Hello everynyan, we’re reading This Soviet World.
Week 6 we are reading Chapter 6: “The Technique of Leadership.”
EPUB, a link to a PDF, and online reading options, can be found on Comrade’s Library. If you find problems with the EPUB tell me and I will fix it. Dessalines has made an audio book.
Previous discussions:
Week 5 - Week 4 - Week 3 - Week 2 - Week 1
ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
Continuing the theme of explaining core communist concepts in ways non-communists can easily understand, Strong shows both democratic centralism and further elaborates on the vanguard, while supporting it with anecdotes. The party structure really is core to communist organizing work, and understanding how to make an effective party is an enormously important task.
On that point about explaining to non-communists, I think a valuable part of this chapter and the last one is showing, not just the details of Soviet government and organization, but even that there is this much detail to be described, compared with the cartoonishly simplistic propaganda image of “authoritarian dictatorship” that is hegemonic in capitalist media. It reveals how paper-thin and ridiculous those descriptions are.
That’s a great point! It works wonders for making it seem complex and real, rather than cartoonish.
The anecdotes continue to make this work very approachable. Being able to read about the workings of the USSR from both a macro and micro level leads to being able to have a comprehensive view of Soviet life.
Agreed! Strong’s work as a journalist really helps her writing.