The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution

Download or read book The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution written by Alexander Riley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection, world-renowned scholars of Bolshevism and world communism analyze the human costs of the Bolshevik Revolution, its contribution to the spread of totalitarianism, and the responses it inspired among American and Western intellectuals. Together, their essays constitute a profound refusal of the poesy of totalitarianism that is based on sober research and detailed analysis of the limits of utopian politics and the dangers of cruel ideologies based in the cosmetic aesthetic of moral perfectionism and lyric intoxication. This study provides an accurate and succinct depiction of the nature of Bolshevism and its consequences in light of several decades of research, including former Soviet archival materials and American intelligence such as the Venona files.