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I just finished reading Lars Lih's little 200 plus page book on Lenin and was a little underwhelmed by it after all the praise I had heard for it previously in certain quarters. Yes, it does a good job of humanizing Lenin, but too much of the historical context is glossed over in favor of a hagiography that refers to "our hero" and to his "heroic scenario" constantly. I found the chapters on Lenin in Edmund Wilson's "To the Finland Station", even though written by a non-marxist and even though they end in April 1917, to be much more effective in bringing to light Lenin as a human being and political leader in a historical context, including Lenin's family background and the tragedy of his brother's life and execution, that is described better an in more detail. In particular a discussion of the Soviets and their evolution is treated with extreme paucity in Lih's work which comes across as a high school level biography, albeit a decent but flawed one. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
