Customer Reviews

A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev

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While the book itself is of course in perfect shape, I had thought it would be more comprehensive and would also carry complete documents. Instead it is a selection of fragments. Obviously I misunderstood what it was about. The author does state in the foreword that it is intended for readers not specialised in the area, but I was looking for something more like a "white book"...

To sum up, while I can say nothing "against" the book, which might well be worth a reading for beginners, I would not recommend it to those in search of much specific detail.

An excellent collection of primary sources in understanding what motivated the first Socialists in modern time. The utilitarian philosophy, seeing mans value as primarily linked to his labor, and the discounting of any truth that is unseen or immaterial-other than their personal emotions of course, becomes clear in reading these essays etc.
Also a foundation of their philosophy is material inequality as the CAUSE of sin (envy, greed etc.) rather than a product of mans disordrered desires...hence their strange belief that man is malleable through the manipulation of material products exclusively, and the possibility of "no state"gov't in the future b/c of the perfection of man through material equality.

Perhaps lacks enough on the symbiotic relationship of the Tsarist gov't and the Orthodox Church which was a factor in these peculiar and extreme views of mans nature..always backed up with plenty of hyperbole and little explanation of details how things are to be accomplished. GREAT in understanding the role of this ideology in AMERICAN liberals...as Russia had its liberals too...only they were less dedicated to socialist principles than the modern American version. TM Mtc., NJ