Бори́с Ви́кторович Са́винков writes 1921, "The Russian people do not want Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky, not merely because the Bolsheviks mobilize them, shoot them, take their grain and are ruining Russia. The Russian people do not want them for the simple reason that .... nobody elected them."[1]
Дми́трий Анто́нович Волкого́нов writes "It never occured to us", he wrote, "that the 'breakthrough' of October 1917 might be a counter-revolution, when compared to the events of February of that year."[2]
Post-Soviet Analysis edit
On Ukraine and Crimea edit
Володимир Олександрович Зеленський lead actor Kvartal TV produced Servant_of_the_People_(TV_series), formed Servant_of_the_People_(political_party), 2019 elected Ukrainian president.
Richard Lourie states that "the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine might have been seen by Putin as only an internal question if NATO had not at the same time conferred membership on seven former Eastern Bloc countries, three of them former Soviet republics, moving the alliance right up to Russia's western border."[3]
He predicts (2017) that Russia "will be satisfied with some low level of continued turmoil in eastern Ukraine, because NATO will not offer membership to countries with frozen conflicts and border disputes."[4] See also: War in Donbas, part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War, in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement.
He suspects that Putin's other goal is to create a land bridge to Crimea.[4]
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2022) |
On Putin and post-Communist Russia edit
Lourie's assesses that despite his status as the richest man in Russia and all Europe, the "failure at the core of Putin's reign" consists in that "he was given a unique opportunity by history, a period of wealth and peace that he could have used to liberate his country from its dependence on oil and on authoritarian rule. He squandered that opportunity to unlease the source of Russia's true greatness—the still untapped skills and spirit of its people."[5] And in conclusion predicts that:
And because it did not involve the people enough, the House of Putin will, like the House of the Tsars and the House of the Communists, sooner or later come crashing down. When and with how much suffering is anyone's guess. [3]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2022) |
The collapse of the USSR edit
During the collapse of the communist East German government, Putin was working with the Stasi in Dresden. When they attacked the Ministry of Security, and then the Soviet KGB headquarters, he recounts that "we were forced to demonstrate our readiness to defend our building." [6] He went out with bodyguards and addressed the mob, but when they became aggressive again, he called for military backup and was told "We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow. And Moscow is silent." In response to this incident, Putin said, "That business of 'Moscow is Silent'-I got the feeling then that the country no longer existed. That it had disappeared … and had a terminal disease without a cure-a paralysis of power."[6]
Period of (Glasnost todo), (Perestroika todo), and the (Dissolution of the USSR todo edit
Reunification of Germany and NATO's Eastward Expansion edit
[Richard Lourie]]'s positively reviews Tony Wood (historian)'s book, describing "Wood’s contrarian spirit extends to the West as well. He apportions it a share of the blame for the current tensions with Russia.
In 1990, Gorbachev (todo) had been assured by James Baker (todo) and George H.W. Bush (todo) that if the two Germanies were allowed to reunite (todo), NATO (todo) would not move “one inch east.” To Gorbachev’s enduring chagrin, the major Warsaw Pact (todo) countries — Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic —were inducted into NATO nine years later, with seven others, including three former Soviet republics, following in 2004. George Kennan (todo), former US ambassador to the USSR and author of the containment theory (todo), was against the expansion. It would inevitably be taken as a hostile gesture, which would only increase nationalism and militarism in Russia. But the West was mighty, rich, and triumphant, and there was nothing Russia could do.
— From Review of Tony Wood (historian)'s book (new article). Lourie, Richard (29 January 2019). "Out of the Picture: On Tony Wood's "Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War"". LA Review of Books.
For that reason, it became imperative for Moscow not to “lose” Ukraine to the EU and NATO. It would seem that the annexation of Crimea, the proxy war in East Ukraine, and the recent naval clashes in the Black Sea would indicate that Russia has now achieved its principal objective — creating enough conflict in Ukraine to disqualify it for membership in NATO, which does not accept countries with frozen conflicts or ongoing hostilities.
"Wood sets himself the task of describing today’s Russia not as the result of one man’s will and vision but of the greater forces that preceded his assumption of office, function independently of him in the present, and will outlast him. This a work of background, context, and systemics, not history as biography."[7]
Revolution and Civil War 1855-1923 edit
Революция 1905 года, или Первая русская революция
Февральская революция 1917 года и Октябрьская революция 1917 года
Lenin and Leninism edit
| | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (February 2022) |
| “ | In his quest for power, he promised people anything and everything. He offered simple solutions to complex problems. He lied unashamedly. He identified a scapegoat he could later label 'enemies of the people'. He justified himself on the basis that winning meant everything: the ends justified the means. ... Lenin was the godfather of wht commentators a century after his time call 'post-truth politics'. | ” |
| — Victor Sebestyen, Lenin: The Man, The Dictator, and the Master of Terror[8] | ||
He built a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater end. It was perfected by Stalin, but the ideas were Leninś. He had not always been a bad man, but he did terrible things. Angelica Balabanova, one of his old comrades who admired him for many years but grew to fear and loathe him, said perceptively that 'Lenin's tragedy was, in Goethe's phrase, he desired the good ... but created evil'.
— Victor Sebestyen, Lenin: The Man, The Dictator, and the Master of Terror[8]
Dictatorship and Soviet Democracy edit
| “ | Capitalism cannot be defeated and eradictated without the ruthless suppression of the resistence of the exploiters, who cannot at once be deprived of their wealth, of their superiority of organization and knowledge, and consequently for a fairly long period will inevitably try to overthrow the hateful rule of the poor; secondly, a great revolution, and a socialist revolution in particular, ev if there were no external war, is inconceivable without internal war, i.e. civil war, which is even more destructive than external war, and implies thousands and millions of cases of wavering and desertion from one side to another, implies a state of extreme indefiniteness, lack of equilibrium and chaos... | ” |
| — Lenin, Izbrannyie Proizvedeniya, Selected Works, Russian, Vol. 2, pp.277-78 | ||
Trotsky and Trotskyism edit
Welcome Competent Contributors edit
This collection of quotes from WP:Reliable Sources, is intended to be a copy-pastebin for use on various articles in the content field. I created the author pages for Lourie and Carr in the #Bibligraphy below, and have edited on all the others: but they all still need work. If you can acquire these books and summarize them, or quote them, on the author pages, please do. If your contributions are rejected, please add them on this UserWikiProject page, and we will refine and improve.
You may contribute; but don't "edit", until after you've demonstrated competence with contributions. Unless you have demonstrated subject matter competence and good faith in your editing history; I will assume neither on this, because its my user subpage. Therefore newbies and Anonymous IPs are always welcome to contribute on this page, but not to "edit" or "manage".
Notes edit
- ^ Volkogonov 1994, p. 72.
- ^ Volkogonov 1994, p. 478.
- ^ a b Lourie 2017, p. 224.
- ^ a b Lourie 2017, p. 148.
- ^ Lourie 2017, p. 223.
- ^ a b Lourie 2017, p. 48.
- ^ Lourie 2019.
- ^ a b Sebestyen 2017, Introduction, p. 3.
Bibliography edit
- Volkogonov, Dmitri (1994). Lenin: A New Biography. Translated by Shukman, Harold. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-255123-6.
- Carr, Barnes (2020). The Lenin Plot: The Unknown Story of America's War Against Russia. Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1-64313-317-1.
- Wistrich, Robert S. (1982). Trotsky: Fate of a Revolutionary. New York: Stein & Day. ISBN 0-8128-2774-0.
- Lourie, Richard (2017). Putin: His Downfall and Russia's Coming Crash. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-53808-8.
- Wood, Tony (2018). Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War. ISBN 978-1788731249.
- Shub, David (1966). Lenin: A Biography (revised ed.). London: Pelican.
- Lenin, Vladimir (1948). "Appendix: Essentials of Leninism". Lenin: A Biography. By Shub, David (revised ed.). New York: Mentor Books.
- Sebestyen, Victor (2017). Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror. Pantheon Books. ISBN 9781101871638.