Stephen Kotkin
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Communist Party seizes power.
And as I said, unlike the case of Bavaria, Southern Germany, Northern Italy, Hungary, it holds power.
It doesn't just seize power.
The Paris Commune, 1870-71, they seized power in Paris.
And then they were destroyed, put up against the wall and shot.
So they seize and they hold power.
But they're in this peasant country and the peasant has the land de facto.
And they're Marxists.
So they believe that the base, the socioeconomic base, the class relations determine the superstructure or the politics, right?
Marxism, the base, the socioeconomic base gives you the superstructure.
Politics depends on it's an outcome of what the base is.
So you have a de facto capitalist base, right?
I get that.
So he makes this decision.
All of them want to get rid of capitalist relations in the countryside.
Every single one of them want to do that.
They're all communists.
They're all Marxist-Leninists.
But they don't think it can be done.
They think if you try it, you'll fail.