Reviews and Comments

not his finest writing tbh, has some good parts like the question of avoiding sectarian degeneration and defining what ultra-leftism is and why is it wrong but at the same time feels at times more like a collection of distinct articles than a logical whole

A very insightful piece on the nature of workers democracy, internationalism and class collaboration. Most of the accusations leveled against the Bolsheviks by Kautsky are rehashed in form or another by reformists and reactionaries alike. Parliamentary cretinism is apparently a really dour ailment! Recommended supplimentary reading are "Terrorism and communism" by Trotsky and "State and Revolution"

little known fact: during the Great Depression hundreds of thousands of Americans have emigrated to the Soviet Union

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still very up to date this days. just substitute 'workerism' for 'economist,' and try to also understand it as a critique of e.g. direct action

quite an objective and in-depth account of the greatest event in human history, in which the working masses for the first time (barring the short-lived episode of the Paris Commune) stormed the skies, entered the stage of world history and took their fate into their own hands, laying the groundwork for an end to the Great Slaughter of World War I. Great for debunking all the pile of lies and distortions that have been amassed around the Bolshevik Revolution over the past century. Also shows that it was Trotsky, not Stalin that played the pivotal role in the events of October. Though John Reed's writing style feels a little bit too tangential at times.