Left-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements Books

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Book SynopsisThis book is a tribute to the memory of Victor Zaslavsky (1937-2009), sociologist, emigre from the Soviet Union, Canadian citizen, public intellectual, and keen observer of Eastern Europe. In seventeen essays leading European, American and Russian scholars discuss the theory and the history of totalitarian society with a comparative approach. They revisit and reassess what Zaslavsky considered the most important project in the latter part of his life: the analysis of Eastern European - especially Soviet societies and their difficult "transition" after the fall of communism in 1989-91. The variety of the contributions reflects the diversity of specialists in the volume, but also reveals Zaslavsky's gift: he surrounded himself with talented people from many different fields and disciplines. In line with Zaslavsky's work and scholarly method, the book promotes new theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of totalitarianism for understanding Soviet and East European societies, and the study of fascist and communist regimes in general.Table of Contents1. T. Piffer and V. Zubok, Introduction Part I: Theory and Debate 2. Peter Baehr, Movement, Formation, and Maintenance in the Soviet Union: Victor Zaslavsky’s Challenge to the Arendtian Theory of Totalitarianism 3. Giovanni Orsina, European Liberalism in the Age of Totalitarianism 4. Vittorio Strada, Totalitarismum ante litteram 5. Vladimir Tismaneanu, Totalitarian Dictators and Ideological Hubris 6. Emilio Gentile, From Facts to Words: From the Party Militia to Fascist Totalitarianism Part II: History and Society 7. Vladimir Pechatnov, Stalin as a Statesman 8. Oleg Khlevniuk, Stalin’s Dictatorship: Priorities, Policies, and Results 9. Andrea Graziosi, The “National Question” in the Soviet Union 10. Inessa Yazhborovskaia, The Katyn Affair 11. David Holloway, Totalitarianism and Science: The Nazi and the Soviet Experience 12. Maria Teresa Giusti, From Fascism to Communism: The Conversion to Communism of a Prisoner of War in the USSR Part III: Beyond Totalitarianism 13. Veljco Vujacic, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman: Slavophile and Westernizer Against the Totalitarian Soviet State 14. Antonella d’Amelia, “Without a free word, there are no free men”: Lydia Chukovskaya’s Writings on Terror and Censorship 15. Lev Gudkov, The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia 16. Gail Lapidus, Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition 17. Mark Kramer, Public Memory and the Difficulty of Overcoming the Communist Legacy : Russia and Poland in Comparative Perspective

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Book SynopsisThe collection of well-researched essays assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevailing historiographical approach of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and Communism. This provides opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, casting the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany. While the Jewish Holocaust is acknowledged, its meaning and significance are obfuscated. In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of 'Europeanness'. Therefore their presentations of Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian post-communist memory politics move beyond the common national myths in order to provide a new insight into transnational interactions and exchanges in Europe in general.The juxtaposition of these politics, the processes in other parts of Europe, the modes of remembering shaped by displacement and the transnational enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices.Trade Review"Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits proves comparative research to be relevant and exciting. With the overarching aim to contribute to surmounting the ‘bloc division of Europe, which still persists in viewing the East as a monolith’, this edited volume sets about to a) point out divergences in the memory cultures in postsocialist countries, and b) assess the potential to form common European memory practices. It thus analyses the changing mnemonic landscapes on two levels: within Eastern Europe and in Europe as a whole. With nationalist historical revisionism as a common thread running through the bulk of the case studies, the message is in fact one of a shared postcommunist memory culture. The authors identify the road to EU membership as the catalyst of how the attempt to establish a European memory canon failed. In combination, the case studies provide the reader with a nuanced view on ‘all- Europeanness’ when it comes to memory. Even in the absence of a shared European historical narrative, common mnemonic practices have developed over time. In sum, trying to overcome the ‘bloc division of Europe’ this edited volume contains highly relevant insights into the divergences in the memory cultures in postsocialist countries as well as into common European memory practices." * Südosteuropa *"The volume surveys eight national contexts from East Central and Southeastern Europe in an attempt to reconstruct the defining features of the contemporary politics of the past. As the authors suggest, falling short of the hopes and expectations of many in the aforementioned two regions, instead of a process of democratizing the narratives about the past, there is a return to or rather no change in the dominance of nation-centered narratives. Of Dragons and Evil Spirits as a whole has the virtue of addressing some time-specific aspects of contemporary politics of history. Scholars and policy makers may learn important lessons from the cases presented." https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26571615 -- Réka Krizmanics * Hungarian Historical Review *Table of ContentsContents PREFACE INTRODUCTION "Red Dragon and the Evil Spirits" CHAPTER 1 On the (In)convertibility of National Memory into European Legitimacy: The Bulgarian Case CHAPTER 2 Equalizing Jesus's, Jewish and Croat Suffering-Post-Socialist Politics of History in Croatia CHAPTER 3 Wars of Memory in Post-Communist Romania CHAPTER 4 Reflections on the Principles of the Critical Culture of Memory CHAPTER 5 The Struggle for Legitimacy: Constructing the National History of Slovakia After 1989 CHAPTER 6 Victims and Traditions: Narratives of Hungarian National History After the Age of Extremes CHAPTER 7 Instrumentalization of History in Bosnia and Herzegovina CHAPTER 8 Post-Socialist Historiography Between Democratization and New Exclusivist Politics of History List of contributors Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe thirteen authors of this collective work undertook to articulate matter-of-fact critiques of the dominant narrative about communism in Poland while offering new analyses of the concept, and also examining the manifestations of anticommunism. Approaching communist ideas and practices, programs and their implementations, as an inseparable whole, they examine the issues of emancipation, upward social mobility, and changes in the cultural canon. The authors refuse to treat communism in Poland in simplistic categories of totalitarianism, absolute evil and Soviet colonization, and similarly refuse to equate communism and fascism. Nor do they adopt the neoliberal view of communism as a project doomed to failure. While wholly exempt from nostalgia, these essays show that beyond oppression and bad governance, communism was also a regime in which people pursued a variety of goals and sincerely attempted to build a better world for themselves. The book is interdisciplinary and applies the tools of social history, intellectual history, political philosophy, anthropology, literature, cultural studies, and gender studies to provide a nuanced view of the communist regimes in east-central Europe.Trade Review"This edited collection, which reads like a multi-authored monograph, crowns the efforts of 13 contributors; the contributors are cultural and social historians, philosophers, and literary scholars, Reassessing Communism is a welcome contribution to the field of communism studies and an important voice against contemporary tendencies in Poland that try to reduce the four decades of People’s Poland to ideology-driven cliches, one-sided narratives, and non-reflective and anti-intellectual historicism." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00085006.2022.2101733 -- Mikołaj Kunicki * Canadian Slavonic Papers *"Much of interest is proposed in this extensive volume, which draws attention to notions of continuing intellectual and perhaps practical importance." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/reassessing-communism-concepts-culture-and-society-in-poland-19441989-ed-katarzyna-chmielewska-agnieszka-mrozik-and-grzegorz-wolowiec-central-european-university-press-budapest-2021-vii-418-pp-notes-bibliography-index-10500-hard-bound/9C9053ADD6E79CD9243A118AF5303A49 -- Anthony Kemp-Welch * Slavic Review *Table of ContentsList of Acronyms Introduction: Communism Studies in Central and Eastern Europe: A New Approach Katarzyna Chmielewska, Agnieszka Mrozik, and Grzegorz Wołowiec Part One: Critiques of the Dominant Narrative 1. The Red and the Brown: On the Nationalist Legitimation of Communism in Poland Once Again Grzegorz Wołowiec 2. Communist (Auto)biographies: Teresa Torańska’s Them: Stalin’s Polish Puppets and the Contemporary Paradigms of Understanding the Past Anna Artwińska Part Two: New Analyses of Communism 3. Legitimation of Communism: To Build and to Demolish Katarzyna Chmielewska 4. Eroticism and Power Tomasz Żukowski 5. “’Cause a Girl Is People”: Projects and Policies of Women’s Emancipation in Postwar Poland Agnieszka Mrozik 6. An Adventure in the Steelworks and in Mariensztat: Family and Emancipation of Women in 1950s Polish Cinema Aránzazu Calderón Puerta 7. The “Adolescent Sphinx”: (Post-)Thaw Novels for Girls Eliza Szybowicz 8. “Here I Stand, I Cannot Do Otherwise”: Around An Open Letter to the Party and the Notion of Revisionism in Discourse About the Political Opposition in 1960s Poland Bartłomiej Starnawski 9. Socialist Education Ideals and Models of Patriotism: Some of the Problems of Polish Pedagogics and the Education Policy of the People’s Republic of Poland in the 1970s Anna Sobieska Part Three: New Analyses of Anti-Communism 10. The Waning of Communism in the People’s Republic of Poland: The Case of Discourse on Intelligentsia Anna Zawadzka 11. The Thought of Stanisław Brzozowski in Polish Academic Writing and Journalism in the Years 1945–1974: Currents, Parallels, Polemics Paweł Rams 12. Around Jerzy Andrzejewski’s Miazga, Kazimierz Brandys’ Nierzeczywistość, and Polish Leftist Thought of the Late 1960s and Early 1970s Kajetan Mojsak 13. Scheming as a Business: “Communism” in the Language of the 1980s Opposition; The Example of The Little Conspirator Krzysztof Gajewski List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn this short, but rich piece of work, Erzsébet Szalai offers a neo-socialist alternative to socialism (i.e. communist ruled state-socialism) and neo-capitalism. Drawing upon the fertile tradition of left-wing Hungarian Social Sciences, she offers her own theory of transitional society, suggesting that socialism was not an independent formation, but instead a society in transition. She relocates soviet-type societies on the semi-periphery of the capitalist world system. In addition she offers a critique of capitalism that pivots on the two connected issues of over production and ecological crisis. She makes the distinction between an anti-globalism critique and a globalization critique, locating herself in the latter. This work offers readers the opportunity to engage in a critique of capitalism that is organized along a new understanding of socialism itself.Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1 The Power Structure and Ownership Relations of the Semi-Peripheral Socialism Chapter 2 Power and Society Chapter 3 The Issue of Interest Integration Chapter 4 Actors of the Open Crisis Chapter 5 The Socio-cultural Heritage and Its Structural Effects Chapter 6 One-party System and the Transitory Society Chapter 7 The Chances of the New Socialist Alternative Bibliography

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Book SynopsisRoger Garaudy was for many years at the centre of the French Communist Party but was eventually expelled for his liberal views. In the Seventies, he strove to bring Marxism and Christianity together, to include all humanity in a project to set all people free. What emerges from Garaudy’s project is a very modern Marxism, with its emphasis on the individual, its ecological politics, and in its insistence on religion as central to human emancipation. Although Garaudy himself became frustrated by the failure of Marxism and converted to Islam, eventually resulting in his work being discredited in the West, it is certainly possible that Garaudy’s project represents a good, perhaps even the best, starting point for Marxism in today’s world.Trade Review“Occasionally, certain studies throw a vivid light on the gloomy bookshelves of the history of ideas. Such is Julian Roche’s book. The author shares with the French philosopher, once the leading intellectual of the French Communist Party, the singular ambition of synthesizing Christian faith and Marxism. Roger Garaudy’s project, after he was expelled by what he called a Stalinist party, was indeed to insert transcendence (the actual love of God rather than the mere philosophical concept) in the revolutionary anti-capitalist project of accomplishing social justice on earth. Roche’s disappointment lies in what he considers as the betrayal of his project by Garaudy himself as he converted to Islam—thus opening the door to a subsequent drift into radical anti-Zionism that associated him with Holocaust denial. He takes up Garaudy’s project where the French philosopher would have abandoned it, and makes a valuable intellectual contribution to a project that is close to his heart: uniting faith in Christ and the aspiration for justice on earth. A thought-provoking and stimulating book."— Dr. Didier J.-F. Gauvin, author of Un intellectuel communiste illégitime: Roger GaraudyTable of ContentsChapter One: Why Roger Garaudy Still Matters Chapter Two: Did Others Take Garaudy Seriously? Chapter Three: Garaudy’s Project Chapter Four: The Role of Subjectivity in the Project Chapter Five: The Role of Transcendence in the Project Chapter Six: Garaudy’s Conversion to Islam Chapter Seven: The Project Revised Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAn essential record from the Second International, expertly curated by Under the Socialist Banner editor Mike Taber.At its height, the Second International (1889-1916) represented the majority of organized workers in the world, and the largest of its affiliated parties counted over a million members. Its congresses drew delegates from across the globe, and its major victories—like the eight-hour work day—have long outlasted the organization itself. In this important collection of debates and resolutions from the Second International, Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism captures the International’s vibrancy and gives a snapshot of its strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions. Socialist militants turned to the Second International to deliberate on how best to combat the latest deprivations and excesses of capitalism, which was stretching beyond national boundaries for the first time. These new issues and the debates about how to respond to them—surging immigration; what to say about colonialism; how to relate to burgeoning struggles for women’s rights; the drive to intern-imperialist war—remain deeply contested over a hundred years later. Taken together with Under the Socialist Banner, Reform Revolution, and Opportunism offers a rounded view of the Second International and its legacy, showing it to be a living, breathing movement with crucial insights for contemporary radicals.Trade Review“Through this engaging volume, Taber has provided a tremendous resource to the socialist movement and historians of the Second International.”—Eric Blanc, author of Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire, 1892-1917“Debates in the European congresses of the Second International from 1900 to 1910 might seem a long way from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Yet the Bolsheviks themselves self-identified very strongly as the Russian representatives of ‘revolutionary Social Democracy’ in contrast to international ‘opportunism’. They insisted that the collapse of the Second International in 1914 was (in Lenin’s words) ‘the collapse of opportunism’ – not the collapse of revolutionary Social Democracy. Mike Taber’s invaluable presentation of the clash between the two wings of the Second International on vital issues such as war, colonialism and women’s suffrage is therefore essential reading for all who seek to understand the outlook of the Bolsheviks and their revolutionary tactics in 1917.”—Lars T. Lih, author of Lenin Rediscovered “These excerpts from the debates at some of the most important congresses of the Second International allows us to see as never before how socialists of the time responded to such crucial issues as supporting anti-colonial struggles and women’s rights while opposing militarism and restrictions on immigration—the very issues being so heatedly debated today.”—Peter Hudis, general editor, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg“This book is a treasure chest for every socialist seeking to understand the history of their movement. Bringing together documents from 1900 to 1910, Mike Taber shows us how socialists more than a century ago analyzed and debated key questions of their time. He also shows us that these are urgent questions for our times: war and militarism; colonialism; immigration; gender rights; and strategies for working class power. Revolution, Reform, and Opportunism is an invaluable contribution to the history of the socialist movement and Taber does a superb job of illuminating the context of these debates and showing us why they matter today.”—David McNally, author of Blood and Money“Mike Taber offers clear and compelling translations of pivotal debates in the Second International around colonialism, immigration, women’s suffrage, militarism, and political tactics during the first decade of the twentieth century. The debates reflect tensions between some socialists’ racist, nationalist, and misogynistic prejudices and others’ internationalism and desire for the liberation of both working men and working women. The selections in this book illuminate the roots of the 1914 split in the Second International and are relevant to struggles in our time.” —Barbara C. Allen, editor of The Workers’ Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30“Many activists of today face challenges bedeviling socialists a hundred years ago: What should be the relationship between reform and revolution? To what extent should socialists adapt to existing power structures in the quest to ease the impact of multiple crises – and to what extent should they instead redouble their efforts to end the system generating such crises? Mike Taber draws together transcripts of rich and sharp debates from the mass-based Socialist International from 1900 to 1910 – a clash of analyses and proposals offering insights to those of our own time who want to change the world.”—Paul Le Blanc, editorial board member, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg“In bringing together the key debates of the Second International in the first decade of the 20th century, Mike Taber reveals the extraordinary nature of this movement. It is a fascinating and compelling read…Some of the challenges within the Second International are still with us today. This book gives us a chance to reappraise our history and its relevance for today.”—Anne McShane, Historian of the Soviet Women’s Movement“Mike Taber provides yet another illuminating collection of documents, adroitly introduced and carefully compiled. Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism breathes contemporary life into the seemingly timeless clash of revolutionary and reformist sensibilities. Vexing matters such as war and militarism, colonialism and immigration, women's rights and strategic engagement with bourgeois states, remain contentious today. Taber skillfully shows how a mass socialist movement once vigorously debated and disagreed about how to approach these matters.”—Bryan D. Palmer, author of James P. Cannon and the Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States, 1928-1938“This book is a must-read. It provides a long-overdue wake-up call for the Marxist left, which almost universally dismisses the experience of the Second International as inherently opportunist, with the failures, betrayals and collapse of August 1914 supposedly written into this body's DNA. This book underscores just how flawed such an understanding is. The Second International was no monolithic or immutable entity sleepwalking into support for imperialist butchery, but a hotbed of factional struggle waged by the forces of ‘revolutionary social democracy’ – Russian Bolshevism included – against the opportunist cancer that eventually killed it off. As Taber shows, the leading lights of the revolutionary Marxist tradition never renounced the best aspects of the International's political legacy, but fought for its basic principles to be upheld in the face of the renegade, careerist and nationalist 'socialists' who betrayed them.”—Ben Lewis, Founder of Marxism Translated “Over a century ago, socialists wrestled with many of the same questions and conflicts as we do today: how to understand and respond to intra-imperialist war, immigration from capitalism's periphery to core, colonialism and solidarity with and from the colonized world, women's rights and women's roles in movements for liberation. By including primary source documents as well as speeches from socialists, including Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, August Bebel, Karl Kautsky, Daniel De Leon and others, one feels the presence of live movements being made and re-made in the crucible of fiery debate and struggle. Accompanied by Taber's lucid historical context, this selection of speeches and resolutions from the heyday of early 20th century socialism to its fracturing over World War I and re-forming during the Bolshevik Revolution is a necessary read both for activists as well as scholars of these early battles against capitalism. Taber has offered 21st century socialists – if not a guide to the present – a helpful selection of examples of what earlier generations have exclaimed aloud, as in our world – still riven by war, imperialism, sexism, racism, class exploitation – the struggles and the movements for liberation must find their own answers and paths forward.”—Benjamin Balthaser, author of Anti-Imperialist Modernism and Dedication“Mike Taber has made yet another major contribution—this time by resurrecting some of the earliest socialist debates on crucial issues that continue to challenge us today. This is a fascinating read and a valuable resource for contemporary activists.”—Tom Twiss, author of Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy“The ‘experience of socialists a century ago can provide valuable lessons and examples’ for socialists today because the emergence of the revolutionary trends within the Second International before 1914 anticipated those that arose in the aftermath of the October Revolution, as expressed in the formation of the Third International, writes Mike Taber. Whether Second International debates, in fact, contain invaluable, politically relevant lessons for communist activists today – or are of purely historical interest – is itself a matter of debate. Fortunately, Taber's documentary collection will help readers decide for themselves.”—John Marot, author of The October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect: Interventions in Russian and Soviet History

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