Re: M-TH: Fw: "Bukharin's prison manuscripts prove Koestler wrong"

[Chris Burford]

At 09:54 01/02/00 -0800, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2000 8:38 AM
>Subject: "Bukharin's prison manuscripts prove Koestler wrong"
>


Presuming these texts are authentic, they certainly sound interesting.
Simplistic propagandist versions of "Stalinism" are breaking down,
(although that should not minimise the tragedy of the purges).

Only one caution about the texts: with the polarisation in which Bukharin
is the victim of a particularly arbitrary version of the dictatorship of
the proletariat, he can write a more idealised humanistic version of
marxism. If he was a marxist leader he would still have had to retain
power, ultimately by force of arms.

Or do people want to see him as cuddly, in the way some Gramscians
undoubtedly wish to prettify Gramsci.

Chris Burford

London




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