Lenin to Gorbachev: Three Generations of Soviet Communists by Joan Frances Crowley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"For both Stalin and Khrushchev, the speech fundamentally altered the way in which history would record them. In Stalin's case, the speech revealed the enormity of his crimes, while in Khrushchev's case, it lessened the esteem for his leadership."

Yet another review of a book about 20th-century Soviet leaders. The authors of Lenin to Gorbachev (1989), Joan Frances Crawley and Dan Vaillancourt, explain that the idea of the book was born based on the course on Marxism and communism they were teaching at Mundelein College in Chicago. Indeed, some passages of the text, have the characteristic college textbook "feel," a combination of rigor and simplifications needed because of the target audience. I am reviewing the original version of the book, which - as I understand - was updated in 2012.

The authors begin with a rather brief exposition of Marxism. They stress some of the main tenets of the Marxist philosophical system: the concept of history as a process of development and grounding in the method of dialectics. They also make it clear that Marxism distinguishes economics, particularly the "relations of production," as the main factor influencing human beings and societies.

The book's subtitle is Three Generations of Soviet Communists. According to the authors, Lenin, the revolutionary represents the first generation, Stalin, the social architect (and mass murderer on a scale unprecedented in the history of mankind), represents the second generation. They are followed by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev, called "businessmen" by the authors. While in hindsight, 30 years after the book was published, lumping Gorbachev with the other four leaders, is obviously a mistake, the generational classification is helpful for readers who want to learn about the history of Soviet communism.

Having been raised and schooled in a Soviet-influenced educational system in Poland I had been taught a lot of the material included in this book. Yet I still have learned many new facts and discovered new interpretations. For instance, I now know more about the events of 1905 in Russia, the times that preceded the October Revolution and brought the creation of the first ever country in the name of ideals of communism and purported 'dictatorship of proletariat.' Naturally, only dictators enjoy the dictatorship, the proletariat has always suffered, is suffering, and will likely always suffer. I did not learn much about the subsequent Soviet leaders above what I had already known. Obviously, the book written in 1989 could not predict the role of Gorbachev in accelerating the fall of communism.

I am unable to read about Stalin's atrocities without getting emotional: This 'genius of social architecture' is directly responsible for deaths of tens of millions of people. Further millions had their lives turned into torture and suffering in the "archipelago of labor camps." Yet further hundreds of millions of people lost their chances for living their lives with even a minimum of happiness and comfort. The authors indicate how simple chance might have affected history: we read about Lenin who had plans to demote Stalin but suffered a series of strokes:

"A third stroke, however, permanently debilitated the party leader until his death ten months later. Had Lenin recovered from the stroke and lived perhaps a year longer, Stalin probably would have fallen."

Interesting and worthwhile read.

Three-and-a-half-stars


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