I've just been gifted a copy of The State and Revolution published by Penguin classics which includes an introduction of 52 pages, Lenin's writings total 110 pages, written by Robert Service. Robert is introduced as a professor of Russian history at the university of London and his preamble to the book is a summation of Lenin's life and the context in which he wrote S&R. It also includes entire paragraphs describing how Lenin was basically wrong in every aspect and a man who desired dictorial power for himself. A quick google search of Robert Service and I immediately stumble upon some articles where other researchers denounce him as a an unreliable quack whose more recent work consists of him downplaying the atrocities of the Nazi regime together with some German fellow named Jörg Baberowski. Jörg appears to be a Nazi.
Pure ideology🗑️ .
Weird. I read Service’s Lenin biography and while he’s obviously not sympathetic to the socialist cause, it was pretty even handed. He didn’t shed any crocodile tears for the Tsar, only made passing inferences to Lenin having a ruthless or authoritarian streak. Overall it gave a picture of an extremely hard working and intelligent guy, who was also a canny and sometimes ruthless political operator. He goes into detail about the context of Lenin’s major works, what struggles were going on between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks or what have you, when the works were released. I found that a useful guide about Lenin’s polemical style.
I never really felt he was making too much of a value-judgment against Lenin. He includes one anecdote about a cousin of Lenin’s that gets killed by Bolsheviks after the rev during the period of violence in the countryside, and that Lenin reacted coldly. Service is MUCH more anti-Stalin, any reference to Lenin’s authoritarian actions or repression done by the Bolsheviks after the rev is ALWAYS contrasted with “the much worse crimes that would come later” (i.e. under Stalin).
I was actually gonna read his “Comrades” book at some point to see how that was. Didn’t know he sucked!
What I gathered in the 20minutes reading about this Robert guy is that some of his work is ok whilest others are not, people were particularly upset about his work concerning Trotsky. I personally take issue with trusting an author on subjects when he gets blasted for historical inaccuries in other works, it would be somewhat safe to assume these faillings carry over, that and working with the Jorgen guy.
All I've gathered about him I've learned in the past hours so I could be the ass here and my opinion should not stop you from reading anything.
Robert Service (historian)
:geordi-no:
Robert Service (poet)
:geordi-yes:
Folks I think it's time we cremated Sam McGee.