The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
In 1920 Bertrand Russell travelled to Soviet Russia with a British delegation, met Lenin, and came home deeply uneasy about what he had seen. This book is the record of that reckoning. Russell separates the theory of Bolshevism, which he treats seriously as an heir to nineteenth-century socialism, from its practice under the new regime, which he found harsh, dogmatic, and contemptuous of liberty. Written by a man broadly sympathetic to socialism, the critique carried real weight and unsettled many on the left. He warns that revolution pursued by force tends to reproduce the tyranny it set out to destroy. Remarkably prescient about the Soviet experiment, it is free to download as a PDF or EPUB.
About the Author
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and social critic, and a founder of analytic philosophy. A tireless public intellectual, he wrote on everything from mathematical logic to pacifism and won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Listen to The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism Audiobook Free
Listen to The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism by Bertrand Russell free online. The full audiobook (4 hr 40 min, 17 chapters, read by Landon D. C. Elkind) streams free on this page.
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1921) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preface | 9:17 | |
| 2 | What Is Hoped For From Bolshevism | 14:01 | |
| 3 | General Characteristics | 16:30 | |
| 4 | Lenin, Trotsky and Gorky | 13:18 | |
| 5 | Art and Education | 41:42 | |
| 6 | Communism and the Soviet Constitution | 13:53 | |
| 7 | The Failure of Russian Industry | 18:03 | |
| 8 | Daily Life in Moscow | 11:10 | |
| 9 | Town and Country | 11:54 | |
| 10 | International Policy | 19:32 | |
| 11 | The Materialistic Theory of History | 13:48 | |
| 12 | Deciding Forces in Politics | 9:19 | |
| 13 | Bolshevik Criticism of Democracy | 18:15 | |
| 14 | Revolution and Dictatorship | 16:50 | |
| 15 | Mechanism and the Individual | 12:29 | |
| 16 | Why Russian Communism Has Failed | 21:42 | |
| 17 | Conditions for the Success of Communism | 18:09 |
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