"Truth Behind Bars": Reflections on the Fate of the Russian Revolution

by Paul Kellogg

Just north of the Arctic Circle is the settlement of Vorkuta, a notorious camp in the Gulag internment system that witnessed three pivotal moments in Russian history. In the 1930s, a desperate hunger strike by socialist prisoners, victims of Joseph Stalin’s repressive regime, resulted in mass executions. In 1953, a strike by forced laborers sounded the death knell for the Stalinist forced labor system. And finally, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of strikes by new, independent miners’ unions were central to overturning the Stalinist system.

In this book, Paul Kellogg uses the story of Vorkuta as a frame with which to re-assess the Russian Revolution. In particular, he turns to the contributions of Iulii Martov, a contemporary of Lenin, and his analysis of the central role played in the revolution by a temporary class of peasants-in-uniform. Kellogg explores the persistence and creativity of workers’ resistance in even the darkest hours of authoritarian repression and offers new perspectives on the failure of democratic governance after the Russian Revolution. 

412 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2020

Reviews

[Ravi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very surprising and wide ranging account that anyone interested in socialism and the relationship of the Bolshevik revolution to contemporary times should carefully read. It marks the end of a lifetime journey for the author who has the courage to rethink his earlier ideas to question core beliefs. I am sure I would gain more insight upon re-reading. I learned so much about events that have been lost in the mists of time from the Vorkuta prison camps to the Gurian Republic (1902-06) in Georgia to the illuminating role of the socialist activist Martov. Kellogg puts aside sectarian dogma to pierce below the surface. In doing so, Kellogg captures the importance of a humanist spirit and of fundamental decency as the core value in building a better world. The ends cannot justify the means. A minor quibble: I am not always entirely convinced by his discussion of offensive language used in the past which at times seems slightly ahistorical but that in no way detracts from the fine quality of the prose. In that sense it reminds me of work by Samuel Farber and his Before Stalinism which should be read alongside this text.