Lenin's Electoral Strategy from 1907 to the October Revolution of 1917 - by August H Nimtz (Paperback)
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Highlights
- This book is the first full-length study of Lenin's party building project and writings on elections, looking in detail at his leadership of the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in the four state Dumas from 1906 to the beginning of the First World War.
- About the Author: August H. Nimtz is Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA.
- 281 Pages
- Political Science, History & Theory
Description
About the Book
"This is the first book length study of the sorely neglected side of Lenin's politics - his use of the electoral arena to shape a revolution. This aspect of Leninist politics was intimately linked to his better known party-building project and writings on the peasantry, though few researchers have dedicated themselves to how Leninist ideology relates to the study of elections. In this book, August H. Nimtz details Lenin's efforts to lead the deputies of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in the Third and Fourth State Dumas, which was Russia's first experiment in representative democracy from 1907 to 19017 - from counterrevolution to the Revolution of October of 1917. This time period covered such challenges as whether to take part in the Dumas, how to combine legal and illegal work, how to ensure party leadership of its Duma deputies, how to employ the Duma to forge the worker-peasant alliance and most importantly, to implement anti-war actions when the First World War began. The answers Lenin provided increasingly put him at odds with Western European Social Democrats, foreshadowing the historic split in the international Marxist movement in 1914. Bolshevik success in 1917, the book argues, can be traced to what was learned in that more than decade-long experience - lessons for anyone interested in Leninism or today's modern protestor"--Book Synopsis
This book is the first full-length study of Lenin's party building project and writings on elections, looking in detail at his leadership of the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in the four state Dumas from 1906 to the beginning of the First World War.Review Quotes
"Provides an impressively detailed account of the work of the Bolsheviks in the Russian par-liament, the Duma, during the pre-revolutionary period. ... Nimtz's book also shows Lenin's great commitment to democracy, in the face of the common right wing smears against him as an elitist or a despot. ... This is a thorough and readable summary of Lenin's work on elections and the nature of parliaments." (Richard Donnelly, International Socialism, Issue 157, 2018)
About the Author
August H. Nimtz is Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is the author of Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (2000), Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America: The 'Absolute Democracy' or 'Defiled Republic' (2003), and a number of related articles in edited volumes and journals.