Comparing local communisms
Twentieth Century Communism - ISSN 1758-6437
Volume 2013 Number 5
Comparing local communisms
Andreas Wirsching pages -
Abstract
This article addresses how the universalism of the Bolsheviks’ ideology induced a range of tensions in the face of specific local conditions, from clashes within the multiethnic Soviet state to an inability to sanction ‘freedom of criticism’ within a global movement. This is also presented as at the root of mistaken perceptions of developments outside of Soviet Russia, for example Lenin’s belief that Munich in 1919 was a rerun of Petrograd in 1917. A number of specific local examples are then explored which, for example, detail how Moscow clashed with the continued influence of French syndicalism on the PCF; how the First World War followed by localised civil war in Germany disposed significant sections of the movement to political violence; and how British communism remained subsumed by the dominance of the ‘reformist’ wing of the labour movement.
To cite this article
Andreas Wirsching (2013) Comparing local communisms, Twentieth Century Communism, 2013(5), -