A Documentary History of Communism: Volume 1, Communism in Russia

by Robert V. Daniels

Book Overview

v. 1. Communism in Russia -- v. 2. Communism and the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874512999
• ISBN13: 9780874512991
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Vermont Books: Publishers
• Length: 2 Pages

Customer Reviews

What motivates Socialists/Communists?

An excellent collection of primary sources in understanding what motivated the first Socialists in modern time. The utilitarian philosophy, seeing mans value as primarily linked to his labor, and the discounting of any truth that is unseen or immaterial-other than their personal emotions of course, becomes clear in reading these essays etc. Also a foundation of their philosophy is material inequality as the CAUSE of sin (envy, greed etc.) rather than a product of mans disordrered desires...hence their strange belief that man is malleable through the manipulation of material products exclusively, and the possibility of "no state"gov't in the future b/c of the perfection of man through material equality. Perhaps lacks enough on the symbiotic relationship of the Tsarist gov't and the Orthodox Church which was a factor in these peculiar and extreme views of mans nature..always backed up with plenty of hyperbole and little explanation of details how things are to be accomplished. GREAT in understanding the role of this ideology in AMERICAN liberals...as Russia had its liberals too...only they were less dedicated to socialist principles than the modern American version. TM Mtc., NJ