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Works #1
Works, Volume 1: 1901-1907
This translation of J. V. Stalin's Works has been made from the text of the Russian edition prepared by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute of the Central Committee, CPSU. Some of J.V. Stalin's works given in Volumes 1 and 2 of the Russian edition of the Works are translations from the Georgian. This is indicated at the end of each of the works concerned.
447 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
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About the author
Joseph Stalin
537 books422 followersJoseph Stalin, originally Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, was a Soviet revolutionary, politician and statesman who became the leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953).
Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated power to become an informal dictator by the 1930s. Ideologically adhering to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism.
Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated power to become an informal dictator by the 1930s. Ideologically adhering to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism.
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January 18, 2024“...the chief arena of the struggle is still the street, and not the Duma."
The early writings. Lots of obscure arguments with helpful endnotes giving thorough historical political context. But of course the most famous text here in "Anarchism or Socialism," far less obscure and still relevant today. Are all those masked antifa types burning down small businesses grounding themselves in the socialist tradition? Believe it or not more than 100 earlier Stalin had something to say about such hooligans.
Not many English speakers read or study Stalin. As the childish and silly stance among American Marxists that "Stalin wasn't a TRUE Marxist" becomes less and less tenable, hopefully we'll see this change. Two of the most powerful leaders today, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, continue to cite Stalin as relevant to their own governing projects, and it's time more ppl (especially Marxists) in the West take him seriously too.
This edition also includes a thorough biographical timeline at the end, including strikes Stalin led, which factories he led them at, and times he was arrested.
The early writings. Lots of obscure arguments with helpful endnotes giving thorough historical political context. But of course the most famous text here in "Anarchism or Socialism," far less obscure and still relevant today. Are all those masked antifa types burning down small businesses grounding themselves in the socialist tradition? Believe it or not more than 100 earlier Stalin had something to say about such hooligans.
Not many English speakers read or study Stalin. As the childish and silly stance among American Marxists that "Stalin wasn't a TRUE Marxist" becomes less and less tenable, hopefully we'll see this change. Two of the most powerful leaders today, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, continue to cite Stalin as relevant to their own governing projects, and it's time more ppl (especially Marxists) in the West take him seriously too.
This edition also includes a thorough biographical timeline at the end, including strikes Stalin led, which factories he led them at, and times he was arrested.
March 28, 2023
Containing some of the earliest works of Stalin when he was still a young Bolshevik in Transcaucasia, a great wealth of info, from the author's first-hand accounts, is to be found here on the early struggle in the R.S.D.L.P. between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, the development of the 1905 Revolution, and the struggle for a scientific socialist line among the Marxists of the Russian Empire.
In this volume is also contained a number of short pieces in which is outlined Stalin's early estimate of the national question, a question on which, as he would prove time and time again - most famously in his Marxism and the National Question - Stalin was a master.
Perhaps one of the most important things to recall about this volume is the preface from Stalin himself, always a modest and humble man who would not tolerate flattery, written 1946, saying that this volume "must be regarded as the works of a young Marxist not yet moulded into a finished Marxist-Leninist." Stalin continues: "It is natural therefore that these works should bear traces of some of the propositions of the old Marxists which afterwards became obsolete and were subsequently discarded by our Party." (p. XVII)
Certainly, not everything in this volume will find use among Marxists today, especially, as Stalin says in his preface, on the issues of the agrarian programme and the final victory of socialism. But what the reader will find, and will find in the early works of Lenin too, is a wealth of information on the struggle of Bolshevism against Menshevism and economism, the earliest elaboration of how the Leninist Party should operate and what role it must play, and an elaboration of the revolutionary line of the Bolsheviks.
From cover to cover, as the subsequent volumes of the works of Stalin undoubtedly prove too, a re-affirmation of the position of Stalin as the fourth classic of Marxism and an eminent Bolshevik to whose works must be studied by all Marxists to come.
In this volume is also contained a number of short pieces in which is outlined Stalin's early estimate of the national question, a question on which, as he would prove time and time again - most famously in his Marxism and the National Question - Stalin was a master.
Perhaps one of the most important things to recall about this volume is the preface from Stalin himself, always a modest and humble man who would not tolerate flattery, written 1946, saying that this volume "must be regarded as the works of a young Marxist not yet moulded into a finished Marxist-Leninist." Stalin continues: "It is natural therefore that these works should bear traces of some of the propositions of the old Marxists which afterwards became obsolete and were subsequently discarded by our Party." (p. XVII)
Certainly, not everything in this volume will find use among Marxists today, especially, as Stalin says in his preface, on the issues of the agrarian programme and the final victory of socialism. But what the reader will find, and will find in the early works of Lenin too, is a wealth of information on the struggle of Bolshevism against Menshevism and economism, the earliest elaboration of how the Leninist Party should operate and what role it must play, and an elaboration of the revolutionary line of the Bolsheviks.
From cover to cover, as the subsequent volumes of the works of Stalin undoubtedly prove too, a re-affirmation of the position of Stalin as the fourth classic of Marxism and an eminent Bolshevik to whose works must be studied by all Marxists to come.
June 10, 2022
Great for getting the taste of how to turn masses into followers. But the philosophy is, in places, inconsistent.
January 1, 2022
As always, I very much enjoy reading Stalin's writings. Him, Lenin, and Mao I believe have some of the most readable works for the common man, compared to the dense yet still extraordinary texts of Marx. What I enjoyed about this specific volume was tracking the events prior to, during, and after the 1905 Russian Revolution. Like his predecessor, Stalin does not hold back on those Mensheviks in the RSDLP who went around touting the words of Marx and Engel as if they had simply skimmed through Capital while on the loo. I hope one day to purchase the entire collection of works in this series for my library.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews