Bungacast

/410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin


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On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography.
 
[Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive]
 
We start off dealing with your questions from the first two Reading Clubs of the year, before Phil takes us through the famous biography of the Soviet leader. We discuss:

Deutscher's work in historical context

  • Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the significance of his boyhood education in an Orthodox seminary

  • How the oppression of the Russian Empire and the promises of Soviet industrialisation shaped young Stalin's lifecourse

  • Whether, compared to other Bolshevik leaders, Stalin would have succeeded anytime, anywhere

  • Was Stalin honest in his commitment to the revolution? Was Trotsky right that Stalin was just a cynic?

  • How did Stalin compare to the other leaders at Yalta, such as the aristocratic Churchill?

  • How do we compare Stalin to Cromwell or Napoleon?

  • And what's behind cheeky internet Stalinism today?

    Links:

    Message of the Non-Jewish Jew, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org

  • On Orwell: 1984 - The Mysticism of Cruelty, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org

  • I must start completely alone: Gonzalo Pozo on Isaac Deutscher’s wartime years in London, LRB

    ...more
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