PART III
This section of our course is devoted to the emergence 0f the LENINIST NATION-STATE.
Here’s something we can all agree upon: The communist regimes of the past century were the source of untold misery and human deprivation. Once we get beyond this point, however, we have to ask why they lasted for as long as they did. After all, for much of the twentieth century there were more communist NATION-STATES in the world than LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC states. The answer to this question is that LENINISM represented the preeminent challenge to LIBERAL DEMOCRACY in the modern age.
15. LECTURE: Monday, September 26
Reflections upon Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and its significance for the history of world communism.
Today’s Question: Why did so many smart people become Marxists? My argument is that Marxism shared many of the same foundations as LIBERALISM, even though it represented a radical critique of LIBERAL philosophy. It is essential to understand Marxism because it paved the way for a fundamentally different path to the MODERN NATION-STATE.
Assignment: Read the Manifesto carefully at least three times. Look beyond the details for Marx’s overarching argument. How does this famous essay represent a critique of capitalism? Why would it have been so appealing to many 19th and 20th century thinkers? Why might it even be appealing to people today, especially the followers of Bernie Sanders and, yes, even Donald Trump. Pay particular attention to what Marx says about the revolutionary character of the bourgeoisie.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, sections, 1, 2, and 4.
Friedrich Engels, “On the Condition of the Working Class in England” PRINT AND READ
M. Faraday, July 7, 1855, “The Filth of the Thames” PRINT AND READ
John McCain, “Salute to a Communist” PRINT AND READ
16. LECTURE: Wednesday, September 28
Reflections on the causes of the Russian revolution and its roots in the unintended consequences of tsarist ambition.
Today’s Assumption: Marx never expected that his revolution would take place in the East. In fact, he predicted it would not. So, how did the event happen? One must consider the setting of the Russian revolution in order to understand why this context was better suited than the industrial world. Note, here, how I am addressing the issue of historical and political change.
Origins of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917:
“Russian Revolution of 1917,” New World Encyclopedia READ
“The Russian Revolution,” DocumentaryTube.com (1:33.54) WATCH (Yes, watch the entire film, it’s interesting and full of terrific footage)
17. DISCUSSION SECTION: Friday, September 30:
Discussion: The Communist Manifesto was once banned across the United States (along with Catcher in the Rye, Canterbury Tales, and Ulysses). Now you can read it and try to figure out what all the fuss was about. In some ways, Marx’s thinking was consonant with LIBERAL values. But at the same time, he came to radically different conclusions about how some of LIBERALISM’s leading principles could be realized. How can both of these claims be true? Keep in mind that MARXISM did not come from nowhere, at least not initially. It had the same historical roots as LIBERALISM.
Assignment: If you had been alive in 1848, what is the single-most important point in the Communist Manifesto that would have made you decide to become a communist—and why? One paragraph.
18. LECTURE: Monday, October 3
Reflections on Vladimir Ilych Lenin’s transformation of elementary MARXISM into a new political identity: LENINISM (originally known as Bolshevism).
Today’s Assumption: LENINISM had more to do with defining MARXISM than the other way around. Lenin was a terrible philosopher but a great revolutionary. He knew instinctively how to apply a western recipe for radical change to a backward country. For this reason, one could argue that “Marx was archaeopteryx and Lenin was a bird.”
Assignment: The best way to understand the full implications of LENINISM is to see how it was implemented at the height of the Soviet revolution under Josef Stalin. For this reason, I am asking you to read the Man himself.
Selections from Josef Stalin, Foundations of Leninism. PRINT AND READ Section 4 (“Dictatorship of the Proletariat”) and Section 8 (“The Party”)
Listen and sing along to The Internationale. I sang it to my tour guides when I was in Pyongyang, North Korea and it drove them crazy. How could they prevent me from paying tribute to one of their ideological forebears! Yet the entire time I was in North Korea, I only saw one picture of Marx Lenin.
19. LECTURE: Wednesday, October 5
Reflections on the transmogrification of LENINIST utopia into STALINIST terror.
Today’s Assumption: Stalin’s regime of terror was intrinsically, if not inevitably, rooted in the goals and institutions of MARXISM-LENINISM.
Assignments:
“Purges and Hysteria in the Soviet Union”: READ (all six pages)
Ode to Stalin: READ
20. DISCUSSION SECTION: Friday, October 7
Paragraph assignment: “Was Marx an archaeopteryx and Lenin his bird?”
Discussion: You have been assigned to start a revolution–a real one!–at Notre Dame. Based upon your reading of the chapters from Stalin’s Foundations of Leninism, please discuss (passionately) the following two questions: 1) what would Lenin (and Stalin) advise you to do to foment this revolution? and 2) what kinds of problems would arise once you have this revolution going?
21. LECTURE: Monday, October 10
Reflections on the origins and evolution of the communist empire.
Today’s Assumption: LENINISM evolved into a political identity that was at least as persuasive and powerful as LIBERALISM. But not all LENINIST states found it appealing for the same reasons. Accordingly, just as with LIBERALISM, there were important differences in the types of LENINIST states.
22. IN-CLASS FILM: Wednesday, October 12
Film II: “A Journey to Russia ”
This film chronicles the experiences of an American debate team as its members travel around the Soviet Union in 1983, two years before Mikail Gorbachev came to power.
Do not be late for class. We will start promptly at 10:40.
Reflect: Why would Stalin still be popular in Russia? VIEW
Stalin returns: HERE
23. DISCUSSION SECTION: Friday, October 14
Individual meetings with TAs.
MID-TERM BREAK: October 15-23
24. NO CLASS: Monday, October 24
I will be in London, England, a country that does not want to be in the European Union
25. LECTURE: Wednesday, October 26
Reflections on the LENINIST challenge to LIBERAL DEMOCRACY.
Today’s Assumption: LENINISM was initially a credible challenge to LIBERAL DEMOCRACY. Its lasting appeal was reinforced by a variety of factors. I’ll attempt to give you a sense for these factors by sharing some of my experiences while living in East Germany and traveling in Eastern Europe during the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Assignment: In the 1980s, all of the experts, including yours truly, were skeptical of the idea that people living under communism could rise up spontaneously against their leaders. Yet in the late 1970s, the dissident playwright Vaclav Havel had already offered some fascinating insights into why this might occur. Havel began his analysis by asking why a “green grocer” might be driven to revolt.
Václav Havel, “Power of the Powerless,” in Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990, sections I-VI.
The “Power of the Powerless” is challenging reading. I am honored that you will take up this challenge.
For background, see my comments on Charter 77 as well as a short article on Havel’s life
26. DISCUSSION SECTION: Friday, October 28
Discussion: Discuss the first half of “Power of the Powerless.” Why is the green grocer so important to Havel’s argument? Would you have acted differently than the green grocer if you had lived in a LENINIST state? What kinds of events would be required to the green grocer to rebellion (or perhaps you, too)?
Paragraph Assignment: Were the students in ‘Journey to Russia’ “Living within a Lie”?
27. LECTURE: Monday, October 31
Reflections on the sudden and total collapse of the LENINIST nation-state.
Today’s Assumption: No one predicted this development (in the serious sense of the word “prediction”). Moreover, LENINISM was not destined to collapse when it did.
Assignment:
Finish Reading Václav Havel, “Power of the Powerless,” in Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990, remaining sections.
Gorbachev and the fall of the Leninist Nation-State
Read about Gorbachev and the concept of LENINIST reform READ
Realistically speaking, could LENINISM have been reformed in the way Gorbachev hoped? How compatible were his two primary reform concepts (below) with the LENINIST political identity we have reviewed up to now?
On Perestroika READ
On Glasnost READ
There is life after dictatorship! Gorbachev sings LISTEN
28. LECTURE: Wednesday, November 2
Reflections on the fall of communism and the fuzzy transition to post-communism.
Today’s Assumption: The big surprise was not only that LENINISM fell between 1989 and 1991 but that in many cases, it began the gradual progression to something resembling LIBERAL DEMOCRACY. For those states that began the transition, the question for observers today is how thoroughgoing this change will be—and, for that matter, how long it will last.
Assignments: What is new, what has changed after the revolutions of 1989-1991?
Lilia Shevtsova, “Forward to the Past” PRINT AND READ
Vladimir Tismaneanu, “The Legacies of 1989: The Moving Ruins” Journal of Democracy, January 2014 See JSTOR at Hesburgh Library e-Journals PRINT AND READ
Once you have read these articles, reflect upon alternative models for this transition: mass extinction or archaeopteryx. What would the adoption of one or the other of these images tell you about political change?
29. DISCUSSION SECTION, Friday, November 4
Discussion: Finish your discussion of Havel by asking what makes the green grocer revolt. Is Havel’s analysis persuasive? Or when we are dealing with oppressive dictatorships, is it just wishful thinking to expect that the weak will rise up against the strong?
Paragraph Assignment: What would it take for the Soviet students in “Journey to Russia” to decide to ‘live within the truth’?
Your Second Reflective Essay Question is HERE. You have one week to respond.