{"id":21,"date":"2011-08-04T19:15:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T19:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2011-09-13T21:37:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T21:37:50","slug":"founders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/founders\/","title":{"rendered":"FOUNDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>1.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Wednesday, August 24<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Leadership versus Institutions.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 As you can see on the home page, I seek to answer four questions in this course:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;padding-left: 30px\">1) Why was world communism appealing?<br \/>\n2) What caused it to become deformed?<br \/>\n3) Why did it last as long as it did?<br \/>\n4) Why did it fail?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">To answer these questions, I will introduce two factors\u00a0two factors that recurrently arise in the study of communism.\u00a0 These factors are\u00a0 the sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory roles of leadership and institutions.\u00a0 I will also argue that we should study world communism as a process of\u00a0 development, and not as a fixed and immutable identity.\u00a0 This is an important point because it helps us to understand why not all communist regimes ended up looking the\u00a0 same.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>2.\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION:\u00a0 <em>Friday, August 26\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">For this discussion section, read both of the articles below. Cohen and \u201cZ\u201d (the historian Martin Malia) take fundamentally different approaches to the study of world communism. Cohen emphasizes human volition (leadership), Malia emphasizes structure (institutions).\u00a0\u00a0 As we shall see throughout this course, the two approaches have significantly different implications for how we understand our subject matter.\u00a0 For now, you only need to concentrate on identifying and internalizing the authors\u2019 basic arguments.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t worry about the details. We will address the events behind their positions as we move through\u00a0 the 20th century.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li>\n<div>Stephen F. Cohen, <em>Rethinking the Soviet Experience<\/em>, ch. 2:\u00a0 Course Reader<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\u201cZ\u201d (Martin Malia), \u201cTo the Stalin Mausoleum,\u201d <em>Daedalus<\/em>, 119, 1 (1990): only sections I, II, XI, and XII. Course Reader<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em><strong>Writing assignment<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">For this discussion section, please write a one-paragraph (no more!) response to the following question and turn it in to your TA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;padding-left: 30px\">\u201cWhy is Cohen\u2019s critique of the Whig interpretation of history relevant to his debate with \u2018Z\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Since you will examine the two articles closely, make sure you bring your Reader to this section.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>3. LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Monday,\u00a0 August 29\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>The Founders: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels&#8217; <em>Communist Manifesto<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0 The <em>Manifesto<\/em> offers a convenient and concise outline of Marx\u2019s prophecies about world revolution.\u00a0It is also full of ambiguities, all of which are <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/A_024_IndustrialRevolutionWorker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-105\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/A_024_IndustrialRevolutionWorker-299x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/A_024_IndustrialRevolutionWorker-299x300.jpg 299w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/A_024_IndustrialRevolutionWorker-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/A_024_IndustrialRevolutionWorker.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/a>important in the evolution of communism.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li>\n<div>Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, <em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em> (1848).\u00a0 Read\u00a0only sections 1, 2, and 4.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>For a useful study guide on the<em> Manifesto,<\/em> see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsu.edu\/~brians\/hum_303\/manifesto.html\">HERE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>4.\u00a0 LECTURE:<\/strong> <em><strong>Wednesday, August 31<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>The (First) Rise and Fall of Communism:\u00a0 Western Europe.<\/strong>\u00a0 In this lecture, I will describe two\u00a0different images of the path to\u00a0socialism in Europe.\u00a0\u00a0 As you read about\u00a0them, imagine that you are living at the cusp of 20th century Europe:\u00a0 What key issues are Bernstein and Luxemberg raising?\u00a0 What conception would make the most sense to you?<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li>\n<div>Eduard Bernstein, <em>Evolutionary Socialism<\/em> (1899), Preface:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nd.edu\/~amcadams\/Communism_2010\/Bernstein.html\">HERE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Rosa Luxemburg,\u00a0 \u201cReform or Revolution\u201d (1900).\u00a0 Read only the Introduction: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/luxemburg\/1900\/reform-revolution\/intro.htm\">HERE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>5.\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION:\u00a0 <em>Friday, September 2.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><em>Writing assignment<\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cIf, according to Marx, the bourgeoisie\u2019s \u201cfall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable,\u201d\u00a0why do you need Communists to \u201cpoint out and bring to the front the common interests of the movement as a whole\u201d?\u00a0 Turn in this paragraph to your TA on Friday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The goal of this section is to discuss not only what Marx says about world revolution but also how his remarks could be differently interpreted by successive generations of communists.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t forget to bring the <em>Communist Manifesto<\/em> to your discussion section.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>6. LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Monday, September 5<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>The World Revolution&#8217;s unexpected Setting:\u00a0 Backward Russia.<\/strong>\u00a0 None of the early communists, not even Marx or Engels, expected their revolution to take place in Russia.\u00a0 In fact, Marx was adamant that it would not.\u00a0 Why did the revolution occur first in Russia?\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/russian-revolution-1917.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-94\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/russian-revolution-1917-300x256.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/russian-revolution-1917-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/russian-revolution-1917.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> One must consider the setting of the revolution in order to understand two essential facts about world communism:\u00a0 1) why the Russian context was better suited than the modern industrial world to live up to Marx&#8217;s prophecies; and 2)\u00a0how the\u00a0 fact that the revolution first occurred in this setting set the stage for conflict in the international communist movement for\u00a0generations to come.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>R. Tucker, \u201cMarxism and Modernization,\u201d in your Course Reader.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>William Rosenberg and Marilyn Young, <em>Transforming Russia and China<\/em>, pp. 3-34.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>St Petersburg:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/b\/b4\/Palace_Square%2C_Saint_Petersburg%2C_Russia.jpg\">Palace Square<\/a><\/li>\n<li>St. Petersburg: <a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/db\/PeterhofGrandCascade.JPG\">Peterhof<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>7.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Wednesday, September 7<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Lenin asks and answers the Question: \u201cWhat is to be Done?\u201d<\/strong> Lenin provides the foundational definition of the Communist party.\u00a0 But 15 years later, he gives us some potentially contradictory suggestions about the utopian society to come. More than Marx, Lenin becomes the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.soviethistory.org\/bigScreenVideo.php?SubjectID=1917newculture&amp;Year=1917&amp;navi=byYear\">icon<\/a> of world revolution.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>Vladimir I. Lenin, <em>What is to be Done?<\/em> (1901-1902):\u00a0 Excerpts in the Course Reader.\u00a0 If you like, you can read the entire tract <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/lenin\/works\/1901\/witbd\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Vladimir I. Lenin,<em> State and Revolution<\/em> (1917):\u00a0\u00a0 Only the excerpts in the Course Reader.\u00a0 If you like, you can read the entire tract <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/lenin\/works\/1917\/staterev\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Rosenberg and Young, <em>Transforming Russia and China<\/em>, pp. 35-71.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Background reading about Lenin: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historyguide.org\/europe\/lenin.html\">HERE<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Sergei Eisenstein&#8217;s depiction of the Revolution: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x0QAjpeosgU\">You Tube<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>8.\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION:\u00a0 Friday, September 9<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">What are the similarities between Lenin\u2019s <em>What is to be Done?<\/em> and his <em>State and Revolution<\/em>?\u00a0 What are the differences?\u00a0 Are these differences necessarily contradictory?\u00a0 Is the first pragmatic, and the second merely propagandq?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><em>One paragraph writing assignment<\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cIn which of these two works do we find the <em>real<\/em> Lenin?\u00a0 Or do they both present us with the real Lenin?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>9.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Monday, September 12<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>The Battles over the Russian Path to World Revolution.<\/strong>\u00a0 The idea of a proletarian world revolution seemed straightforward to the early Marxists.\u00a0 But when the revolution came to Russia instead of the West, the event unleashed a debate among Soviet leaders about the implications of this experience.\u00a0Their conclusions about\u00a0building socialism within their country were profoundly different.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li>\n<div>Rosenberg and Young, <em>Transforming Russia and China<\/em>, 120-35, 147-66.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\u201cZ,\u201d \u201cStalin Mausoleum,\u201d sections II-V.\u00a0 Course Reader<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Nikolai Bukharin, \u201cThe New Economic Policy of Soviet Russia,\u201d July 8, 1921:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/bukharin\/works\/1921\/07\/08.htm\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0 (Print)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>J. V. Stalin, \u201cThe October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists\u201d (excerpt), Dec. 17, 1924:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nd.edu\/~amcadams\/WC_2010\/Stalinrussrev.html\">HERE<\/a> (Print)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>J. V. Stalin, \u201cBukharin\u2019s Group and the Right Deviation in our Party,\u201d January 1928:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/reference\/archive\/stalin\/works\/1929\/x01\/x02.htm\">HERE<\/a> (Print)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>10.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 <em>Wednesday, September 14\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Making Revolution from Above versus Struggling from Below?<\/strong>\u00a0 In this lecture, I use the case of China to present two different paths to revolution.\u00a0 Then, I explain why these paths have had significant consequences for world communism.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left\">\n<li>\n<div>Rosenberg and Young, <em>Transforming Russia and China<\/em>, pp. 72-119.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Sun Yatsen in Paris:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/0\/00\/Sun_Yat_Sen_in_Paris_1905.png\">HERE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Robert Tucker, &#8220;Marxism and Communist Revolutions&#8221;:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nd.edu\/~amcadams\/Communism_2011\/Marxism_and_Communist.pdf\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 (Print)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-297\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/anyuan-study-young-mao-zedong.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/anyuan-study-young-mao-zedong.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/anyuan-study-young-mao-zedong-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Mao Zedong, \u201cReport on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan,\u201d March 1927:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fordham.edu\/halsall\/mod\/1927mao.html\">HERE<\/a> (Print)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>11.\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION: <em>Friday, September 16<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><em>One paragraph writing assignment<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0 In many ways, Lenin&#8217;s <em>What is to be Done?<\/em> and Mao Zedong&#8217;s <em>Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan<\/em>\u00a0present different types of arguments.\u00a0\u00a0But, what primary feature do their arguments\u00a0<strong>share<\/strong> in common?\u00a0 There is no single right answer to this question.\u00a0 Just pick the answer that you find most compelling.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The goal of this section is to provoke you into inquiring about the similarities and differences of\u00a0communist movements in\u00a0diverse settings.\u00a0 One cannot simply say\u00a0that communism is the same wherever you go; this was the big mistake that American policymakers frequently made\u00a0during the\u00a0Cold War.\u00a0 Still, we don&#8217;t want to say that communist regimes were\u00a0different wherever one found them.\u00a0 After all, if they were all different, why should we even use the same word &#8220;communist&#8221;\u00a0to characterize them?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>The use of electronic devices of any kind, including laptops, I-pads, cell phones, video cameras, and personal digital devices, is prohibited in my classroom!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/founders\/\">Top of Page<\/a><\/strong><strong> \u00b7 <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/founders\/\">Founders<\/a><\/strong><strong> \u00b7 <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/competitors\/\">Competitors<\/a><\/strong><strong> \u00b7 <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/defenders\/\">Defenders<\/a><\/strong><strong> \u00b7 <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/reformers\/\">Reformers<\/a><\/strong><strong> \u00b7 <\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/losers\/\">Losers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 Wednesday, August 24 Leadership versus Institutions.\u00a0\u00a0 As you can see on the home page, I seek to answer four questions in this course: 1) Why was world communism appealing? 2) What caused it to become deformed? 3) Why did it last as long as it did? 4) Why did it fail? To answer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":62,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}