What do you think?
Rate this book
It all started with Marx;: A brief and objective history of Russian communism, the objective being to leave not one stone, but many, unturned, to ... Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and others
In this safari into satire and the wilds of the half truth and the truth and a half, Armour romps through Communism from beginning to end, or as near the end as it was at the time of writing. With prize specimens like Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, and Khrushchev to operate on, Doctor Armour dissects the Comrades with glee and a sharp pen. There are laughs aplenty as Armour, proving that the pun is mightier than the sword, makes capital of Das Kapital, describes the orgies of the Orgburo, and leads his happy fans through revolutions, counterrevolutions, and counter counterrevolutions. For extra fun, he makes a few uninhibited explorations into the communist world of atheism and free love. Although Richard Armour is best known to the public as a humorist, his remarkably varied career has a serious side as a PhD from Harvard, Professor of English at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School in California, with eighteen books to his credit including a number of scholarly works, some 4,000 published poems, and hundreds of articles and reviews in more than eighty magazines in England and America.
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
2 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Richard Armour
150 books38 followersRichard Armour, a college professor of English who specialized in Chaucer and the English Romantic poets, was best known as a prolific author of light verse and wacky parodies of academic scholarship. He was a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont from 1945 to 1966.
Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.
Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 11, 2019
I finished this one and it took forever because I didn't like it. And then I more or less immediately started English Lit Relit. It could have been a bad choice: if I was just tired of Armour's sameness, then another would have been an awful idea.
But I'm really enjoying English Lit. Yeah, my degree is in English lit, so I know more about the topic, which probably helps some. That isn't the big difference though. The big difference, in my considered and re-considerd opinion, is that Armour doesn't know as much about communism and/or Russian history.
In Marx the jokes rarely rise above "he was short". So, not quality humor.That's both terribly obvious and not actually amusing.
English Lit, though, that's his specialty. So the jokes are more clever, more subtle, and for that matter, probably better auditioned and rehearsed. It's easy to imagine Armour the Professor lecturing on early English poets. You're plowing through a thousand years of literature in a semester, your text is a fat, heavy Norton Anthology printed on tissue paper to fit in as many pages a possible. Some of it is familiar, or stirring, or new to you, but much of it is just a tedious droning on and on about the same tired symbolism and such. You maybe get something three things that stopped being amusing a couple of centuries back, and once in the whole class if you're lucky there's something that really amuses you. In that setting a lighthearted lecture, or a throw-away line, can really wake you back up.
So, that was an interesting thing to realize.
Library copy
But I'm really enjoying English Lit. Yeah, my degree is in English lit, so I know more about the topic, which probably helps some. That isn't the big difference though. The big difference, in my considered and re-considerd opinion, is that Armour doesn't know as much about communism and/or Russian history.
In Marx the jokes rarely rise above "he was short". So, not quality humor.That's both terribly obvious and not actually amusing.
English Lit, though, that's his specialty. So the jokes are more clever, more subtle, and for that matter, probably better auditioned and rehearsed. It's easy to imagine Armour the Professor lecturing on early English poets. You're plowing through a thousand years of literature in a semester, your text is a fat, heavy Norton Anthology printed on tissue paper to fit in as many pages a possible. Some of it is familiar, or stirring, or new to you, but much of it is just a tedious droning on and on about the same tired symbolism and such. You maybe get something three things that stopped being amusing a couple of centuries back, and once in the whole class if you're lucky there's something that really amuses you. In that setting a lighthearted lecture, or a throw-away line, can really wake you back up.
So, that was an interesting thing to realize.
Library copy
December 25, 2022
This is a little tougher if you haven't been properly schooled in the politics of Russia a century ago and the goals therein as this was penned during a very cold war. . . RA will drop a joke and you might not quite get it. . .so keep your google handy. Once you get up to speed, you'll smile, but when you have to work that hard.. . . . .a skim of the high view, tho. It's always good for us to get out of our own head (country) now and again. . . .
August 24, 2024
When I was about 13, I thought that Armour's book, "It all Started with Columbus" was brilliantly funny. It was a parody history of the United States. It was filled with silly jokes. It made fun of George Washington et. al. with puns and funny gags. It was short and it was loaded with funny drawings by Campbell Grant.
I have picked up a few of his other books over the years. I remember being amused by "English Lit Relit" and "The Classics Reclassified". They both had similar silly riffs on their topics. His Wiki entry says that authored about 60 books. Most of them were either humor books, including light verse or children's books.
I recently picked up a first edition of this one with a very good dust jacket for $3 in the street bins in front of a used bookstore. It came out in 1958.
It is Armour's typically silliness applied to Marxism. Marx's "Das Capital" is "not, as many suppose, a treatise on punctuation." or "Lenin traveled incognito, which cost a little more than third class but was worth the difference." or Stalin's "almost imperceptible smile played around his lips. (When it was tired of playing, it ducked under his mustache.)" One of his favorite tricks is to take the historical cliches and play with them.
One of the pleasures of Armour's books is that he does educate you on his subject. Under the jokes and silliness, this is a pretty good short history of Communism from Marx to Khruschev.
I did feel uncomfortable reading the book. Armour does not sugarcoat the brutality of Soviet Russia, but he does joke about it. To be fair, in 1958 knowledgeable observers knew about the Stalin purges and the Russian Gulak but not in the detail we have now. You clearly could not write this kind of book about Hitler's Germany. I think it is hard to accept this book as a good joke after reading Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" or Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror".
I don't like being the one who says this shouldn't be joked about.
I have picked up a few of his other books over the years. I remember being amused by "English Lit Relit" and "The Classics Reclassified". They both had similar silly riffs on their topics. His Wiki entry says that authored about 60 books. Most of them were either humor books, including light verse or children's books.
I recently picked up a first edition of this one with a very good dust jacket for $3 in the street bins in front of a used bookstore. It came out in 1958.
It is Armour's typically silliness applied to Marxism. Marx's "Das Capital" is "not, as many suppose, a treatise on punctuation." or "Lenin traveled incognito, which cost a little more than third class but was worth the difference." or Stalin's "almost imperceptible smile played around his lips. (When it was tired of playing, it ducked under his mustache.)" One of his favorite tricks is to take the historical cliches and play with them.
One of the pleasures of Armour's books is that he does educate you on his subject. Under the jokes and silliness, this is a pretty good short history of Communism from Marx to Khruschev.
I did feel uncomfortable reading the book. Armour does not sugarcoat the brutality of Soviet Russia, but he does joke about it. To be fair, in 1958 knowledgeable observers knew about the Stalin purges and the Russian Gulak but not in the detail we have now. You clearly could not write this kind of book about Hitler's Germany. I think it is hard to accept this book as a good joke after reading Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" or Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror".
I don't like being the one who says this shouldn't be joked about.
June 7, 2019
"Brief" this little book is. "Objective"? That's one of the jokes. Among over a hundred books (mostly about as brief as this one) Richard Armour wrote about a dozen serious, short, memorable books that presented historical facts through obvious jokes. Throughout all of these books--even when the history is grim, as the history of the Russian Revolution is--every sentence contains at least a pun, and, even more worth the study of today's comedians, all the jokes are fairly clean. Though he was better known in his lifetime as the author of short rhymed poems that appeared as fillers in magazines, I admire Armour's achievement as a stealth historian. Readers painlessly absorb at least the outlines of history by reading these joke books, and it's usually easy to distinguish facts from jokes.
What this book lacks is a denouement. Written at the height of the Cold War, it could not foresee an end to that "war." One regrets, at the end, that Armour didn't live to see that we "won." Like many successful authors of his generation, he was more liberal than he let some readers think, but as a humanitarian he would have liked to know that the Soviet Union's obsession with armaments let them down.
What this book lacks is a denouement. Written at the height of the Cold War, it could not foresee an end to that "war." One regrets, at the end, that Armour didn't live to see that we "won." Like many successful authors of his generation, he was more liberal than he let some readers think, but as a humanitarian he would have liked to know that the Soviet Union's obsession with armaments let them down.
August 11, 2021
A put down of communism, making it and his practitioners look like idiots, Great fun.
December 18, 2019
Exactly as advertised an irreverent history of communism. Written in the 60s when Americans were contending with Cuban missle crisis, a post-McCarthy era, fighting China in Korea & Vietnam and trying to blow past the Russians in the space race. Typical Armour humor and funny.
July 7, 2009
I LOVE this book.
I am re-reading and sharing it with my elder son who is of the age to begin enjoying it.
Genius
I am re-reading and sharing it with my elder son who is of the age to begin enjoying it.
Genius
November 11, 2014
A hilarious book, even if it is a period piece. Well worth reading.
April 26, 2017
First Reading:
A good book for many reasons. I have little knowledge of Russian history, although I do recognize names like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. This book did not require any prerequisite knowledge; it actually made me research a lot of Russian history to figure out where historical fact ended and Armour's humor and wit began. The author notes that Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky all changed their names in one form or another, and the idea of aliases used by real historical figures is very interesting to me. I imagine this book will reread quicker than the first go, simply because I now know more about the topic and people being parodied. A good, quick, captivating invitation to learn about history and philosophy. The book does feel a little rushed after the first chapter, but there is a lot of ground to cover and the book is only about a hundred pages.
Reader's Notes:
Foreword:
Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen:
“There is no expert knowledge of Russia, only varying degrees of ignorance” ix
I like this quote because it can be applied to many if not all bases of knowledge. Of course, something like the biology of a Leopard Frog is a little more cut-and-dry than explaining the effect of Marxism on the archetypal Russian Revolutionary
“...a crescendo in the era of Stalin, when it shows how a Georgian cobbler’s son with a bulletproof vest could rise to the top and occupy the Master Bedroom in the Kremlin” x
“A cobbler’s son with a bulletproof vest” is a wicked line. Gonna have to give that a lift.
Essentially, there was an accumulation of wealth and certain families guaranteed their dynasties with practices that were heavily industrialized and capitalist in nature. There was no shame in accumulating riches, the concerns of the state were no match for the greed of these financial hoarders, and religion was a drug that was concocted by some and fed to others in a terrible exhibition of addiction. The rising bourgeoisie affected most nations, obviously the most developed countries being most susceptible. The poor stay poor while the rich get richer, but every other country except Russia seemed to have at least one revolution per century while Russia was lagging.
Chapter 1: Karl Marx 5/5/1818-14/3/1883 (1-17)
Communism is associated with Russia because of the way it was taken up by people like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. The first specters of Communism, however, were drawn up by Karl Marx, a German philosopher who continually dodged imprisonment by fleeing between Germany, Belgium, France, and England. Born May 5 1818 in the Rhineland city of Trier, Germany, Karl Marx studied law, had poor eyesight, and wrote poetry. He attended the University of Bonn and wrote free verse before attending the University of Berlin, where he discovered Aristotle, Spinoza, Liebnitz, Bacon, and Hegelian dialectics: nothing is static, all is fluid, the dialectic is the transformation of thesis to antithesis to synthesis. Through influence and meeting all the requirements, he obtained a doctorate at the University of Jena. He started a Journal of Atheism in Bonn and a revolutionist paper in Cologne, both of which failed. He met his wife, Jenny von Westphalen, before leaving for Paris. He was writing for a revolutionist paper called Vorwarts and maintained a simmering presence until an essay calling for the assassination of the King of Prussia caused Marx to be exiled. He landed in Belgium where he grew his beard, met Friedrich Engels, and began a serious focus on class struggle. He condemned the institutions of marriage, religion, and private property, as well as the canyon between proletariat and bourgeoisie or pupil and teacher. In search of a classless society that would substitute a barter/labour system for monetary exchange, he relentlessly published and self-promoted.
In 1847 he delivered the Communist Manifesto to a convention in London, a delivery marked by his final words: “Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” By 1848 he was contributing to several papers as well as civil unrest and thus was given 24 hours to leave Brussels. He was in Cologne for awhile before he was told to leave Germany, then he spent a month in Paris before again being exiled from France. He ran to England where he joined secret organizations, gave birth to the International Working Men’s Association, and lectured on economics. He loved his family but was not a great provider. 28 Dean St., Soho. He contributed to the New York Tribune but none of his war/revolution talk was useful until the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. In 1867 he introduced the first volume of Das Kapital, in which he details his theory of change and theory of surplus value, the former being that the bourgeoisie have subtly changed social geographies to hinder the proletariat, and the latter being that heads of families are themselves surplus and valuable only to themselves. The final work was finished by Engels. Karl Marx died March 14 1883.
Research: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Horace Greeley, Alexander Nevsky
Chapter 2: Russia Before the Revolution (1888-1917) (18-31)
Marx was looking for revolution in highly industrialized and capitalist societies, a search which explains why he bounced all over Europe without considering Russia. Russia had the proletariat Marx needed: peasant farmers and lumberjacks who lived in a country that was lacking in revolutions. In short: Scythians, then Sarmatians, then Slavs. 9th Century arrives and Slavs invite Vikings. Rurik precedes Oleg who precedes Svyatoslav who gives way to Genghis Khan and the Tartars in 13th Century. Ivan III chooses the double-head eagle and Ivan IV a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible names himself the first Tsar until 1584. His son Fyodor dies 1598, the Time of Troubles lasts until 1613, then Michael Romanov begins the Romanov Dynasty. Peter the Great and Catharine the Great round out the 1700s and make Russia much bigger. Then that’s it…they lose to Japan in 1905 and get whipped in WWI. Essentially the Powers that Be in Russia did not change much from 1800-1917 and people were pissed. Rasputin was kicking around the country, spreading free love.
Research: Scythians, Sarmatians, Slavs, Vikings, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, the Romanovs, Russian history
Chapter 3: Lenin 22/4/1870-21/1/1924 (32-47)
Lenin was born in Simbirsk. His father died when he was young and his older brother was hanged for terrorism. He attended Kazan University in 1887, beginning in October and expelled by December the same year for developing bombs using lab equipment. He studied law at home but failed as a lawyer. He was arrested for smuggling illegal literature, spent fourteen months in prison, then was exiled to Siberia for three years. He married Nadezhda Krupskaya in Siberia and when they returned he went to Germany and started a paper, Iskra. He later went to London then moved the Iskra offices to Switzerland. He was a leader of the Social Democrats (Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) until he differed in opinion with another leader. Lenin and the Bolsheviks wanted a smaller core that demanded participation, while the Mensheviks were happy with card-carrying members who were occasionally active. He failed at the 1905 Russian Revolution and watched it burn from Finland as he sent speeches and propaganda into Russia from afar. He came back and started printing his own money, supervising the robbing of banks, and started Pravda.
“I have yet to meet a woman who can do these three things: understand Marx, play chess, and read a railroad timetable.” 41
I wonder how sexist Lenin was, or if he just meant it in a general polemical statement on love. There’s more going on here.
World War 1 breaks out and Lenin waits for the revolution. He is in Switzerland waiting for revolution in Italy when Russia’s Czar is ousted by the Soviet government. He races home from Switzerland and finds Kerensky, the guy in charge of the Provisional government. Kerensky forces Lenin to go incognito in Finland, but Lenin still feeds the Bolshevik propaganda machine. November 7 1917, the Bolsheviks conquer Kerensky. “Every man a dictator!” He takes over the State bank and shuts down all the newspapers except his chosen few. He establishes the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Speculation (Sabotage) known as Cheka. Civil war continued for three years. Lenin establishes Communist International.
Research: Lenin, Bolsheviks, European geography, Cossacks, Right Social Revolutionaries, Communist Party
Chapter 4: Russia under Lenin (48-55)
The working class was the base. Voting is by show of hands and the layers of Soviet officials and Commissars makes elections a constant process. The Bolshevik Party is renamed the Communist Party. Meetings take place underground, in warehouses. Politburo and Orgburo are established. Administrators are monitored like mice by hawks. Everyone spreads the word of Marx. Unrest breaks out among peasants since they are just as heavily reclassed and layered as the bureaucrats. Free love, no support for marriage. “The family is a bourgeoisie crutch.” Some live in communist barracks with shared living quarters and shared meals. Lenin dies 21 January 1924. He is embalmed and placed in Red Square.
Chapter 5: Trotsky 7/11/1879-21/8/1940 (56-65)
Born November 7 1879 in Bereslavka, Ukraine. “Complete lack of charm.” Pamphleteer. Prodigy. Champion of the common man. Falls in with radicals and gets imprisoned. In prison he marries Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Writes revolutionary songs in multiple prisons. Exiled to Siberia. Writes for the Nihilist News. Summer of 1902 he reads a copy of Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? and escapes to London to find Lenin. Exiled and escaped again and moved around Europe. He was in New York when revolution broke in 1917 so he moved to Petrograd and became Lenin’s Commissar for War. He had a loud mouth and amazing military tactics and became “Father of the Red Army.” Trotsky wanted to absorb the world with Communism, much like Lenin, but Stalin only wanted Russia. Stalin was king of the slow-play and gained power before banishing Trotsky. Trotsky moves to Mexico and works until a man bludgeons his head with a pickaxe August 21 1940.
Research: Trotsky, What Is to Be Done?, Red Army
Chapter 6: The Rise of Stalin 21/12/1879-5/3/1953 (66-74)
Born in Gori, Georgia. “Why try to lift yourself by your bootstraps when I would be glad to do it with a rope?” Early focus on colorful speeches and relating to people. Secret member of the revolutionary underground as he cobbled in his father’s shop by day. Expelled from seminary. Joined the Bolshevik party after seminary and becomes treasurer, a position which put him in charge of monthly bank robberies. Biggest robbery is in Tiflis in 1907. Emotionless and quiet, arrested and imprisoned multiple times, exiled to Siberia six times between 1903 and 1913. The time away from home gave him time to think. He focuses and refines his ideals for revolution. During this period, in 1905 he meets Lenin and “trades bombs and revolvers for lies.” 1917 joins Lenin and Trotsky in Petrograd and is named General despite serving no previous military time (like Trotsky). Adopted as one of five members of Politburo. Becomes General Secretary of the Party and assumes power when Lenin dies. “He wasn’t voted into power; he didn’t seize power. He simply noticed Lenin’s chair was empty and sat down.” Stalin supposedly contributed to Lenin’s decline in health with poor table manners and constant pestering.
Research: Stalin, Siberia.
Chapter 7: The Stalin Era (75-93)
“Overtake America.” Stalin set scientists on the trail to electrifying Russia. Workers were put on a Five-Year Plan and a slew of Stalin medals and plaques were awarded as incentives. Families were supported along with free love and procreation. Heavy industry and inventions were key focal points for Stalin. The kolkhoz or ‘Collective Farm’ was established and tractors were the pivotal mechanization of peasant farming. Women were emancipated and put to work in all sectors of industry. There was a rise in literacy and Trotsky was made an Enemy of the State. Pavlov discovered some neat conditioning in dogs. Religion was attacked and God was considered ‘a prejudice of the middle class’. The Purge Trials were undertaken by Andrei Vishinsky and were aimed at clearing out the Old Bolshevik members and others who might plot against Stalin. May Day is invented to marvel at weapons and flex military muscle. Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939 and is then attacked by Germany, so Stalin begins meeting first with Churchill and Roosevelt then Attlee and Truman. After WWII Stalin now wants to spread Communism worldwide and begins absorbing smaller bordering countries as well as spreading into America and Asia. He dies in 1953 and is placed alongside Lenin.
Research: Alexei Stakhanov, The Doctors’ Plot, WWII, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, Pavlov
Chapter 8: After Stalin (94-104)
Georgi Malenkov takes power after Stalin dies. Malenkov is Stalin’s protege and rose in the Party during the 1937-1938 Purge Trials. Eventually Malenkov resigns and Nikolai Bulganin becomes Premier and Nikita Khruschev becomes Secretary of the Central Committee. They form a collective leadership that blamed Stalin for everything. Khruschev eventually flips and has Malenkov, Molotov, and Kasanovich removed from the Central Leadership. While Khruschev is still pushing scientists, Stanislav V Sputnik suggests a rocket to the moon. The rocket fails but it triggers the Space Race.
Research: Georgi Malenkov, Nikita Khruschev, Sputnik, Space Race, Cold War
A good book for many reasons. I have little knowledge of Russian history, although I do recognize names like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. This book did not require any prerequisite knowledge; it actually made me research a lot of Russian history to figure out where historical fact ended and Armour's humor and wit began. The author notes that Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky all changed their names in one form or another, and the idea of aliases used by real historical figures is very interesting to me. I imagine this book will reread quicker than the first go, simply because I now know more about the topic and people being parodied. A good, quick, captivating invitation to learn about history and philosophy. The book does feel a little rushed after the first chapter, but there is a lot of ground to cover and the book is only about a hundred pages.
Reader's Notes:
Foreword:
Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen:
“There is no expert knowledge of Russia, only varying degrees of ignorance” ix
I like this quote because it can be applied to many if not all bases of knowledge. Of course, something like the biology of a Leopard Frog is a little more cut-and-dry than explaining the effect of Marxism on the archetypal Russian Revolutionary
“...a crescendo in the era of Stalin, when it shows how a Georgian cobbler’s son with a bulletproof vest could rise to the top and occupy the Master Bedroom in the Kremlin” x
“A cobbler’s son with a bulletproof vest” is a wicked line. Gonna have to give that a lift.
Essentially, there was an accumulation of wealth and certain families guaranteed their dynasties with practices that were heavily industrialized and capitalist in nature. There was no shame in accumulating riches, the concerns of the state were no match for the greed of these financial hoarders, and religion was a drug that was concocted by some and fed to others in a terrible exhibition of addiction. The rising bourgeoisie affected most nations, obviously the most developed countries being most susceptible. The poor stay poor while the rich get richer, but every other country except Russia seemed to have at least one revolution per century while Russia was lagging.
Chapter 1: Karl Marx 5/5/1818-14/3/1883 (1-17)
Communism is associated with Russia because of the way it was taken up by people like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. The first specters of Communism, however, were drawn up by Karl Marx, a German philosopher who continually dodged imprisonment by fleeing between Germany, Belgium, France, and England. Born May 5 1818 in the Rhineland city of Trier, Germany, Karl Marx studied law, had poor eyesight, and wrote poetry. He attended the University of Bonn and wrote free verse before attending the University of Berlin, where he discovered Aristotle, Spinoza, Liebnitz, Bacon, and Hegelian dialectics: nothing is static, all is fluid, the dialectic is the transformation of thesis to antithesis to synthesis. Through influence and meeting all the requirements, he obtained a doctorate at the University of Jena. He started a Journal of Atheism in Bonn and a revolutionist paper in Cologne, both of which failed. He met his wife, Jenny von Westphalen, before leaving for Paris. He was writing for a revolutionist paper called Vorwarts and maintained a simmering presence until an essay calling for the assassination of the King of Prussia caused Marx to be exiled. He landed in Belgium where he grew his beard, met Friedrich Engels, and began a serious focus on class struggle. He condemned the institutions of marriage, religion, and private property, as well as the canyon between proletariat and bourgeoisie or pupil and teacher. In search of a classless society that would substitute a barter/labour system for monetary exchange, he relentlessly published and self-promoted.
In 1847 he delivered the Communist Manifesto to a convention in London, a delivery marked by his final words: “Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” By 1848 he was contributing to several papers as well as civil unrest and thus was given 24 hours to leave Brussels. He was in Cologne for awhile before he was told to leave Germany, then he spent a month in Paris before again being exiled from France. He ran to England where he joined secret organizations, gave birth to the International Working Men’s Association, and lectured on economics. He loved his family but was not a great provider. 28 Dean St., Soho. He contributed to the New York Tribune but none of his war/revolution talk was useful until the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. In 1867 he introduced the first volume of Das Kapital, in which he details his theory of change and theory of surplus value, the former being that the bourgeoisie have subtly changed social geographies to hinder the proletariat, and the latter being that heads of families are themselves surplus and valuable only to themselves. The final work was finished by Engels. Karl Marx died March 14 1883.
Research: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Horace Greeley, Alexander Nevsky
Chapter 2: Russia Before the Revolution (1888-1917) (18-31)
Marx was looking for revolution in highly industrialized and capitalist societies, a search which explains why he bounced all over Europe without considering Russia. Russia had the proletariat Marx needed: peasant farmers and lumberjacks who lived in a country that was lacking in revolutions. In short: Scythians, then Sarmatians, then Slavs. 9th Century arrives and Slavs invite Vikings. Rurik precedes Oleg who precedes Svyatoslav who gives way to Genghis Khan and the Tartars in 13th Century. Ivan III chooses the double-head eagle and Ivan IV a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible names himself the first Tsar until 1584. His son Fyodor dies 1598, the Time of Troubles lasts until 1613, then Michael Romanov begins the Romanov Dynasty. Peter the Great and Catharine the Great round out the 1700s and make Russia much bigger. Then that’s it…they lose to Japan in 1905 and get whipped in WWI. Essentially the Powers that Be in Russia did not change much from 1800-1917 and people were pissed. Rasputin was kicking around the country, spreading free love.
Research: Scythians, Sarmatians, Slavs, Vikings, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, the Romanovs, Russian history
Chapter 3: Lenin 22/4/1870-21/1/1924 (32-47)
Lenin was born in Simbirsk. His father died when he was young and his older brother was hanged for terrorism. He attended Kazan University in 1887, beginning in October and expelled by December the same year for developing bombs using lab equipment. He studied law at home but failed as a lawyer. He was arrested for smuggling illegal literature, spent fourteen months in prison, then was exiled to Siberia for three years. He married Nadezhda Krupskaya in Siberia and when they returned he went to Germany and started a paper, Iskra. He later went to London then moved the Iskra offices to Switzerland. He was a leader of the Social Democrats (Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) until he differed in opinion with another leader. Lenin and the Bolsheviks wanted a smaller core that demanded participation, while the Mensheviks were happy with card-carrying members who were occasionally active. He failed at the 1905 Russian Revolution and watched it burn from Finland as he sent speeches and propaganda into Russia from afar. He came back and started printing his own money, supervising the robbing of banks, and started Pravda.
“I have yet to meet a woman who can do these three things: understand Marx, play chess, and read a railroad timetable.” 41
I wonder how sexist Lenin was, or if he just meant it in a general polemical statement on love. There’s more going on here.
World War 1 breaks out and Lenin waits for the revolution. He is in Switzerland waiting for revolution in Italy when Russia’s Czar is ousted by the Soviet government. He races home from Switzerland and finds Kerensky, the guy in charge of the Provisional government. Kerensky forces Lenin to go incognito in Finland, but Lenin still feeds the Bolshevik propaganda machine. November 7 1917, the Bolsheviks conquer Kerensky. “Every man a dictator!” He takes over the State bank and shuts down all the newspapers except his chosen few. He establishes the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Speculation (Sabotage) known as Cheka. Civil war continued for three years. Lenin establishes Communist International.
Research: Lenin, Bolsheviks, European geography, Cossacks, Right Social Revolutionaries, Communist Party
Chapter 4: Russia under Lenin (48-55)
The working class was the base. Voting is by show of hands and the layers of Soviet officials and Commissars makes elections a constant process. The Bolshevik Party is renamed the Communist Party. Meetings take place underground, in warehouses. Politburo and Orgburo are established. Administrators are monitored like mice by hawks. Everyone spreads the word of Marx. Unrest breaks out among peasants since they are just as heavily reclassed and layered as the bureaucrats. Free love, no support for marriage. “The family is a bourgeoisie crutch.” Some live in communist barracks with shared living quarters and shared meals. Lenin dies 21 January 1924. He is embalmed and placed in Red Square.
Chapter 5: Trotsky 7/11/1879-21/8/1940 (56-65)
Born November 7 1879 in Bereslavka, Ukraine. “Complete lack of charm.” Pamphleteer. Prodigy. Champion of the common man. Falls in with radicals and gets imprisoned. In prison he marries Alexandra Sokolovskaya. Writes revolutionary songs in multiple prisons. Exiled to Siberia. Writes for the Nihilist News. Summer of 1902 he reads a copy of Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? and escapes to London to find Lenin. Exiled and escaped again and moved around Europe. He was in New York when revolution broke in 1917 so he moved to Petrograd and became Lenin’s Commissar for War. He had a loud mouth and amazing military tactics and became “Father of the Red Army.” Trotsky wanted to absorb the world with Communism, much like Lenin, but Stalin only wanted Russia. Stalin was king of the slow-play and gained power before banishing Trotsky. Trotsky moves to Mexico and works until a man bludgeons his head with a pickaxe August 21 1940.
Research: Trotsky, What Is to Be Done?, Red Army
Chapter 6: The Rise of Stalin 21/12/1879-5/3/1953 (66-74)
Born in Gori, Georgia. “Why try to lift yourself by your bootstraps when I would be glad to do it with a rope?” Early focus on colorful speeches and relating to people. Secret member of the revolutionary underground as he cobbled in his father’s shop by day. Expelled from seminary. Joined the Bolshevik party after seminary and becomes treasurer, a position which put him in charge of monthly bank robberies. Biggest robbery is in Tiflis in 1907. Emotionless and quiet, arrested and imprisoned multiple times, exiled to Siberia six times between 1903 and 1913. The time away from home gave him time to think. He focuses and refines his ideals for revolution. During this period, in 1905 he meets Lenin and “trades bombs and revolvers for lies.” 1917 joins Lenin and Trotsky in Petrograd and is named General despite serving no previous military time (like Trotsky). Adopted as one of five members of Politburo. Becomes General Secretary of the Party and assumes power when Lenin dies. “He wasn’t voted into power; he didn’t seize power. He simply noticed Lenin’s chair was empty and sat down.” Stalin supposedly contributed to Lenin’s decline in health with poor table manners and constant pestering.
Research: Stalin, Siberia.
Chapter 7: The Stalin Era (75-93)
“Overtake America.” Stalin set scientists on the trail to electrifying Russia. Workers were put on a Five-Year Plan and a slew of Stalin medals and plaques were awarded as incentives. Families were supported along with free love and procreation. Heavy industry and inventions were key focal points for Stalin. The kolkhoz or ‘Collective Farm’ was established and tractors were the pivotal mechanization of peasant farming. Women were emancipated and put to work in all sectors of industry. There was a rise in literacy and Trotsky was made an Enemy of the State. Pavlov discovered some neat conditioning in dogs. Religion was attacked and God was considered ‘a prejudice of the middle class’. The Purge Trials were undertaken by Andrei Vishinsky and were aimed at clearing out the Old Bolshevik members and others who might plot against Stalin. May Day is invented to marvel at weapons and flex military muscle. Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939 and is then attacked by Germany, so Stalin begins meeting first with Churchill and Roosevelt then Attlee and Truman. After WWII Stalin now wants to spread Communism worldwide and begins absorbing smaller bordering countries as well as spreading into America and Asia. He dies in 1953 and is placed alongside Lenin.
Research: Alexei Stakhanov, The Doctors’ Plot, WWII, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, Pavlov
Chapter 8: After Stalin (94-104)
Georgi Malenkov takes power after Stalin dies. Malenkov is Stalin’s protege and rose in the Party during the 1937-1938 Purge Trials. Eventually Malenkov resigns and Nikolai Bulganin becomes Premier and Nikita Khruschev becomes Secretary of the Central Committee. They form a collective leadership that blamed Stalin for everything. Khruschev eventually flips and has Malenkov, Molotov, and Kasanovich removed from the Central Leadership. While Khruschev is still pushing scientists, Stanislav V Sputnik suggests a rocket to the moon. The rocket fails but it triggers the Space Race.
Research: Georgi Malenkov, Nikita Khruschev, Sputnik, Space Race, Cold War
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews