On Sun, Nov 9, 2025 at 05:36 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > But I doubt the Bolsheviks would have seized power unilaterally if they > could have foreseen the trials (both literal and figuratively) and outcome > of what became a relatively brief and failed historical experiment.
The Bolsheviks calculated, rightly in my opinion, that if they didn't seize power they and other revolutionary forces would be successively marginalized and then massacred. So it might have been a Hobson's choice (not J.A. Hobson) of self-defense or elimination. Lenin et al. didn't have the luxury of looking back on the situation from 75 years later. There is also the seemingly auxilary fact that most of the books by Marx I cut my teeth on were published by Progress Publishers. The book I hold in highest esteem was transcribed and published first in the Soviet Union under Stalin. It is entirely possible that interest in Marx would have faded into an obscure Victorian curiousity without the promulgation of the Soviet Union. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39203): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39203 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116179785/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
