the great political strategists of his era, V. I. Lenin continues to attract historical interest, yet his complex personality eludes full understanding. This new edition of Moshe Lewin's classic political biography, including an afterword by the author, suggests new approaches for studying the Marxist visionary and founder of the Soviet state. Lenin's Last Struggle offers invaluable insights into the rise of the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union, a saga complicated by complex strategic battles among the leaders of Lenin's generation leaders whose names are universally known, but whose personalities and motivations are even now not sufficiently understood.
Moshe Lewin was a collective farm worker in the USSR and a soldier in the Soviet army. He later became director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, a fellow of the Kennan Institute, a senior fellow of Columbia University's Russian Institute, and is now emeritus professor of history at The University of Pennsylvania.
Download Lenin&rsquos Last Struggle Moshe Lewin Books
"There isn't any good biography of Lenin, although there are many good books about him. This is one of them, even if it only covers about the last year of his life. Both the Stalinists and the anticommunists want you to believe that Stalin (whatever "errors" he made) represents the continuity of Lenin. Nothing can be further from the truth. This book shows that in Lenin's last year they were on a very different trajectory; after Lenin's death, this widened and widened.
While Lewin's book has as appendixes a few of Lenin's most important writings in this period, I suggest supplementing it with a more complete collection: Lenin's Final Fight: Speeches and Writings, 1922-23. You can trace what happened after Lenin's death through the three volumes of Trotsky writings entitled Challenge of the Left Opposition. Also essential is The Stalin School of Falsification,, and The Revolution Betrayed. Another suggested book is From Lenin to Stalin by Victor Serge.
For Lenin's early years, I suggest starting with The Young Lenin, and then reading Reminiscences of Lenin and Other Works, written by Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's widow, and an important political figure in her own right. She was under intense pressure from the Stalinists when she wrote this, but it's still accurate on most things.
Lenin's writings need to be studied in the context of the events happening when he wrote them. The Stalinists and anticommunists both present things he said abstracted from all political context. And his writings also need to be studied along with those of his collaborators, as well as his opponents, both in Russia and internationally. A good book to start with on this is Lenin's Struggle for a Revolutionary International: Documents: 1907-1916: The Preparatory Years. For some of his early basic writings, one can start with Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings."
Product details
|
Tags : Lenin’s Last Struggle (9780853454731) Moshe Lewin Books,Moshe Lewin,Lenin’s Last Struggle,Monthly Review Press,0853454736,Presidents Heads of State,USA,Soviet Union;Politics and government;1917-1936.,1870-1924,1917-1936,BIOGRAPHY AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Presidents Heads of State,Biography Autobiography,Biography Autobiography/Political,Biography/Autobiography,Biography general,Biography historical, political military,Biography political,HISTORY / Russia the Former Soviet Union,History / Europe / Russia the Former Soviet Union,History/Europe - Russia the Former Soviet Union,Lenin, Vladimir Il§ich,,Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich,Non-Fiction,Political Science,Political leaders leadership,Politics and government,Social Science/General,Soviet Union,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,Lenin, Vladimir Ilich,
Lenin&rsquos Last Struggle Moshe Lewin Books Reviews :
Lenin&rsquos Last Struggle Moshe Lewin Books Reviews
- "Lenin's Last Struggle" is basically an overview of Lenin's opinions and views on a great variety of policy matters in the period from the Revolution to his death, as portrayed by the Soviet historian Moshe Lewin. Lewin has a tendency to be too positive about Lenin (at least in a moral kind of estimation) than is perhaps warranted, and that goes for this book as well, but it is fortunately not uncritical. The overview of Lenin's views itself is excellent and his contrasting of Lenin to Stalin well-done. The book's main flaw is that it is too short, with a mere 141 pages of actual content, and that Lewin generally assumes a pretty strong knowledge of history of the Soviet Union. In that sense, this book is mostly useful as a good summary of the Lenin of 1918-1924 for people already interested and somewhat knowledgable about the USSR.
The book includes a series of appendices with primary documents by Lenin. Very useful is the inclusion of Lenin's famous essay "Better Fewer, But Better", which is crucial for understanding Marxism-Leninism in practice. - There isn't any good biography of Lenin, although there are many good books about him. This is one of them, even if it only covers about the last year of his life. Both the Stalinists and the anticommunists want you to believe that Stalin (whatever "errors" he made) represents the continuity of Lenin. Nothing can be further from the truth. This book shows that in Lenin's last year they were on a very different trajectory; after Lenin's death, this widened and widened.
While Lewin's book has as appendixes a few of Lenin's most important writings in this period, I suggest supplementing it with a more complete collection Lenin's Final Fight Speeches and Writings, 1922-23. You can trace what happened after Lenin's death through the three volumes of Trotsky writings entitled Challenge of the Left Opposition. Also essential is The Stalin School of Falsification,, and The Revolution Betrayed. Another suggested book is From Lenin to Stalin by Victor Serge.
For Lenin's early years, I suggest starting with The Young Lenin, and then reading Reminiscences of Lenin and Other Works, written by Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's widow, and an important political figure in her own right. She was under intense pressure from the Stalinists when she wrote this, but it's still accurate on most things.
Lenin's writings need to be studied in the context of the events happening when he wrote them. The Stalinists and anticommunists both present things he said abstracted from all political context. And his writings also need to be studied along with those of his collaborators, as well as his opponents, both in Russia and internationally. A good book to start with on this is Lenin's Struggle for a Revolutionary International Documents 1907-1916 The Preparatory Years. For some of his early basic writings, one can start with Essential Works of Lenin "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings. - The vast bulk of Western historiography on Lenin paints him as a ruthless tyrant, a true forerunner to Stalin. By simply telling the story of Lenin's last years, and his fight against Stalin, Lewin in this classic little book cuts through the lies to reveal a Lenin fighting with his last remaining breath against bureaucracy and against "Great Russian" chauvinism.
