I know almost nothing about the man

  • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
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    2 years ago

    In Stalin’s library in the specialized theoreticians section he had seperate from general theoreticians, he had Marx, Engels, Lenin, Kautsky, Plekhanov, Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev on his list in that order based off of importance and on the number of writings from the authors he had.

    He was a good man, a kind one as well - in all concideration for his crimes - but a poor theoretician and a poor Bolshevik.

    You'd honestly be much better off reading Trotsky if this is a question on theoreticians. On a question of autobiographies, that's more of a your choice thing than anything.

    • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      There's an unironic Bukharinist in my DSA chapter who swears by him. We were out drinking one time and she called Stalin a Trotskyist ultra which was quite funny. She's very much in that "democratic socialist" vein.

      • plinky [he/him]
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        2 years ago

        His historical materialism takes (at least early on, before 29-31 - I’m basing this on some long rant ive read with some choice excerpts) are very meh, shades of mechanistism, and economic takes on problems of soviet union are rather inapplicable, unless you live in largely peasant country :shrug-outta-hecks: so broader philosophical stuff is bad, and focused stuff is interesting for understanding some of soviet union economic experiments, but again - inapplicable to anything currently existing

  • lott [none/use name]
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    2 years ago

    If you're looking for a biography, I recommend Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution A Political Biography 1888-1938 by Stephen F. Cohen