From Lenin to Stalin

Victor Serge wrote "From Lenin to Stalin" in December 1936, several months after he had been deported from the Soviet Union, after having been internally exiled to Orenburg, for being a member of the Left Opposition, in other words a "Trotskyist." It traces the history of the Russian Revolution from its first phase, dominated by Vladimir Lenin, to the rise of the bureaucracy, and the Thermidorian reaction or counter-revolution of Joseph Stalin and his persecution and purging of the "revolutionist" generation, i.e. the old Bolsheviks, from the ranks of the Communist Party. Prior to emigrating to Petrograd, RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Soviet Republic) in 1919, Serge had been an anarchist journalist in Paris, France, where he served five years in solitary confinement for refusing to testify against his anarchist-terrorist acquaintances in the Bonnot Gang. He also had militant anarchist/syndicalist associates in Spain.Serge and his Spanish comrades were not Marxists, but they were very excited about the Russian Revolution and much impressed with Lenin. Serge explained Bolshevism to them as being "the unity of word and deed. Lenin's entire merit consists in his will to carry out his program. Land to the peasants, factories to the working class, power to those who toil." This was the utopian ideal, an ideal that Serge never lost sight of despite the brutal reality which never came close to the ideal. However, Serge took a long view. He pointed out that "Lenin's party" and "the extraordinary success of Marxist thought . . . have left behind them a society based upon the collective ownership of the means of production" and a centrally planned economy. (141) And in closing, Serge notes that "[a]fter its victory in 1789-1793, the French bourgeoisie was to pass through several periods of reaction, several crises. Yet no one today questions the gains of 1789-1793." (142) For history, the Russian Revolution has only begun. The day will come when the workers of the Soviet Union will look back on the Stalinist nightmare with the curiosity mingled with disgust which certain dismal pages of the past inspire in us. In the meanwhile we have neither the right to be silent nor to close our eyes. A sort of moral intervention becomes our duty. The Thermi- dorians of the Russian proletariat must be made to feel that we will not tell the pious lies that will permit them to elude their responsibilities before revolutionists and all men of good will. . . . So much disapproval must be directed toward them that concern for their own safety will impose upon them a more human line of conduct at home and greater honesty abroad. (142)Several short essays complete this book. The most interesting were "Life and Culture in 1918," "Lenin and Imperialism," "The Condition of Women," and "Managed Science, Literature, and Pedagogy."

love the book! easy to read.

Victor Serge comes through in this book as a very strong writer. He leaves no doubt about his opinions. He admired Lenin and thought very little of Stalin. Victor was a Russian revolutionary. He supported the notion of Communism and the eventual evolution of the Workingman State. Unfortunately Stalin came along and Victor - along with numerous other individuals - went to prison in the purge of the 1930's. He has written several books about the Russian Revolution, novels and non fiction and about his experiences in prison. He managed to get out of prison and out of Russia by 1936. This is a "quick" book. It contains many, many names and a bevy of incidences that I am not familiar with. But what is clear is that Victor knows what he is talking about - even if I don't. He knows who the heroes were and who the traitors were. A sense of straight forward honesty permeates this book. Victor was obviously a consciences and sincere individual. I know nothing about this man except what I have read in this book and that is what I find so interesting. I presume that his books were originally written in Russian but this man's power, intellect and honesty come rushing through. I am interested in how a writer can accomplish that. I intend to read more of Mr. Serge. I presume that it must be his "insider" approach to the Russian Revolution - but it is more than that. I have been reading Leon Trotsky's account and I have not been impressed in the same way - certainly Leon Trotsky was on the inside also. Victor makes me want to read more and Leon is a challenge. One has to have a strong desire to learn about the Russian Revolution to want to wade through Leon Trotsky - but Serge was quick and easy. Of course there is a big difference in the size of the two books. But nevertheless, I want to read more of Serge while Leon sits on the shelf gathering dust. I do intend to finish Leon's account ... just as I intend to finish "The Fall of the Roman Empire," "War and Peace," and "Crime and Punishment." With Serge's account I'm impressed by the strong feel of getting a real intelligent look at what was happening. I've been reading "Ten Days that Shook the World" by John Reed also - and I don't get that Serge feel. Maybe it is because John Reed was an American. I don't know. Stalin, unfortunately, was a real tragedy for the world labor movement and the Russian people. But Stalin was typical of most revolutions. George Washington is looking better and better every day. In fact that whole band of American Revolutionaries is looking very, very impressive. What happened here in the United States seems to be very rare historically - very rare indeed.Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - Author of:"America on Strike" American Labor - History

This is one book title that really gives the reader an accurate picture of its contents! Once again, Pathfinder Press has given the interested reader and student of history a first person account filled with primary source materials of a revolution. The author, Victor Serge, was a contemporary revolutionary of Lenin and Leon Trotsky and watched the counter-revolution of Stalin from the inside.As Serge says, "Everything has changed." He takes us from the days of the textile workers strike in Petrograd on the eve of the Russian Revolution to the debates over strategies and tactics of the Spanish Civil War. One of the most compelling essays is The Condition of Women." Here Serge details the lot of thousands of young women as prostitutes, and the anti-woman legislation of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Serge writes, "the freedom of abortion, a capital conquest of the revolution, ceased to exist in the summer of 1935."This book is a unique look at the Russian Revolution and its betrayal. It is well worth picking up.

From internationalism, working people's democracy and revolution to nationalism, bureaucratic totalitarianism, and counter-revolution: in essence, that was the difference in the system of Lenin and that of Stalin.The revolution's rise, stagnation, and betrayal come to life in this remarkable book by Victor Serge, a participant and leader of the 1917 revolution. Working people and those favoring the interests of humanity's exploited classes can learn much.

This edition, from the excellent Pathfinder house, contains Victor Serge’s analysis of how Stalin captured and perverted the Soviet state following the death of Lenin in 1924, and a set of short essays on aspects of Soviet life in the 1930s, such as the condition of women and Stalinist interference in science and education.You may disagree with Serge’s take on Lenin (essentially a good bloke, doing his best in difficult circumstances) and his belief that if the Left Oppositionists had managed to repel Stalin the history of the revolution – and the world – would have been very different. Maybe. It’s hard to tell now, but Serge was writing in the 1930s, during the Stalinist terror, when many reasonable people were looking back to the revolution’s early years and asking, “Where did it all go wrong?” From the vantage point of the 21st century we could say the whole thing was doomed from the start and if Lenin had lived longer, or Trotsky had replaced him, we would still have had gulags, the KGB and economic paralysis. Serge argues that Stalin liquidated many decent men and women who might have made a more honest and more competent attempt to build a true workers’ state.Serge does not explicitly compare Stalin to the old tsars but I’ve often thought that the Soviet Union was a continuation of Tsarist Russia under a thick layer of bureaucracy and pseudo-communism. Serge certainly implies that Stalin is not a communist and instead presided over the development of a new aristocracy of senior party officials, much as the old autocratic tsars relied on the nobility to enforce their rule. There is a strong argument that you can draw a straight line from Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin, via Stalin. That kind of analysis is very comforting for us socialists because we can say, hand on heart, that we still haven’t seen a truly communist state on this planet and socialism was always doomed in Russia because it’s a country besotted by autocracy and the cult of the strong, dictatorial leader.Whatever your own political views, Serge is still worth reading for his honesty and integrity. These are the qualities that give his writing such power. He was a lifelong socialist – a democratic socialist – but he was clear-eyed enough to see that a successful socialist revolution would have to be very different from the Russian version.

A dedicated student of the period would have to did deep to uncover any original insights.