The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin: A Study in Twentieth Century Revolutionary Patriotism

by Erik van Ree

Overview

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the political thought of Joseph Stalin. Making full use of the documentation that has recently become available, including Stalin's private library with his handwritten margin notes, the book provides many insights on Stalin, and also on western and Russian Marxist intellectual traditions. Overall, the book argues that Stalin's political thought is not primarily indebted to the Russian autocratic tradition, but belongs to a tradition of revolutionary patriotism that stretches back through revolutionary Marxism to Jacobin thought in the French Revolution. It makes interesting comparisons between Stalin, Lenin, Bukharin and Trotsky, and explains a great deal about the mindset of those brought up in the Stalinist era, and about the era's many key problems, including the industrial revolution from above, socialist cultural policy, Soviet treatment of nationalities, pre-war and Cold War foreign policy, and the purges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135786045
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/27/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Erik van Ree is a lecturer at the Institute for East European Studies of the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on the history of the USSR and on world communism, including books on Stalin's Korean Policy, and on the Soviet Politburo.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Jacobinism 2. Marxism, Leninism and the State 3. Proletarian revolution in a backward country 4. Marxist nationalism 5. Stalin. The years before October 6. The years under Lenin 7. Socialism in one country 8. Stalinist economics 9. The sharpening of the class struggle 10. Total unity 11. Stalin and the state 12. The cult of personality 13. Stalin on society, culture and science 14. Socialist in content, national in form 15. Did Stalin 'betray' the world revolution? 16. Revolutionary patriotism 17. The philosophy of revolutionary patriotism Conclusion Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

'Erudite, meticulously researched and full of interesting detail. ...Get hold of a copy.' - Mark Sandle, De Montfort University

'To many a contemporary mind, a discussion of the political thought of Stalin may seem one of the last subjects to take into serious consideration. ... If the book by Erik van Ree teaches us one thing, it is that there is indeed ample reason to take Stalin seriously as a thinker. And this is not so much because of his origniality as an 'innovator' of Marxism but, on the contrary, as its faithful developer.' -

From the Publisher