Lenin david shub
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Lenin: A Biography
A little caution is required in approaching this book, published first in and then again in a revised edition in , but it has some significant merits.
The caution arises from it being a book by an exiled Russian Menshevik opposed to the Bolshevik faction who was not present during the Revolution and who is writing from the US at the peak period of the Cold War. It also includes no research after the date of revision.
So, why is it on the reading list? Partly because Shub was part of the pre-revolutionary Marxist social democrat community and understands what he is studying, partly because the book is filled with clearly well evidenced factual material and partly because he strikes me as honest.
Taking the caution as read, Shub appears to paint a fair warts and all picture of what I allowed myself to be quoted to Russian TV journalists recently as the 'greatest professional revolutionary in history'. Shall we start with the negative or the positive?
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Fact or Fiction on Lenins Role
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New International, March–April
David Shub
A Letter From David Shub
Defending His Biography of Lenin
From The New International, Vol. XVI No. 2, MarchApril , pp.86
Transcribed & marked up bygd Einde OCallaghan for ETOL.
To the Editors of
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL:
My attention has been called to Mr. Max Shachtmans article on my book Lenin, A Biography in your December issue. I am sufficiently familiar with the tradition of Bolshevik polemics not to be surprised by the abusive and defamatory character of Mr. Shachtmans review. I reply in your columns only because inom believe I am entitled to keep the record clear on the facts upon which Mr. Shachtman rests his case. (I am quite prepared to believe, unless the contrary is proved, that many of Mr. Shachtmans errors are the product of inadequate grou
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David Shub
Exiled Russian social democrat revolutionary, historian
David Shub ( – ) was a social democrat arrested for activity in the Russian revolution and exiled to Siberia in and escaped to the United States in
In he wrote the lead article on Stalin, probably the first authoritative profile to appear in the American press, for the New York Times magazine (22 March )[citation needed]
His biography of Lenin has been reprinted over sixteen times, described as "indispensable to the student of contemporary history, of russia, and of social revolution".
During his exile, he remained in close contact with leading figures of the Russian Revolutionary movement, including BolsheviksLenin, Trotsky, and Bukharin, and also liberals and socialists such as Kerensky, Miliukov, Chernov, Catherine Breshkovsky, and others.
Biography
[edit]David Shub was born and educated in Russia. In he lived in London, Paris, and Geneva, where he often met with leaders of the Social D