In this important book, influential historian Mark Bojcun explores the social democratic workers' movement in the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire and its impact on the course of the 1917 Revolution. By focusing on the sections of the labour movement built by the Ukrainian, Jewish and Russian parties, Bojcun sheds new light on the way they each confronted national inequality, antisemitic pogroms, and other forms of oppression. The study traces these struggles, and the political solutions to them proposed by revolutionaries, from the inception of the workers' movement through to the First World War, the outbreak of the revolution in 1917, formation of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the country's descent into civil war and foreign interventions in 1918.

Eurocommunism constitutes a "moment" of great transformation connecting the past and the present of the European Left, a political project by means of which left-wing politics in Europe effected a definitive transition to a thoroughly different paradigm. It rose in the wake of 1968 - that pivotal year of social revolt and rethinking that caused a divide between radical, progressive and socialist thinking in western and southern Europe and the Soviet model. Communist parties in Italy, France, Spain and Greece changed tack, drew on the dynamics of social radicalism of the time and came to be associated with political moderation, liberal democracy and negotiation rather than contentious politics forging a movement that would hold influence until the early 1980s. Eurocommunism thus wove an original political synthesis delineated against both the revolutionary Left and the social democracy: "party of struggle and party of governance".

Springing from a conference held in Bergamo University on the occasion of the centenary of the publication by Engels of the third book of Capital, the papers collected in these two volumes reinstate Marx's as the first genuinely evolutionary economic theory. In this, the capitalist process incessantly brings about states which will by themselves generate the next ones. Thus as Schumpeter remarked, Marx was the first to 'visualise what even at the present time is still the economic theory of the future for which we are slowly and laboriously accumulating stone and mortar, statistical facts and functional equations'.

A fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster's Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx's revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that will help us comprehend and counter today's unprecedented planetary emergencies. The Return of Nature begins with the deaths of Darwin (1882) and Marx (1883) and moves on until the rise of the ecological age in the 1960s and 1970s. Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from William Morris and Frederick Engels to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen J. Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism. In the process, he delivers a far-reaching and fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology. Ultimately, what this book asks for is nothing short of revolution: a long, ecological revolution, aimed at making peace with the planet while meeting collective human needs.

This edited collection brings together noted scholars in a comparison of the reform efforts of Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev. Contributors examine the Communist Party in KhrushcheV's and GorbacheV's times, the economy, agriculture, law, ideology, nationality policy, foreign affairs, defense policy, and Eastern Europe. These experts suggest that while there are many similarities between the reform efforts of the two leaders--common substantive themes, common problems, and common political dangers--there are also important differences, the most crucial of which has been GorbacheV's willingness to undertake fundamental systemic changes in the nature of the political system.

This important and timely volume will be of interest to scholars in Russian history and studies, Marxism, and Soviet history and studies.

In the most rigorous articulation of his philosophical system to date, Slavoj Zizek provides nothing short of a new definition of dialectical materialism. In forging this new materialism, Zizek critiques and challenges not only the work of Alain Badiou, Robert Brandom, Joan Copjec, Quentin Meillassoux, and Julia Kristeva (to name but a few), but everything from popular science and quantum mechanics to sexual difference and analytic philosophy. Alongside striking images of the Moebius strip, the cross-cap, and the Klein bottle, Zizek brings alive the Hegelian triad of being-essence-notion. Radical new readings of Hegel, and Kant, sit side by side with characteristically lively commentaries on film, politics, and culture. Here is Zizek at his interrogative best.

Following Marx's own itinerary from Paris to London, from politics to the critique of political economy, The Marx of Communism delves into a creatively unfolding international debate on the democracy-communism relation, while supporting a 21st century communism as a social alternative to capitalism. Taking into consideration Marx's analysis of communism both as a movement and a social formation, this study focuses on the dialectics of transition from capitalism to communism. Dealing with communism as the outcome of a long-term cultural and political process, the author defends Marxian communism as the open-ended constitution of a self-governed demos, whose citizens create their own way of life on the ground of a stateless and classless society. From this point of view, the end of the state does not mean the end, but the revival of politics in terms of a communist bios. Reshaping their collective and personal values and setting limits to the production/technology dynamics of their economy, this book argues, the citizens of a communist polis form a promising antithesis to the private individuals of a capitalist society.

Histories of the Russian Revolution often present the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 as the central event, neglecting the diverse struggles of urban and rural revolutionaries across the heartlands of the Russian Empire. This book takes as its subject one such struggle, the anarcho-communist peasant revolt led by Nestor Makhno in left-bank Ukraine, locating it in the context of the final collapse of the Empire that began in 1914. Between 1917 and 1921, the Makhnovists fought German and Austrian invaders, reactionary monarchist forces, Ukrainian nationalists and sometimes the Bolsheviks themselves. Drawing upon anarchist ideology, the Makhnovists gathered widespread support amongst the Ukrainian peasantry, taking up arms when under attack and playing a significant role - in temporary alliance with the Red Army - in the defeats of the White Generals Denikin and Wrangel. The Makhnovist movement is often dismissed as a kulak revolt, or a manifestation of Ukrainian nationalism; here Colin Darch analyses its successes and its failures, emphasising its revolutionary character. Over 100 years after the revolutions, this book reveals a lesser known side of 1917, contributing both to histories of the period and broadening the narrative of 1917, whilst enriching the lineage of anarchist history.

This book provides an up-to-date reading of Capital Volume I, emphasizing the relevance of Marx's analysis to everyday twenty-first century struggles. Harry Cleaver's treatise outlines and critiques Marx's analysis chapter by chapter. His unique interpretation of Marx's labour theory of value reveals how every theoretical category of Capital designates aspects of class struggle in ways that help us resist and escape them. At the same time, while rooted within the tradition of workerism, he understands the working class to include not only the industrial proletariat but also unwaged peasants, housewives, children and students. A challenge to scholars and an invaluable resource for students and activists today.

This study taps the whole range of Marxist philosophy--historical materialism, economic theory, Marx's opinions of the labor movement--in its analysis of the revolutionary proletariat.

One of Marxism's chief failings is its dependence on trans-historical categories. Theorists such as Jürgen Habernas also fall short by restricting their critique to the cultural sphere. This book extends the reach of critical theory and its key idea of intersubjectivity to the economic system. The economy is a realm of morality that social movements influence in the course of their struggles.

Harmony and Normalization: US-Cuban Musical Diplomacy explores the channels of musical exchange between Cuba and the United States during the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, who eased the musical embargo of the island and restored relations with Cuba. Musical exchanges during this period act as a lens through which to view not only US-Cuban musical relations but also the larger political, economic, and cultural implications of musical dialogue between these two nations. Policy shifts in the wake of Raul Castro assuming the Cuban presidency and the election of President Obama allowed performers to traverse the Florida Straits more easily than in the recent past and encouraged them to act as musical ambassadors. Their performances served as a testing ground for political change that anticipated normalized relations. While government actors debated these changes, music forged connections between individuals on both sides of the Florida Straits. In this first book on the subject since Obama's presidency, musicologist Timothy P. Storhoff describes how, after specific policy changes, musicians were some of the first to take advantage of new opportunities for travel, push the boundaries of new regulations, and expose both the possibilities and limitations of licensing musical exchange. Through the analysis of both official and unofficial musical diplomacy efforts, including the Havana Jazz Festival, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba's first US tour, the Minnesota Orchestra's trip to Havana, and the author's own experiences in Cuba, this ethnography demonstrates how performances reflect aspirations for stronger transnational ties and a common desire to restore the once-thriving US-Cuban musical relationship.

This edited collection addresses the dynamics of the post-Communist transition in Central Eastern Europe. Its contributors present a detailed analysis of the events unfolding during the last three decades in the region, focusing in particular on identity-building processes and reforms in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The contributors outline reasons why some of these states accomplished a decisive break with the Communist past and became members of European and transatlantic structures, while some opted for pseudo-transition and fostered hybrid political regimes, jeopardizing their genuine integration with the West. A group of states which decided to preserve their Communist legacy is also explained. The collection describes and scrutinizes the formation of geopolitical affiliations and the evolution of discourses of belonging. It also traces the fluctuating dynamics of national decision-making and institution-building, as many of the post-Communist states reconsider and re-elaborate their initial ideas and visions of Europe today. Finally, the collection brings to light the rapidly changing perceptions of the region by the major global actors-the European Union, People's Republic of China, Russian Federation, and others.

This book surveys revolutionary socialist ideas and engages a gallery of contentious political thinkers, offering an indispensable assessment of the place of revolutionary collectives in this radical tradition. Beginning with a broad and informative survey of scholarship on V.I. Lenin and "Leninism," Le Blanc goes on to explore the multifaceted "collective" qualities of the Russian Bolshevik organization. He then turns his attention to several of its central figures as well as a rich variety of activist-intellectuals who in one way or another continued to engage with Lenin's perspectives after his death, including Leon Trotsky, Alexander Bogdanov, Georg Lukacs, Antonio Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Korsch, and Daniel Bensaid. The volume concludes by considering related questions which have more recently posed problems within left-wing organizations, gesturing toward the dynamics and needs of future struggles.

This collection of documents, sealed for years in Stalin's secret archives, gathers some of Karl Bernhardovich Radek's most important contributions to the early Soviet debates about China and its working-class. Radek (1885-1939) was the foremost Soviet specialist on China, a leading activist in the Russian revolutionary movement, and a leader of the Trotskyist Opposition. In these letters, articles, and minutes he presents an original conception of the history of China from ancient times to the twentieth century, as well as a delineation of the fundamental political problems of China in the 1920s. The appendices also contain communications between Trotsky and Radek, as well as the "Chronological Information" of Zionviev and Trotsky, outlining the most important stages of the struggle of the United Left Opposition against the Stalinist majority in the All-Union Commuist Party regarding problems of the first Chinese revolution. None of the documents collected here have ever been published in English.

"Spufford cunningly maps out a literary genre of his own . . . Freewheeling and fabulous." "--The Times "(London) Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the twentieth-century magic called "the planned economy," which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. "Red Plenty "is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan and every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche. It's about the scientists who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.
"Red Plenty "is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as "Sputnik," as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne.

Against the usual argument heard most frequently on the left, that there is no subject for a radical politics together with its form of political mobilization, there is - but in the absence of a radical leftist project, this subject has in the past transferred, and in many instances is still transferring, his/her support to the radical politics on offer from the other end of the ideological spectrum. The combination of on the one hand a globally expanding industrial reserve army, generating ever more intense competition in the labour markets of capitalism, and on the other the endorsement by many on the left not of class but rather of non-class identities espoused by the 'new' populist postmodernism, has fuelled what can only be described as a perfect storm, politically speaking.

This book addresses pioneering views and hot topics in contemporary Marxist philosophy, reflecting the latest advances and important achievements made over the past 30 years in China. Besides summarizes and reflects past and present advances in Marxist philosophy, this book also outlines a path for its future development in China. Presenting a comprehensive exploration of the most fundamental and significant theoretical issues in the field of contemporary Chinese Marxist philosophy, based on the latest research, it lays the foundation for Chinese philosophy in the new century, making it of great significance for promoting the study of contemporary Chinese philosophy.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the site of the largest mass repression of an ethnic and/or religious minority in the world today. Researchers estimate that since 2016 one million people have been detained there without trial. In the detention centres individuals are exposed to deeply invasive forms of surveillance and psychological stress, while outside them more than ten million Turkic Muslim minorities are subjected to a network of hi-tech surveillance systems, checkpoints and interpersonal monitoring. Existing reportage and commentary on the crisis tend to address these issues in isolation, but this ground-breaking volume brings them together, exploring the interconnections between the core strands of the Xinjiang emergency in order to generate a more accurate understanding of the mass detentions' significance for the future of President Xi Jinping's China. -- .

The first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorised account of Mao's life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China. This edition includes extensive notes on the military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.

The Media of Testimony explores testimony relating to the Stasi in different cultural forms: autobiographical writing, memorial museums and documentary film. Combining theoretical models from diverse disciplines, it presents a new approach to the study of testimony, memory and mediation.

This book describes the logistical systems and requirements of the North Korean People's Army and Chinese Communist forces during the Korean War. The author examines the performance of the Communist logistical system from June 1950 to July 1953, explaining the failure of the United Nations air interdiction campaign in terms of the constant improvement of Communist logistical capabilities. The author concludes that the United Nations air force damaged, but was unable to destroy, the Communist distribution system. The North Koreans and Chinese Communists were able to supply their front line units sufficiently to enable them to conduct a strong static defense, which prevented a United Nations victory, and in the last months of the war, to mount strong, sustained offensive actions.