Written by Jock Dominie. £12, 276pp.
The Russian Revolution remains a landmark event in history. For the bourgeois historians, the October Revolution is thought to be a tragedy that set back the achievements of the “democratic” February Revolution, and allowed the Bolsheviks to wreak havoc on their citizens and the world. For the Stalinists, the events of 1917 paved the way for the birth of the USSR, which they point to as a prototypical example of “socialism in one country”. In reality, the February and October Revolutions were both part of the same proletarian revolution.
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This is only a thought, but
This is only a thought, but perhaps it is a relatively easy way out for the system to periodically accept that wrongdoing occured many years after the event.
It is not cost free for the ruling class, but the alternative is to appear unaccountable, aloof, brittle, undemocratic. This may generate greater resistance than the approach of conceding some points which do not threaten it fundamentally.
For example, some admissions regarding brutality and the like during the miners's trike in 1984-5 could eventually be forthcoming, but given the passing of time, even if not good for the image of the state, would not be massively damaging.
The system plays a complex game with its victims. It gives a little and takes a lot. It maintains passivity whilst permitting exploitation.
We have noted it many times
We have noted it many times that
it is a relatively easy way out for the system to periodically accept that wrongdoing occured many years after the event.
It has happened so often but the fight against this remains the only way in which we even get to know a modicum of the truth. Solidarity with those who fought so long.