Breaking with the Russian Revolution

[Traitorfish]

Aye, but the reason they (the Bolshevik-led revolutionary factions) allowed the elections to the Constituent Assembly in the first place is that they expected to romp it. That they a) held the elections and then b) closed the Assembly down seems to rather straightforwardly suggest that sometime between those two points they figured that they would not garner as much popular support as they thought they would have thought before a), and thus it would not be in their own self-interest convening new elections.

That's a feasible hypothesis as to why the left bloc would be against holding new elections, but I don't think that it would stand up without further argumentation. Elections are, after all, expensive and difficult affairs, and if the left bloc can reasonably argue that the All-Russian Congress of Soviets represented an effective expression of popular opinion, then their opposition to a re-elected Constituent Assembly could simply be on practical grounds. You would have to argue first that the Congress was not an effective expression of popular opinion, and second that the left bloc leadership were aware of this, to conclude that their refusal to stage further elections was purely cynical and anti-democratic.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

You should have included April Theses as an option, for the orthodox Marxists, since that represents the point of departure from traditional Marxist thought and is a headfirst dive into Trotskyism.

 

[holy king]

kronstadt and NEP.

 

[Louis XXIV]

January 19, 1918. It was clear then that the Bolsheviks tolerated no political organisation but themselves.

Yeah, that tends to be my thought as well. I could be thinking of a different date, but didn't the SR's leave the government in some kind of protest? That's something I never get. When you leave in protest, it leaves the other group in charge, which they're usually pretty effective at taking advantage of.

 

[holy king]

when the other group is going to go through with their agenda no matter what you leave in protest so nobody can say you supported it afterwards.

 

[Traitorfish]

You should have included April Theses as an option, for the orthodox Marxists, since that represents the point of departure from traditional Marxist thought and is a headfirst dive into Trotskyism.

Do we actually have any orthodox Marxists to vote for it?

Yeah, that tends to be my thought as well. I could be thinking of a different date, but didn't the SR's leave the government in some kind of protest? That's something I never get. When you leave in protest, it leaves the other group in charge, which they're usually pretty effective at taking advantage of.

That was about the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, not the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. They couldn't really have cared less about that.

when the other group is going to go through with their agenda no matter what you leave in protest so nobody can say you supported it afterwards.

The funny thing is that the Left-SR and Bolshevik programs were largely very similar by that point- not least because they ended up borrowing heavily from each other- the only fundamental difference their attitudes towards the war. The split was more about conduct than propaganda; the "no matter what" rather than the agenda itself.

 

[r16]

So you break with it in February 1917?

truthfully speaking ı am not fully prepared to discuss it yet and while it should have been good for the Ottomans that Russians were hobbled and good for the planet so that a peace could have been worked out , one can come up with a couple of reasons why it shouldn't have been pushed to the route it took .

yeah , ı should avoid sinister motives and all . Not that ı could or would , but . This is only some trick to remind some little extra . And this is what ı am , can't help it .

in the end , Russians should have started it from 1905 , no Priest Gapon but govermental approval and conduct to "humanize" their people , they might have lost steam with internal disputes yet they would have emerged stronger. ı think this is the thing ı can safely say .