"Truth Behind Bars": Reflections on the Fate of the Russian Revolution

by Paul Kellogg

Overview

Just north of the Arctic Circle is the settlement of Vorkuta, a notorious camp in the Gulag internment system that witnessed three pivotal moments in Russian history. In the 1930s, a desperate hunger strike by socialist prisoners, victims of Joseph Stalin’s repressive regime, resulted in mass executions. In 1953, a strike by forced laborers sounded the death knell for the Stalinist forced labor system. And finally, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of strikes by new, independent miners’ unions were central to overturning the Stalinist system.

In this book, Paul Kellogg uses the story of Vorkuta as a frame with which to re-assess the Russian Revolution. In particular, he turns to the contributions of Iulii Martov, a contemporary of Lenin, and his analysis of the central role played in the revolution by a temporary class of peasants-in-uniform. Kellogg explores the persistence and creativity of workers’ resistance in even the darkest hours of authoritarian repression and offers new perspectives on the failure of democratic governance after the Russian Revolution. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771992459
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	02/07/2021
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul Kellogg is an associate professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University.

What People are Saying About This

Peter Hudis

A significant achievement in understanding both the nature of the Soviet Union and the freedom struggles that ultimately led to its demise.

Ian D. Thatcher

Kellogg has written an intellectual tour de force—engaging, compelling, controversial, and erudite—the result of a lifetime of thought about the hope and horror generated by the Russian Revolution. Through a close and original survey of classic left literature, it triumphs self-liberation over substitutionism, democracy over dictatorship, and the centrality of moral means to good ends.