Re: [Marxism] The two souls of socialism

["rrubinelli" <rrubinelli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lenin's arguments for the NEP are a civil  war removed from his
discussions of democracy and dictatorship in S&R.  And given the
historical specificity of the circumstances surrounding the introduction
of the NEP,  I don't think we should be drawing a general conclusion
that the proletariat can or is only equipped to exercise its power as a
class only after a period of benign stewardship by... by exactly who or
what?

The immense problems faced by the Russian Revolution after the seizure
of power were compounded, made more acute by the civil war, but those
problems existed from the very moment of the seizure of power, and those
problems were not at all attributed to the low level of political and
cultural development of the working class.

Those problems were based on the contradictory elements of the Russian
economy, and its position vis-a-vis international capitalism-- its
uneven and combined development.  The above vs. below argument is
another derivation of the inability of the Russian Revolution to break
out of its conundrum; another aspect of the failure of international
revolution.

rr
----- Original Message -----
From: <Jscotlive@xxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 2:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] The two souls of socialism


>. He said it in his theses on the introduction of the NEP.
>
>> Lenin realised that the proletariat, in the state it was in after the
> revolution and civil war, was unequipped to take control of the Soviet
economy  and
> state power. He brought in foreign specialists and brought back some
of the
> old bureacrats from the Tsarist regime to help develop industry and
the
> country's productive forces. He changed the role of the trade unions
from  that of
> representing the interests of the proletariat and  representing those
interests
> vis-a-vis the government to vice  versa.
>


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