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I have the opportunity to pitch a book at my leftist book club. What is a book to help counter anti-ML attitudes from people who lean more anarchist and/or have a strong opposition to Lenin/Stalin? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My circles tend to be very anti Lenin or anti Stalin, most of them are anarchists or left leaning people who have a pretty strong opposition to MLs. I would like to have a dialogue with them or least give them some tools so that they can have a good background with which to critique ML even if they don't change their mind and become MLs.

Bonus if it includes info about the Bund in relation to Lenin & the Bolsheviks or information about Jews in the Soviet Union or ML Jews in general - most of us are Jewish, and a lot of strong opposition is rooted in the Jewish experience of those eras and strong emotional and ideological affinity to the legacy of the Bund.

These don't quite cover the Jewish experience as much but, some books or articles top of my mind for at least countering anticommunism are:

Western Marxism Loves Purity and Martyrdom, But Not Real Revolution
Blackshirts and Reds

Would love to hear yalls thoughts.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend by Domenico Losurdo

the rev left podcast did an episode about this book with the translator. it's very specifically not a biography of stalin, it's about stalin's reputation & mythology and how that mythology has been shaped by the needs of bourgeoisie/capitalist ideology. it sounds like it would be good for the purpose you have in mind.

free pdf: https://www.iskrabooks.org/_files/ugd/ec1faf_2d8a8a045ef442a4bc367697d9231c01.pdf

this book also includes a chapter specifically about construction of stalin as an antisemite and how that ties into the double genocide theory, which starts about page 200 in the pdf linked above

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think Losurdo is a bit much to jump into if they're still at the "Lenin is bad" stage. Losurdo is pretty dense and reads like a historiography. I doubt OP's friends know basic Soviet history, so they should probably start by learning about the Russian Revolution.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

yeah fair enough. I started reading the bit I highlighted about antisemitism and it's pretty dense. you really have to give a shit to get into it