I’m halfway through Parenti’s Blackshirt and Reds, I’ll post about it when I finish it, like I did for Mark Fisher’s Capitalism Realism, but I actually want to ask where can I know more about the Soviet Union as a whole and about the criticism Parenti does in the book alongside any other issue it might have had?
In Chapter 4 - Communism in Wonderland, Parenti does an actual critique of socialist experiences and it’s, in very broad terms, basically how issues ranged from lack of incentive to corruption, what’s funny is that some of the stuff he presented there is actually stuff I have seen here in Brasil, for different reasons usually, yet still something that happens here, and probably that also happens on other capitalist countries. But what I’m interested really is in how much of what he’s talking about is still considered true given that it’s been 29 years since the book was released and there could be more information about these issues that he might not have had access to at the time. I think I get why he didn’t really expand much into these issues in the book since it feels like the book is structured as a quick read to dispel the myths liberals kept and still keeps parroting to this day.
I know Hakim did a video about Soviet mistakes, but these are not really issues he touches in that video IIRC.
If you want something specifically about Stalin and the Stalin era I recommend Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend. Most of Grover Furr’s works are also good for this era.
I just ordered that earlier today because a lib I know keeps crying Stalin every time anyone talks to him about communism. Next time I see him I’ll make sure to mention communism in passing and when he starts seething, I’ll pull out my copy and ask him how much time he has.
Oh I have this book on my radar already alongside Furr’s works, thanks! I was mostly thinking about the Soviet Union in general. Maybe comrade @Cowbee@hexbear.net have some other recommendations since they are very well read. (Sorry for the tagging comrade, but you’re the goat)
Thanks so much! I have skimmed and used the various books made in epub format by comrade @edie@lemmy.encryptionin.space over on Comrade’s Library! I also have read the part of Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend hosted on Red Sails, and skimmed a lot of the rest, and found it fantastic at countering bourgeois mythos.
Thanks for the library recommendation comrade, I’ll take alook at it tomorrow, and I’ll surely read the Losurdo books at some point. Yours and the other comrades recommendations are appreciated!
Do you have any specific recommendations for general issues on the Soviet Union?
I’m kind of interested in some of the issues Parenti mentioned in his book but that he didn’t really expand upon much like I mentioned in the body of the post. These are issues I have heard about avery now and then but never went around looking for sources about it.
Albert Syzmanski’s books on economics and human rights are good, they give a good overview of what the Soviet Union was actually like, same with Anna Louise Strong’s works. I’m not aware of any work by Marxists that focuses on problems without contextualizing them, and it must be said that Parenti wrote this in the aftermath of the dissolution, causing some skepticism towards the entire project even if he upheld it.
Thanks for the recommendations! Marxist works contextualizing are completely fine, I just want to have the knowledge to properly criticize at least some part of the Soviet Union because it’s some context I lack and something I need to know to properly understand what errors so we don’t make them again.
Parenti wrote this in the aftermath of the dissolution, causing some skepticism towards the entire project even if he upheld it
Yeah thought that might have been the case, he even cites Khrushchev’s speech even tho he doesn’t confirm nor deny it, but I guess is to be expected from the time. Regardless this book is really good and I’m enjoying reading it, I saw you recommending it to libs a lot and I can see why, it’s great at dispelling some of the most common lies and reactionary talking points we face.
Yep, thanks! Parenti is a great way to dip your toes into “maybe the USSR wasn’t so bad after all,” but as far as history goes he’s actually more negative on it than modern historiography, based on the opening of the Soviet archives and primary sources. Parenti is an excellent writer, and is more of a “pro-Marxist” than a Marxist, if that makes sense.
Modern critique of the Soviet Union largely comes from China and other socialist countries that had to grapple with the loss of such a giant. Roland Boer’s work Socialism in Power: On the Theory and History of Socialist Governance is another great one that shows some of the problems run into by the Soviets, despite what they managed to accomplish, along with bits on the DPRK and PRC.
I’ll add that to my reading list, thanks comrade!
@SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net set up a Hexbear Reading List a while back. I’m not sure how often it’s updated or how strongly any particular book would be recommended, but here’s the Soviet section:
Russia/Soviet Union
These books focus on general history and politics:
Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism by Samir Amin (2016).These books focus on history and politics prior to the Russian Revolution:
The Development of Capitalism in Russia by Vladimir Lenin (1899).These books focus on the Russian Revolution:
10 Days That Shook The World by John Reed (1919). History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky (1930). Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917–1918 by S. A. Smith (1983). October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Mieville (2017). The Russian Revolution: A View from the Third World by Walter Rodney (2018).These books focus on the Soviet Union:
Karl Marx Collective: Economy, Society and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm by Caroline Humphrey (1983). Human Rights in the Soviet Union: Including Comparisons with the USA by Albert Syzmanski (1984). Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics by Felix Chuev (1993). The Soviet Century by Moshe Lewin (2003). The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 by R. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft (2004). Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union by Francine Hirsch (2005). A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev by Vladislav Zubok (2007). Anti-Stalin, Anti-Khruschev, and anti-Gorbachev, so a real Everyone Here Sucks dude. Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend by Domenico Losurdo (2008). Inside Lenin’s Government: Ideology, Power and Practice in the Early Soviet State by Lara Douds (2018).These books focus on the fall of the Soviet Union:
Perestroika: The Complete Collapse of Revisionism by Harpal Brar (1992). Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat: Factors Contributing to the Dismantling of the Socialist State in the Soviet Union by Bahman Azad (2000). Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny (2004). Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav M. Zubok (2021). Same context as above.These books focus on post-Soviet Russia:
Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War by Tony Wood (2018).These books focus on indigenous history and politics:
Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North by Yuri Slezkine (1994). When the North was Red: Aboriginal Education In Soviet Siberia by Alice L. Bartels and Dennis Bartels (1995). Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait by Bathsheba Demuth (2019).Damn that’s a very extensive list, I didn’t knew this reading list existed thanks for linking it. Some of the books mentioned here I was already aware about and are something I already had intention of reading like October by China MIeville, Human RIghts in the Soviet Union, The Years of Hunger, Losurdo’s Stalin and Socialism Betrayed, but I appreciate mentioning all of this, thanks!
Avoid Hobsbawn and Trotsky until you finish reading Losurdo on Stalin and Keeran and Kenny’s book: Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Just to take what the former duo say with a grain of salt.
I see, thanks! It’ll be a while before I read Losurdo and even dive into the Soviet Union because I have some theory reading I want to do before-hand, but I’ll keep this in mind.
