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Using Comintern archives, oral interviews and a wide range of other sources, this collection presents a sample of some of the exciting new work currently being produced in the field of communist biography. Geographically, the contributions take in North America and New Zealand as well as a range of European countries. Some chapters focus on individuals like Clara Zetkin, William Z. Foster, Umberto Terracini, William Gallacher or Jozsef Pogány. Others adopt a collective approach to explore communist cultures in rural Austria or the Netherlands, or the impact of institutions like the International Lenin School. There are also chapters on communist institutional biographies, the role of general secretaries and the significance of generations and family links.
The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party, and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism is genuinely global in its coverage...
This book presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the mainstream flows of ideas, politics and itineraries towards modernity in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans over two centuries from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Gorbachev administration. Unlike other books on the subject which view modernity based on the idea of Western European supremacy, this book outlines the various different pathways of development, and of growing industrialisation, urbanisation and secularisation which took place across the region. It provides rich insights on the complex networks whereby very varied ideas, aspirations and policies interacted to bring about a varied pattern of progress, and of integration and isolation, with different areas moving in different ways and at different paces. Overall the book presents something very different from the traditional picture of the" two Europes". Particular examples covered include agrarian reform movements, in various phases, different models of socialism, and different models of socialist reform.
Rosa Luxemburg lived a revolutionary life which determined her theoretical reflections about revolution and the role of the masses within it. The present study provides an analysis of Luxemburg's thoughts about and experiences with revolutionary processes and shows how she further developed Marxist ideas about the path and methods to achieve a democratic socialism as the result of a successful revolution. Next to the theoretical debate with Eduard Bernstein and her experiences during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the book also takes a closer look at Luxemburg's theoretical reflections about revolution in the years before and during the First World War, the Russian Revolution of 1917 as well as the German Revolution of 1918/19. The book therefore offers a concise analysis of Luxemburg's life as well as her combination of revolution theory and revolutionary practice.
Angelo Tasca, a pivotal figure in 20th-century Italian political history, and indeed European history, is frequently overshadowed by his Fascist opponent Mussolini or his Socialist and Communist colleagues (Gramsci and Togliatti). Yet, as Emanuel Rota reveals in this captivating biography, Tasca—also known as Serra, A. Rossi, André Leroux, and XX—was in fact a key political player in the first half of the 20th century and an ill-fated representative of the age of political extremes he helped to create. In A Pact with Vichy, readers meet the Italian intellect and politician with fresh eyes as the author demystifies Tasca’s seemingly bizarre trajectory from revolutionary Socialist to Co...
Introduction : Stalinization and communist historiography / Norman LaPorte, et al. -- The Stalinization of the KPD : old and new views / Hermann Weber -- Stalinization : balance sheet of a complex notion / Brigitte Studer -- The central bodies of the Comintern : Stalinization and changing social composition / Peter Huber -- The impact of "Bolshevization" and "Stalinization" on French and German communism : a comparative view / Andreas Wirsching -- Paul Levi and the turning point of 1921 : Bolshevik emissaries and international discipline in the time of Lenin / Jean-Francois Fayet -- "Kings among their subjects"? : Ernst Thalmann, Harry Pollitt and the leadership cult as Stalinization / Norma...
"American quarterly of Soviet and East European studies" (varies).