La Revolución rusa (Quintaesencia)

by Christopher Hill

Este libro del gran historiador Christopher Hill trata de establecer el lugar que deben ocupar en la historia Lenin «y la Revolución que fue la obra de su vida», y constituye al mismo tiempo una introducción indispensable a la historia de la Revolución rusa.

Un clásico entre los clásicos. Un texto seguido por varias generaciones de estudiantes que vuelve al catálogo de Ariel con motivo del centenario de la Revolución rusa.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Russia, Soviet Union, Lenin, Biography

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1947

About the author

John Edward Christopher Hill was the pre-eminent historian of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English history, and one of the most distinguished historians of recent times. Fellow historian E.P. Thompson once referred to him as the dean and paragon of English historians.

He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II, he served in the Russian department of the British Foreign Office, returning to teach at Oxford after the war.

From 1958-1965 he was University Lecturer in 16th- and 17th-century history, and from 1965-1978 he was Master of Balliol College. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the British Academy. He received numerous honorary degrees over the course of his career, including the Hon. Dr. Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1979.

Hill was an active Marxist and a member of the Communist Party from approximately 1934-1957, falling out with the Party after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprisings of 1956.

In their obituary, The Guardian wrote of Hill:

"Christopher Hill…was the commanding interpreter of 17th-century England, and of much else besides.…it was as the defining Marxist historian of the century of revolution, the title of one of the most widely studied of his many books, that he became known to generations of students around the world. For all these, too, he will always be the master." [http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/...]

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to know two things about this book. First, it was written in 1947. Second, it was written by a Communist. It is important to know these things because, while this is a well written, concise, and insightful book on its subjects, it suffers from several major flaws resulting from these two facts.

For one, in 1947 the Soviet Union stood as the liberator of half of Europe from Nazism. It was an erstwhile ally of the west and a rapidly industrialising superpower. At that point, the whole Soviet experiment might have been deemed a success. Of course, we now know that it was doomed, though that might only have been apparent to some more astute economists in 1947.

Another problem is the lack of access to sources. Any account of the murderous mayhem of the 1930s is totally absent. The Kulaks simply "wither away" in the way the Communist state never quite got around to doing. In fact, several millions of them were brutally slaughtered by the Communists.

This brings us to Hill's communism. He was a member of the Communist Party Historians Group. To his lasting shame, unlike E. P. Thompson, he remained in the party after the brutal crackdown in Hungary in 1956. One wonders if his whitewashing of the history of the Soviet Union is entirely down to the the sources available to him. Hill's bizarre, glowing account of the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe post-World War Two suggests not.

All that said, Lenin was one of the most remarkable men of the 20th century and this book gives a very clear idea of why. With its authors biases in mind, it is not a bad introduction.

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

More interesting as a way into the mind of western communists than as a way to learn about Lenin, but it's short and well-written.

[Jack Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

D'ya want agrarian reform with that..? What a star

[Moravian1297 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short and somewhat potted attempt, looking at where Lenin and his life's work, the Russian Revolution, lie in history.

Although I was previously aware of a fair bit of the book's content, much of it covered in considerably more detail in Bertram D. Wolfe's, 'Three Who Made a Revolution, A Biographical History of Lenin, Trotsky & Stalin', there was a smattering of things I just hadn't known, like, that it was extremely difficult to join the Russian Communist Party, in its formative years. Only on two occasions were the doors to party membership thrown aside for mass enrolment. In 1919, when the White Army were outside Moscow and the outcome of the civil war looked perilous, and on the death of the main man himself, Lenin in 1924. Speaking of which, the book did seem to understandably be in a permanent state of mourning and very much lamented the premature and untimely death of Vladimir Lenin.
I discovered the meaning of the word 'Mir', in the context of the book, a 'village comnune', but also, 'the world', 'universe' and 'peace', making the future Russian space station very appropriately named!

It was also refreshing reading about the Russian Revolution from the perspective of someone with great socialist bona fides, unlike the highly unprofessional and rabidly anti-communist dogs dinner we had served up by Antony Beevor a few years back, albeit, it was a rarity for that author to come across in such an egregiously pejorative manner, but still, it was bad, really, really bad!

However, it's always a pleasure, reading about the likes of WWI, Russian Commander-in-Chief, Dukhonin, getting lynched by his own rank and file Russian soldiery, excellent.
This book is still worth a read, and it doesn't take long.

[Angel Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1947. Does a good job of highlighting the most important theoritical contributions of Lenin to marxism (Imperialism, State and Revolution, Left-Wing Communism). Also provides a good look into the kind of person Lenin was and what the average Russian peasant believed about the revolution of 1917 and Lenin.

Provides solid insight on how the failures of tsarist russia and the growing influence of foreign capital led to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

[Gonzalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alguén xa dixo que a editorial podería ter mantido o título orixinal, aínda que o autor deixa claro na introdución que o libro non é unha historia da revolución calquera, senón unha historia de “Lenin e a revolución rusa.” Nese aspecto, penso que o libro non está mal. Para aqueles que sabemos pouco sobre Lenin e/a revolución está ben lembrar o que dixo (e fixo), e non asumir a historia da Unión Soviética como un todo indivisíbel do que escoller o peor de cada caso. Agora ben, pola miña banda coido que xa chega de “Breves Historias da Revolución Rusa.” Sempre estiven intimidado polos dous volumes de Trotski, e o libro de Orlando Figues non semella moito máis breve, pero con todos os problemas que poidan ter cando menos terán algo máis de detalle. E detalle é algo que lle falta ao libro de Hill. Se gostei das citas (sen referencias) aos escritos de Lenin, botei e falla non xa unha análise polo miúdo, senón canto menos algo máis de información para entender as circunstancias. Se algo queda claro neste libro é que Lenin era un home práctico, pero para poder entender ben as súas decisións cómpre entendermos o contexto no que foron feitas. Igual na Inglaterra de posguerra a xente estaba mellor informada, pero a min fáltanme datos. Como primeira aproximación á revolución non está mal de todo, pero como axuda para entender mellor a Lenin non chega.

[Armando Sousa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tal como sugiere el título original, Lenin y la Revolución Rusa, en este libro se pueden leer las principales lineas de lo que fue la revolución bolchevique, desde su idealización hasta su puesta en práctica, siempre con Vladimir Illitch Uliánov como dínamo teórico y práctico.

[Thomas Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short and concise analysis of Lenin's role in the Russian Revolution is definitely a great starting point for newcomers to the study of the early Soviet Union and the Revolutions that created it.

[Magdalena Popova · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was written in 1947 by a western ~communist. With that in mind, this book slays.

[Paolo Aglietti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book surprised me a lot, but in an excellent way. Often, when intellectuals write about communism, they drown themselves with unclear theoretical and philosophical stuff. But in this work, Christopher Hill manage to give a clear, precise, efficient description of the events of 1917 in Russia, and of the major role of Lenin ideas and actions.
If you don't know much about the beginnings of Soviet Union, this can be a really good book to start. It's short, sticks to the facts, and shows us that even if one century has passed since the October Revolution, it is still our main model to observe in order to get rid of capitalism and progress to a communist society.

Workers of the world, unite!

[Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good intro to the russian revolution and lenin's thought

[Mukaddes Canpolat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Neresi düzeltilir bu kitabın bilmiyorum. Tarihi ideolojik bir körlükle yazmanın sonucu sanıyorum. Tahnit meselesinde Troçki'ye Batıcı mülteci diyen Hill aynı ifadeleri Krupskaya için de kullanabilir mi? [Bir tarih kitabı olma iddiasını taşıyan metinde bu ifade kullanımı ne kadar doğru, diye sormuyorum bile]. Dış ticarette devlet tekeli meselesinde Troçki'yle Merkez Komitesi'nde blok kurduğundan niçin bahsedilmemiş (Lenin'in tek kurşun atmadan mevziyi kazandık şeklindeki Troçki'ye gönderdiği mesajdan hiç bahsetmiyorum) veya 1922 ve 1923'teki mektuplarından? (Lenin'in Stalin'e Rus şovenisti ve kabadayı dediği, görevden alınmasıni istediği mektuplar) Tarih ne oldu sorusuna cevap vermektir. Ne oldu sorusuna verilecek cevap da pek tabii eldeki malzemeyle değerlendirilir. Hill bunu yazdığında ne oldu sorusuna verilecek cevabı için yeterli malzemesi olmasına rağmen görmezden gelmesi ancak ideolojik körlükle açıklanabilir. Zinn'in ifadesiyle tarihçinin bir özne olarak tarihe etkisi sorduğu soruyla ilgilidir verdiği cevapta ise subjektif olmak mecburiyetindedir. Bu manada -bu kitap çerçevesinde- Hill'e tarihçi diyebilmek güç.

[Epithalasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antes de nada, hay que señalar que se trata de la traducción de 1969 de una obra escrita a finales de los cuarenta, por lo que las conclusiones y el entusiasmo de Hill por el futuro de la URSS son más un testimonio de un momento histórico que unas conclusiones historiográficas.
Dicho esto, también debe recordarse que el título original es "Lenin y la Revolución Rusa". Por tanto, nos encontramos ante un gran ejercicio de síntesis y contextualización del pensamiento y praxis leninista durante los años de la Revolución. Es decir, se trata de una obra eminentemente de historia política, intelectual, de las mentalidades y necesariamente social por la etapa que estudia. Ahí es donde reside su principal valor.
Más allá, su extensión y su estilo la hacen una obra muy asequible y entretenida (qué bien escriben los marxistas ingleses). Y como todos los mejores libros de historia, no tiene ni una nota al pie (aunque esto puede ser cosa de la edición).
En definitiva, es un librito bastante recomendable.

[Marikiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Los de Arial podían haber traducido el libro correctamente y llamarlo Lenin y la Revolución Rusa, porque toda la construcción del texto gira en torno a su figura. La narrativa es sencilla y didáctica y considero que es un buen libro para tener las nociones básicas sobre la revolución y el personaje de Lenin. Eso sí, este libro se publicó en 1947 y, por lo tanto, cuando el autor habla de "los contemporáneos" hay que tener en cuenta que se refiere al contexto global de hace más de 70 años. Por otro lado, Christopher Hill es uno de los representantes británicos de la historiografía marxista y, como es normal, desde su punto de vista todo es muy chachi-guay xDD Lo que sí es verdad es que se incluyen muchos fragmentos de Lenin, del que se podrán decir muchas cosas, desde luego; pero nunca que estuviese falto de autocrítica. Lástima que el autor no haya incluido una reflexión sobre su Carta al Congreso del 1922-1923, pero bueno, no puede pedirse todo :)

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Hill, a well respected Marxist historian, gives us a concise introduction to Lenin the man and ‘an assessment of the place of Lenin and the revolution which was his life’s work in history.’
Originally written in 1946 Hill’s admiration for his subject is clear and it’s refreshing to hear again the aspirations of the revolution before the realities of man’s imperfections twisted it into something unrecognisable.
Lenin said that there would be huge mistakes and failures because nothing like this had ever been attempted before, there were no plans and blueprints for progress to a socialist society.
Hill gives us some of the vision, excitement and single minded determination of Lenin and shares his belief that such a society is a goal worth aiming for. At a time when sleaze and cynicism are the political currency and racism and nationalism seem to give comfort to the far right this book was a welcome antidote.

[Michael Sturza]

Much as I (critically) admire the historian Christopher Hill, this book is dreadful both politically and as a literary piece. It was, to Hill's credit, an attempt to defend the Russian Revolution in the early years of the cold war (the late 1940s), when Churchill was ranting about the "iron curtain," and the U.S. government was preparing to go on the anti-Communist offensive at home and abroad, in part in reaction to the massive workers' strikes of 1946. This book, however, adopts the method of defending Stalin (the "organizer of defeats") most often by quoting Lenin, (whose politics Stalin had betrayed and abandoned), in the most idolatrous tones. There are excellent reasons to carefully read Lenin's works, but none for this book.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concise and informative text. It goes over the war, opposition to Tsarism, and other factors that would lead to the Russian revolution. It also reflects how Lenin applied Marxism to the conditions of Russia and the political struggles this entailed. I would highly recommend this text for anyone interested in the study of Marxism-Leninism, socialism, Lenin as a political figure, and the proletarian nature of the Russian revolution. It is historically factual while also analyzing the ideological conceptions of the time. Hill avoids any dogmatic or religious worship of history, instead providing a material accounting of the political and economic events that shape it. Short, well-written, and historically fascinating, this book is worth a read.

[Micaela *CLONAZINE* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy interesante. Te hace un paneo general de la Rusia pre-revolucionaria y después de la revolución, bastante resumido pero trata de explicarte toda la vida y obra de Lenin y diferentes momentos históricos de Rusia

[Davide Di Legge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un saggio in cui l'autore tende a fare l'agiografia di Lenin senza che a questo corrisponda però un'analisi approfondita in grado di sostenere quelle che spesso sembrano essere prese di posizione ideologico-politiche da parte dell'autore.

[Nicholas Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the broad but still concise focus of the book compared to other pieces on the topic. Hill presents an interesting take with an interesting perspective centred on Lenin but still exploring the revolution.

Perhaps more on the events needed?

[Jfmarhuenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

No entiendo la reedición. El libro ha quedado muy obsoleto y solamente es posible leerlo desde la amarga sonrisa del que descubre la propaganda comercial en una serie que le gusta.

[Thubten Palmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Necessary reading for those who want to understand the vantage point of western communist historians like Hill and Hobsbawm. Best read as a historical document for obvious reasons

[sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

christopher has some communist hot takes but hey don’t we all

[Ramon de la Cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buena literatura para iniciar conociendo la revolución rusa y sus características.

[Mohammed Abdeldayem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I struggled with the unsourced quotes Hill included in his book since he did not , I still think it's a great read to gain a basic understanding of Lenin and the Russian Revolution.

[Lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

revolution for farmers