Vejas Liulevicius

When I was able to visit the Soviet Union later for a language course in the summer of 1989, one of the obligatory tours that we took was to file reverently past the body of Lenin outside the Kremlin in a mausoleum at Red Square.

And communist mummies like those of Lenin, earlier Stalin had been there as well, communist mummies like Mao or Ho Chi Minh really, I think, speak to a blending of earlier religious sensibility. reverence for relics of great figures, almost saintly figures, so that even what got proclaimed as atheism turned out to be a very demanding faith as well.

And communist mummies like those of Lenin, earlier Stalin had been there as well, communist mummies like Mao or Ho Chi Minh really, I think, speak to a blending of earlier religious sensibility. reverence for relics of great figures, almost saintly figures, so that even what got proclaimed as atheism turned out to be a very demanding faith as well.

And communist mummies like those of Lenin, earlier Stalin had been there as well, communist mummies like Mao or Ho Chi Minh really, I think, speak to a blending of earlier religious sensibility. reverence for relics of great figures, almost saintly figures, so that even what got proclaimed as atheism turned out to be a very demanding faith as well.

And I think that's a contradiction that other scholars have pointed out as well.

And I think that's a contradiction that other scholars have pointed out as well.

And I think that's a contradiction that other scholars have pointed out as well.

We hear nature abhorring a vacuum, and I think that there are places in human character that long for transcendental explanations, right? That it's not all meaningless. In fact, there's a larger purpose. And I think it's not a coincidence that such a significant part of resistance to communist regimes has in part come from, on the one hand, religious believers, and on the other hand, from

We hear nature abhorring a vacuum, and I think that there are places in human character that long for transcendental explanations, right? That it's not all meaningless. In fact, there's a larger purpose. And I think it's not a coincidence that such a significant part of resistance to communist regimes has in part come from, on the one hand, religious believers, and on the other hand, from

We hear nature abhorring a vacuum, and I think that there are places in human character that long for transcendental explanations, right? That it's not all meaningless. In fact, there's a larger purpose. And I think it's not a coincidence that such a significant part of resistance to communist regimes has in part come from, on the one hand, religious believers, and on the other hand, from

disillusioned true believers in communism who find themselves undergoing an internal experience of just a revulsion, finding that their ideals have not been followed through on.

disillusioned true believers in communism who find themselves undergoing an internal experience of just a revulsion, finding that their ideals have not been followed through on.

disillusioned true believers in communism who find themselves undergoing an internal experience of just a revulsion, finding that their ideals have not been followed through on.

That's right. I think that that last one is especially significant because it's deeply paradoxical.

That's right. I think that that last one is especially significant because it's deeply paradoxical.

That's right. I think that that last one is especially significant because it's deeply paradoxical.

I mean, trying to outline these contradictions, by the way, is like subjecting Marx to the sort of analysis that Marx subjected other people to, which is to point out internal contradictions, things that are likely to become pressure points or cracks that might open up in what's supposed to be a completely – set and durable and effective, uh, framework. Um, the one about tradition, uh,

I mean, trying to outline these contradictions, by the way, is like subjecting Marx to the sort of analysis that Marx subjected other people to, which is to point out internal contradictions, things that are likely to become pressure points or cracks that might open up in what's supposed to be a completely – set and durable and effective, uh, framework. Um, the one about tradition, uh,

I mean, trying to outline these contradictions, by the way, is like subjecting Marx to the sort of analysis that Marx subjected other people to, which is to point out internal contradictions, things that are likely to become pressure points or cracks that might open up in what's supposed to be a completely – set and durable and effective, uh, framework. Um, the one about tradition, uh,

you know, Marx points out that the need for revolution is in order to break with the traditions that have hemmed people in this earlier, earlier ways of thinking earlier social structures, uh, and, uh, and, and to constantly renovate. And what happens instead is, um, a tradition of radical rupture emerges.