The Non-Geometric Lenin

Carter Elwood

Description

An exploration of Lenin’s attempt to build the Bolshevik Party, providing a new picture of him as a bourgeois, fallible individual.

This collection of eleven essays deals with Lenin’s life in western European emigration in the years before the First World War. The first five essays explore Lenin’s efforts to build a purely Bolshevik Party through the creation of a unique school for underground workers outside of Paris, his schismatic machinations in calling the 1912 Prague Conference, his problematic relations with the new Bolshevik daily ‘Pravda’, his unsuccessful attempt to call a party congress in 1914, and his defeat at the Brussels ‘Unity’ Conference summoned by the International Socialist Bureau on the eve of the war. These essays are based on a detailed reading of Western and Soviet sources, and they question the common assumption that Lenin was unquestioned inside his own faction and that pre-war Bolshevism was a monolithic entity well-prepared to seize power.

The latter essays discuss Lenin’s curious friendship during the pre-war period with Roman Malinovsky, who turned out to be a police spy, and Inessa Armand, a Bolshevik feminist with whom he had a romantic relationship. They also investigate such mundane but little-studied topics as what he liked to eat in emigration, his annual habit of taking bourgeois vacations and his obsession with athletic pursuits. The picture which emerges from these studies is not of a single-minded, perfect leader solely devoted to carrying out revolution, but rather of a ‘non-geometric’ Lenin with very human foibles and weaknesses.

List of Illustrations; Introduction; Part One. Lenin’s Attempt to Build a Bolshevik Party, 1910–1914; 1. Lenin and the Social Democratic Schools for Underground Party Workers, 1909–1911; 2. The Art of Calling a Party Conference (Prague, 1912); 3. Lenin and ‘Pravda’, 1912–1914; 4. The Congress that Never Was: Lenin’s Attempt to Call a ‘Sixth’ Party Congress in 1914; 5. Lenin and the Brussels ‘Unity’ Conference of July 1914; Part Two. The ‘Other’ Lenin; 6. The Malinovskii Affair: ‘A Very Fishy Business’; 7. Lenin’s Testimony to the Extraordinary Investigatory Commission; 8. Lenin and Armand: New Evidence on an Old Affair; 9. What Lenin Ate; 10. Lenin on Vacation; 11. The Sporting Life of V. I. Lenin; Notes; Bibliography of Works Cited; Index

Sujets

• Revolutions
• Rebellion
• Revolution
• Russia
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857288295
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The NonGeometric Lenin

Figure 1. Lenin in the Carpathians, 1914.

The NonGeometric Lenin

Essays on the Development of the Bolshevik Party 1910 –1914

Carter Elwood

Anthem Press An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company www.anthempress.com

This edition rst published in UK and USA 2011 by ANTHEM PRESS 7576 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

Copyright © Carter Elwood 2011

The author asserts the moral right to be identied as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Elwood, Ralph Carter, 1936 The nongeometric Lenin : essays on the development of the Bolshevik Party 1910 1914 / Carter Elwood. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780857287786 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0857287788 (hardcover) 1. Rossiiskaia sotsialdemokraticheskaia rabochaia partiia (bolshevikov)History. 2. Lenin, Vladimir Ilich, 1870 1924. 3. RussiaPolitics and government1904 1914. I. Title. JN6598.S6E35 2011 324.247075dc22  2011007395

ISBN13: 978 0 85728 778 6 (Hbk) ISBN10: 0 85728 778 8 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an eBook.

TO

Nadezhda Konstantinova Krupskaya,

who devoted her life to the cause of revolution and to the wellbeing of her often unappreciative husband. Her selfeffacing memoirs and letters reflect better than any other source the nongeometric character of V. I. Lenin

List of Illustrations

Introduction

C

O

N

TEN

TS

Part One. Lenin’s Attempt to Build a Bolshevik Party, 1910–1914  1. Lenin and the Social Democratic Schools for Underground Party Workers, 1909–1911  2. The Art of Calling a Party Conference (Prague, 1912)  3. Lenin andPravda, 1912–1914  4. The Congress that Never Was: Lenin’s Attempt to Call a ‘Sixth’ Party Congress in 1914  5. Lenin and the Brussels ‘Unity’ Conference of July 1914

ix

xiii

1

3 17 37

57 73

Part Two. The ‘Other’ Lenin 87  6. The Malinovskii Affair: ‘A Very Fishy Business’ 89  7. Lenin’s Testimony to the Extraordinary Investigatory Commission 101  8. Lenin and Armand: New Evidence on an Old Affair 111  9. What Lenin Ate 125 10. Lenin on Vacation 137 11. The Sporting Life of V. I. Lenin 155

Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index

167 207 217

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Lenin in the Carpathians, 1914Cover andFrontispiece 2. Roman Malinovskii 89 3. Extract from Lenin’s Testimony to the Extraordinary Investigatory Commission 108 4. Extract from Lenin’s Testimony to the Extraordinary Investigatory Commission (RTsKhIDNI, fond 2, opis 1, delo 4579, list 8) 109 5. Police Photograph of Inessa Armand (Hoover Institution, Okhrana Collection, file XIIIf, (4) (2), folder 1) 111 6. ‘Der Russische Revolutioär’, 1915 (Kurhaus, Fluhli, Switzerland) 135 7. Map of Lenin’s Hike across Switzerland, July – August 1904 145 8. Kurhaus Tschudiwiese 151