Through a more thorough study of Marxism and of history, I came to see that Stalin was a great Marxist-Leninist and that the USSR, at least until the Krushchev years, provided a shining example of what Marxism was when applied. Whatever his errors may have been, Mao was a breath of fresh air, so clear and simple, yet sharp as a razor - so practical and useful! And yet Mao was a "Stalinist." So I had to ask, was Stalin a deviation from "true" Marxism and even from Leninism (and where did that leave Mao?), or was Stalin a genuine Marxist-Leninist? What did this say about socialism, what it is and what it isn't? What did this say about what socialism could be? It was only when I came to Mao Zedong's writings and the experience of the Chinese Revolution that I could begin to reappraise Stalin, the USSR, and the world communist movement as a whole. Later my utopianism became more nuanced and sophisticated as I studied philosophy formally. As a young man, a teenager just coming to Marxism, I remember people would say, "but Socialism didn't work," and I would reply, with a fine mixture of youthful optimism and naivete, "but it was never really tried!" Any scientific socialist should be able to see such a statement for the utopianism that it is. I read Adorno, Jameson, and Critical Theory.
I came from a petit-bourgeois intellectual Marxism, distanced from practice and tied in rather closely to to the humanist/individualist ideologies of the U.S. It is a weapon for communists to use in the ideological front.įor a long time I didn't understand Comrade Stalin. For us, working in the United States where anticommunism is so institutionalized, it is an important book. Mastering Bolshevism by J.V.This book by Ludo Martens of the Worker's Party of Belgium, Another View of Stalin (EPO, Antwerp: 1994.), is pretty incredible. Stalin (1938)įoundations of Leninism by J.V. Interested in attending a class? Email for more informationĪnother View of Stalin by Ludo Martens (1994)ĭialectical and Historical Materialism by J.V. Martens passed away in June of 2011 at the age of 65. Martens was a member of the Belgian Workers' Party during the time that it was a Marxist-Leninist party.
The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents a translated lecture (originally French) by comrade Ludo Martens.
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