Department of Politics and International Relations
Dr Ed Rooksby on the myth of the 'soviet' state under Lenin
Posted on 5 November 2019
Dr Ed Rooksby has had two articles published online recently.
Debates within Marxism between partisans of 'reform' and 'revolution' presume that the Bolsheviks really 'smashed' the Tsarist state. But what if this isn't true? Ed had his article The Bolsheviks did not 'smash' the old state published in the New Socialist Magazine. Ed argues that the central claim here - that the old state machine in Russia was destroyed in 1917 and a new one based (however fleetingly) on soviet institutions set up in its place - is a myth.
Ed also recently published a critical review of J A Smith's 'Other People's Politics: from Populism to Corbynism' - which he argues is an important Lacanian inspired contribution to the debate over populism and the challenges and opportunities it might present for the left.