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13+ Obras 582 Miembros 5 Reseñas 1 Preferidas

Sobre El Autor

Moshe Lewin is now emeritus professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Créditos de la imagen: Moshe Lewin

Obras de Moshe Lewin

Obras relacionadas

Visions of History (1983) — Contribuidor — 59 copias
Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation (1977) — Contribuidor — 48 copias

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Moshe Lewin was certainly one of Lenin’s admirers. Though this short book is anti-totalitarian and sympathetic to Trotsky, it is surprisingly uncritical of Lenin on key issues. But it is clear from reading it that Lenin’s last struggle — his political activities in the final two years of his life — were focussed on what would now be seen as minor issues. Instead of doing his utmost to get rid of the toxic Stalin, Lenin suggested in one letter that perhaps the Communist Party should consider someone else for the job Stalin held. The one bit of genuine moral outrage that we see is Lenin’s fury at how Stalin addressed Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife, in a phone call. That got Lenin’s attention and a demand for an apology (which Stalin then offered). For years I heard that this book was essential reading to understand Russian Communism and the Soviet Union. Having now finally read it, I don’t think that’s the case. Lewin is too much in Lenin’s thrall to take an objective and critical look at the dictator. Others have done better work on the subject.… (más)
 
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ericlee | 2 reseñas más. | Oct 28, 2023 |
Organization of the book could have been handled better. I understand that this is revisionist in that it undermines some capitalist propaganda (and some ML at that as well) but Lenin's actions can't be absolved just because of historical circumstance or necessity, his whole regime building was a betrayal to socialism and we're supposed to absolve him of these sins because he woke up in the last month's of his life? Lenin's sins against socialism can not be that easily forgiven but the book does place those sins I'm context and it calls them for what they are. It is honest and revealing and for that I gave it four.… (más)
 
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galuf84 | 2 reseñas más. | Jul 27, 2022 |
"Lenin's Last Struggle" is basically an overview of Lenin's opinions and views on a great variety of policy matters in the period from the Revolution to his death, as portrayed by the Soviet historian Moshe Lewin. Lewin has a tendency to be too positive about Lenin (at least in a moral kind of estimation) than is perhaps warranted, and that goes for this book as well, but it is fortunately not uncritical. The overview of Lenin's views itself is excellent and his contrasting of Lenin to Stalin well-done. The book's main flaw is that it is too short, with a mere 141 pages of actual content, and that Lewin generally assumes a pretty strong knowledge of history of the Soviet Union. In that sense, this book is mostly useful as a good summary of the Lenin of 1918-1924 for people already interested and somewhat knowledgable about the USSR.

The book includes a series of appendices with primary documents by Lenin. Very useful is the inclusion of Lenin's famous essay "Better Fewer, But Better", which is crucial for understanding Marxism-Leninism in practice.
… (más)
½
 
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McCaine | 2 reseñas más. | Feb 2, 2007 |
Lewin has outdone himself in this overview of the history of the USSR. Some potential readers might perhaps be somewhat dismayed by the fact that this book was published with radical leftist publisher Verso, but have no fears: this is no apologia for totalitarianism.

On the contrary, Lewin gives a balanced and very thorough overview of each of the periods of Soviet history, beginning with its Leninist inception and ending with Gorbachov. Most of the book deals with his description of the Stalinist period, and this is also the book's main strength. On the one hand Lewin effortlessly dispels the myths around the gigantic numbers of deaths that have been 'credited' to Stalin by less informed writers such as Conquest and Montefiore; using both statistical records of Chrushchov's period (hardly a fan of Stalin) and the most up-to-date Russian research by Khlevniuk and others, he shows that in fact the death toll of Stalin will have been in the millions rather than tens of millions.

Nevertheless, that is evil enough, and Lewin has no qualms in showing the horrid, oppressive and stifling side of communism. Not only Stalin gets this deserved treatment, but Brezhnev and similar people equally. Lewin also takes the time to look at the development of various socio-economic factors in Soviet history, such as the too often overlooked effects of rapid urbanization in the 1970s.

The only downside of the book will be to some that it pays relatively little attention to World War II, preferring instead to concentrate on the political and social history of the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, the best in its kind, and far to be preferred over more mainstream works.
… (más)
½
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McCaine | otra reseña | Feb 2, 2007 |

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