v.i. lenin - c or d?

can't wait to see the kids lining up to volunteer for the cheka so they can execute some kulaks of their own

Fabisnism? Dude get yourself a copy of Lenin's Philosophical Notebooks (no.38 in the Complete works set iirc), that's all the philosophy you will need. xp = the body count will go higher, too.

wonder what millennials think of pol pot, i bet he would agree w/ their stance that hipsters are annoying

J.D. and hipster pals at the riot

Condemning Lenin might be appropriate and necessary but I don't think comparing him to Pol Pot is very edifying xp.

There was a massive power vaccuum in 1917 and the Bolsheviks were one of the few groups that had enough support on the ground to plausibly seize power. The provisional government wasn't going to hold on, and the soviets would have been crushed if they waited until the military took power -- crushed by monstrous, genocidal right wing forces.

It was only in this context that Lenin's radical proposal to leap across history to redistribute land and give the working class and peasantry direct power made sense. The nation had lost its taste for moderation during the war.

Obviously, the end result of this audacity was a disaster. The country became like one massive gulag. And the repression and murder Lenin authorized during the civil war is certainly not something I'm interested in excusing. BUT it was quite clearly never his intent to establish a dictatorship. He's a tragic figure imo more than a monster. (He was also, personally, a huge jerk as I mentioned above.)

In any case difficult listening hour to the thread. He knows a million times more about this than me.

There were also earlier atrocities he was involved with like the Tiflis bank robbery. I don't think he was a good guy who had a positive impact on history, but the "meaning" of his life is more than just its outcome, Stalinist repression.

Anyone read China Mieville's _October_ yet?

No, but I'm very glad you mentioned it tho.

Oh yes and if they only knew enough about him they'd go back to Hilary. That's funny too.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, August 16, 2017 9:38 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lenin never had any trouble with his e-mails iirc, so this is probably wishful thinking.

his letter caused stalin some issues tho

it was honestly just a joke treeship, i don't think that lenin was in the same league as pol pot. though tbh even a non-joke version of that line strikes me as far less offensive than xyzzzz's half-comprehensible pro-soviet apologist shit on this and other threads.

xp You mean the testament? I stand corrected :)

Anyone read China Mieville's _October_ yet?

Yes. I liked it quite a lot.

Oh good. I picked it up on sale from Verso earlier this year and its on the bookshelf.

Also, this:

when you want to destroy a statue of the hated communist but the destruction of property is the ultimate sin pic.twitter.com/1oNT1Ac4VS

— Goth Ms. Frizzle (@spookperson) August 16, 2017

John Lenin maybe?

― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, August 16, 2017 5:23 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHyGCCZzG2o

Yes my half-apologetics (they are more than half though) are way more offensive than J.D. being patronising to people who are mostly of voting range (18-34 so actually possibly your age range even?), who could possibly already be engaged enough to know a bit more than what you think they know. A figure in a poll won't give us the nuance.

Please keep flying the Kerensky flag tho'.

i said half-comprehensible, you stalinist fuckwit, and that's giving you too much credit

LOL dude chill a bit, just because some Trot screamed at you in college there is no need to lay the trauma on us every week.

eh i'm plenty chill, yr genuinely strange shtick is more amusing than infuriating

ftr i would've been delighted to talk to a trotskyist in college now and then, would've been a break from all those libertarians

I live to amuse!

How have I not noticed this ilx feud before?

The internet gives so much every single day

"Let's Build a Zeppelin Fleet Named After Lenin! Not Individual Zeppelins, But a Whole Lenin Fleet of Zeppelins-This Is What The USSR Needs" pic.twitter.com/zdlyABTJwp

— Soviet Visuals (@sovietvisuals) October 20, 2016

I just got into China Mieville's October and it is excellent. Reading a well written + concise narrative history is a good way of recalling shit you have already read in more nebulous + ungainly accounts, and putting it all back together in your mind. And there is so much that gets lost in the mix, to a fuckwit like me in other books. I'm ill as fuck r/n with a cold and suffering from insomnia, so perfect bedtime reading, again.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/lenins-disguise-little-seen-photos-of-soviet-leader-go-on-show

In that recent China Mieville narrative history of red october, it was revealed that his disguise wasn't very good iirc.

https://marxistleninist.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/trotsky.jpg?w=500

unconvincing

The Russian Revolution, a lot more tits than you probably would expect:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-revolution-centenary-leon-trotsky-biopic-channel-one-ussr-bolshevik-marxist-joseph-stalin-a8002636.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/indias-modi-warns-against-statue-vandalism-crowds-topple-lenin/

https://newsocialist.org.uk/the-bolsheviks-dared-interview-with-lars-t-lih-on-lenin/

^^^this is a deep dive into the pre-revolutionary technicalities of bolshevik debate in the actual context they faced but lars t lih is probably the leading living non-sectarian lenin scholar and i think always interesting

(also he's a professor of music history at mcgill which is… unexpected)

Everybody need a side hustle nowadays

this is still the most famous guy i've ever seen in person.

the most famous guy corpse

thank you for clearing that up

In my second grade classroom I won more gold stars than Karen Karpen, who was my toughest competitor.

responsible for tankies and trots. so d

That's like blaming ABBA for the Brotherhood of Man.

Revolutions podcast has reached Lenin’s appearance on the scene.

xp. could also say this about marx wrt lenin

could also say this about marx wrt lenin

otm. We should blame engels.

I'm blaming Engels instead

A LOL from Fred, that's something you don't see every day.

I'm thanking Engels instead.

I'm blaming Engels instead

More classic as the world gets shittier to live in.

kind of ironic how revisionist and rightist the NEP was. his followers would have put him in the gulag

happy 150th, old fellow

"Communism and no malarkey" -- Uncle "Joe" Biden

this guy killed the revolution, leftists need to stop copying his shit theory and his pompous pedantic writing style