Communism (Revolutions)

‘Negative anthropology’ seems to have to meet two minimal requirements: Firstly, it must be able to make essential statements about the human being without recurring to an exhaustible essence of the human. Secondly, the non-exhaustible determinability of the human being must be theoretically anchored in a structural negativity. Eugen Fink's engagement with the nature of human being meets these requirements: it articulates essential truths about being human without presupposing a positive essence of humanity; at the same time, it anchors this humanity in a structural negativity by placing it back into being torn open by the world, the answer to which it represents. The world, in this context, is not a positive entity but rather the "outline" of our existence in the here and now, which turns us into fragments of a whole characterised by withdrawal. It is precisely in the simultaneity of concrete situating and its transcendence through withdrawal that the crucial point of an anthropology of negativity lies, understood in the sense of the double genitive as one of the consistent methodological 'figures' in Fink's thought. Thus, the expression can be read once as a genetivus subjectivus (anthropology of negativity), whereby the finitude is conceived through the Absolute of "tearing," as Fink primarily explores in his early speculative reflections following the "ontological paradox" of the subject, which here appears as a "distortion" of the Absolute. (1) However, this meontic reading simultaneously gives rise to a reversal towards an anthropology of negativity, which will shape Fink's middle and later thought. Here, human modes of being are to be read as ciphers of the experience of negativity, such that the breaks, caesuras, and occurrences in confronting the limit emerge as existential facts that provoke responses without allowing for a definitive resolution. (2)

Keywords
Eugen Fink, Meontics, Anthropology, Ontological Paradox, World-antecedence, Existence

In this volume, I have gathered together material produced with newer versions of ChatGPT since my previous summary "Understanding the Social World". These have been published separately in several languages on academia.edu and are now available as a single volume. I am publishing this one under the same title as the second volume, and the two volumes now run to over four thousand pages of theoretical analysis of aspects of the social world. The first part deals with the emergence of historical consciousness and its processes of change, the second with the identity of the nation-states, and the third with analyses of the struggles of the politics of memory. The fourth section focuses on the social scientification of intellectual activities from the mid-1800s onwards, and the fifth section explores some aspects of the intellectual subsystems of society. Finally, the sixth and concluding section contains papers analysing the causes and types of violent revolutionary change in modern societies.

Lenin deklinierte nach seiner Reise nach England, daß die damaligen englischen Gewerkschaften nur "Trade-Unionistisch", nur system-immanent denken und agieren: sie stellen also nur system-interne Forderungen wie höhere Löhne, wie sichere Krankenversicherung, etc. Lenin bemängelte, daß diese Arbeiterstreiks keine "sozialistische" Streiks waren: Darauf hin schuf Lenin die Partei Neuen Typs: die Bolschewiki. Er instruierte sie, den Arbeitern das "richtige Bewußtsein" zu implantieren:

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Communist Party and the Soviet Government strived to combine the pursuit of the country’s interests with the promotion of world revolution which resulted in serious political conflicts within the USSR and affected the development of Soviet scholarship. The article examines the problem focusing on life and scholarship of Soviet Kurdish and Iranian studies specialist Fedor Rostopchin (1904–1938). Based on archival materials, it attempts to reconstruct his biography studying it in the context of the development of the Soviet state and the revolutionary movement of that time. He was a prominent representative of Soviet Oriental Studies in the pre-WWII period, characterized by searching for new ways of scholarship development, rejecting colonialism and promoting national and social emancipation of non- European peoples. Rostopchin not only engaged in fundamental academic research in the field of Iranian and Kurdish studies but also designed plans for promoting the revolution “in the East” and collaborated with the Comintern bodies. In the period of growing political confrontation within the Soviet state and related repressions, many brilliant Orientalists, especially those associated with the Comintern, also became victims; and one of them became Rostopchin. Despite his general loyalty to the Soviet state, he was arrested and executed; while a number of his later works were published without mentioning his authorship or under someone else’s name. Thus, restoring and perpetuating the memory of this prominent scholar and his achievements in the field of Kurdish and Iranian Studies, is of particular importance for the history of Oriental Studies in Russia

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the evolution that is experienced within the relationship between the goal of reforming the welfare state (and the social compromise underlying it) in the elaboration of the PCI, as well as the objective of rebooting the process of integration between the countries of the Old Continent, capable of leading to a more solid "political Europe". Far from being two distinct and separate elements (perhaps true during previous historical eras, though never clearly), in the 1980s these two issues became increasingly intertwined, as public opinion and political debate identified in the European dimension the place and space within which redefine the main features of the social model and rethink a different and more dynamic balance between state, market and organised social subjects. Favouring the analysis of the party's political culture, the article attempts to conduct this reconstruction by carrying out a periodization in order to distinguish three different phases of this relationship, within which the relations and the type of intertwining between the two elements are defined, as part of the more general strategic perspective and overall identity and political project of the party.

Vjačeslav Michajlovič Molotov (1890-1986) was a former head of the government of the Soviet Union and Stalin's closest collaborator for more than 30 years, holding the highest state and government posts. He joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1921 and became its secretary. In his Memoirs he states that in those years of 1921 and 1922 Lenin regarded Trotsky as the main threat to the Party, the Revolution and the Soviet state itself.

Con queste parole narra uno dei giornalisti nostrani che un operaio dimostrante in Berlino Est si rivolgesse a un gruppo di proletari di Berlino Ovest, assistenti dietro uno schieramento di forze d'ordine americane allo svolgersi della grande, anche se sfortunata, insurrezione contro la galera del lavoro salariato. Dopo più di un secolo, il grido di battaglia del Manifesto echeggiava nelle stesse vie e sulle stesse piazze che la storia volle già teatro nelle più violente battaglie rivoluzionarie di questo secolo e di tutta Europa.

The paper analyzes the recovery of the French Plantation sequence in the films Apocalypse Now, Final Cut, and Coppola, recovering the movie's entire narrative and aesthetic capacity. We demonstrate how Coppola, obeying distribution norms and standard marketing devices, suppresses the sequence, producing a film like all the others. Coppola recovered the narrative of the French Plantation in dialogue with Schoendoerffer's nostalgic cinema, masterfully adapting Conrad's work, Heart of Darkness. The description of the French and American wars in the paper provides the background, allowing us to understand why there is a French plantation in Vietnam and why the United States entered the conflict in Southeast Asia. The recovery of the sequence describes French colonization in the era of imperialism, producing commodities such as rubber in plantations-places where the planters put down their roots-the plantation becomes property, existential justification, homeland, and source of memory. Defeated in Dien Bien Phu, the French do not abandon Vietnam and their memories, transforming them into nostalgic ghosts shrouded in the mists of history. The French Plantation restored in Apocalypse Now, Final Cut, gives the film the status of a work of art, ceasing to be a confusing work about an absurd and unfortunate war.

INTRODUCTION

    This essay about how "We the Living's" Communist State forces people to work for the Soviet government, will be published in my forthcoming book "Critical Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living," in mid 2025, along with two other essays: “How Communism Destroys People’s Lives in We the Living,” and; “The Longing of all Things Foreign in We the Living: How Characters Want to Emigrate Abroad to Win Their Freedom.”

ABSTRACT

    "We the Living’s" Communist government deceives people into believing that collectivism will create a better world for mankind. It does this by showing readers how characters “humiliate themselves by playing up to the Red authorities, wasting [their] time on stupid, hypocritical ‘social activities’ ” (Rand, Letters, 58). Where characters are forced to support the official Leninist Party line---regardless of their actual evaluation of Marxism---so they can advance in the Soviet’s new Red world. By participating in the State’s collective force. By engaging in communal work programs, where they are forced to pursue a limited range of proletarian goals that Marxists approve of. Otherwise, they are fired from their jobs, during a dreaded 'reduction-of-staffs,' for being disloyal Soviets. So my essay shows all this.

    Similarly, my essay also shows readers how "We the Living’s" Soviet government bombards characters with Soviet movies, Marxist poems, red novels, socialist cartoons, proletarian operas, red ballets, socialist magazine interviews, and Communist newspaper articles. Forms of red art that highlight a spirit of proletarian loyalty amongst Russians. That depict the idea that all Russians have a patriotic duty to devote their lives to the nation's great collective.

    Another topic this essay explores is how the novel's collectivist government tries to forbid State citizens from loving - and marrying - the petty bourgeoise. By counseling Russians to “break off lovely romances [with] bourgeoise men" and women, because "a true proletarian does not marry out of her class” (183, 301). And, since the novel's Soviet State thinks that individual love is a bourgeoise prejudice, We the Living's centralized government  thinks that loving people of the middle class decreases the toiling masses overarching devotion to the Soviet Union. And, since the book's fictional government does not want any competition for their citizen's loyalty and affection, we see (in my essay) how “love falls victim to the grey rot of daily Soviet existence”  (Schein-Federman, Essays on We the Living, 78).

    Also, my essay explores how "We the Living's" Soviet State creates satirical cartoons that lampoon Western figures who do not embrace Communism. Figures, like Neville Chamberlin, who opposed many Communist policies. Policies like: nationalizing industries; spending on social programs; increasing the power of trade unions, and more. Evidently, since We the Living’s Communist newspapers hate Chamberlin’s stances on their favorite pet projects, they not only mock him in State-controlled media outlets, but they also conveniently ignore that Chamberlin was in favor of many social policies that Russian Marxists should have supported. Policies like limiting the working hours of women and children laboring in factories; mandating that employers provide at least one week of paid vacation per year; and establishing a national system of unemployment benefits were workers would receive temporary monies for their living expenses while they were laid-off and looking for work (i.e. money for food, clothing, and shelter). Yet, because the novel’s Red State does not want to expose their citizens to classically liberal ideas that could cause their workers to riot, they depict a steak-eating Neville Chamberlin “crushing the British proletariat,” by sitting on a worker with his chair (196) Ultimately, this ludicrous juxtaposition, shows readers the hypocrisy, the double standards, and the systemic corruption of We the Living’s Soviet State.

    This essay also illustrates how Soviet corruption was endemic in Russia in 1921, and beyond, with the introduction of the State’s New Economic Policy (NEP). Since, under this temporary economic liberalization, characters who represent the NEP, such as Karp Morozov, grow rich by bribing officials, stealing food, and basically, by minting money for Communist officials, like Pavel Syereov. Conversely, Russia's NEP suppressed honest businessman, like Alexander Argounova, by raising their taxes, until they are unable to rise under Russia’s NEP. Since, principled entrepreneurs, like Alexander, are "trapped between the energy of their own entrepreneurial spirits and the crushing decrees of State Communists." (Lewis, 344).

    Other topics this essay explores are: (1) how Alexander and Vasili are crushed by the book's Marxist state and what they do about it; (2) how there are images of Lenin, Marx, Stalin, and other Soviet leaders, in the book, because in a dictatorship loving the chief is like loving the regime; (3) how Comrade Sonia is the new Soviet woman who controls Petrograd's other women because she has 5 women's clubs, 2 profunions, and the Zhenotdel---a section of the Communist party dedicated to women's affairs---under her thumb; and, lastly, (6) how the book's Russian State tries to take over Universities by forcing pupils turn over their life and work to the government.

P.S. If you found my essays informative, or useful, I’d appreciate some Amazon reviews for my Fountainhead book (already published) and my forthcoming We the Living book (when published). Since, I'd like to believe that in exchange for providing you with several full-text essays, for free, you will reward me with a good review (or any review) if appropriate.

La storica forma di produzione che è il capitalismo, col suo mito della proprietà privata come diritto degli uomini, che mistifica e maschera il monopolio di una classe minoritaria, ha avuto bisogno di segnare i nodi delle sue strutture e le tappe della sua evoluzione ed oggi involuzione con grandi nomi di progressiva notorietà. Nel lungo arco borghese, la cui sinistra storia pesa come un giogo sulle nostre spalle di ribelli, in partenza l’uomo più valente e forte raggiungeva la notorietà massima e tendeva ai massimi poteri; oggi, in questo dominante filisteismo piccolo-borghese, forse il più vile e il più debole acquistano importanza in funzione dello sporco metodo pubblicitario.

Lo sforzo attuale del nostro partito nel suo tanto difficile compito è di liberarsi per sempre dalla spinta traditrice che sembrava emanare da uomini illustri, e dalla funzione spregevole di fabbricare, per raggiungere i suoi scopi e le sue vittorie, una stupida notorietà e pubblicità per altri nomi personali.

Cette étude de philosophie sociale vise à comprendre la spécificité du capitalisme en tant que forme historique d’organisation sociale et de transformation du monde. Elle propose une réflexion descriptive et normative sur la pratique sociale capitaliste, afin de mieux cerner la complexité, la diversité et la plasticité de la dynamique capitaliste. Nous avons choisi de partir de la façon dont Marx conçoit la logique du capital sous l’angle de l’abstraction réelle, ce qui nous permet de saisir la pratique capitaliste selon les termes d’une normativité abstraite, d’un « devoir-être » qui pose comme fin « suprasensible » l’idéalisation d’une survaleur infinie. Marx fournit de précieuses ressources théoriques non seulement pour comprendre l’abstraction capitaliste, mais aussi pour déterminer les formes selon lesquelles celle-ci intervient et restructure la réalité concrète à travers l’action des capitalistes, en rendant explicites les tensions liées à une telle restructuration de l’exist...

Nel corso delle puntate, dato che il nostro lavoro ha sempre un carattere collettivo e impersonale, compagni lettori hanno fatto pervenire al centro di lavoro una copia francese del 1920, stampata a Parigi dalla Bibliothèque Communiste di rue Montmartre 123, e una tedesca stampata nello stesso anno a Lipsia come edizione del segretariato dell'Internazionale comunista. I due testi collimano certamente con quelli che furono distribuiti in quell'anno ai congressisti di Mosca, e abbiamo annotate nel nostro testo odierno alcune delle non poche deformazioni e omissioni posteriori. Il titolo in francese è: La Maladie infantile du Communisme (Le Communisme de gauche) e quello in tedesco: Der linke Radikalismus, die Kinderkrankheit im Kommunismus.

Il gioco di destrezza di avvalorare con lo scritto di Lenin le manovre indecenti dei comunisti e socialisti odierni, del tutto simili a quelle dei traditori della II Internazionale che qui Lenin riduce a brandelli, è tanto più scandaloso in quanto viene da gente che dice di avere appreso da Lenin la casistica delle diverse situazioni. Gente simile può ben dimenticare che quando Lenin scriveva nel 1920 le fiamme sorgevano da tutto l'orizzonte, e alcune manovre proposte per inserirsi nelle fratture tra gruppi della politica borghese erano audaci, non in quanto occorreva condurvi gli elementi più ardenti e caldi della nostra possente organizzazione, ma solo e proprio in quanto si doveva essere allenati, scaduti pochi momenti sull'orologio della storia, a immergere nelle reni di quei momentanei stipulatori di compromessi l'inesorabile acciaio della forza rivoluzionaria

La metamorfosi che l'uomo del tempo moderno, il proletario salariato, subisce nella economia della proprietà privata, è una uscita dalla essenza umana, cui furono più vicini i membri di società primitive. Alienato dalla mercede per cui ha venduto sé stesso, il suo tempo e il suo lavoro, il proletario si è estraniato da uomo; è una pura merce, un oggetto fisico senza vita. Noi diamo questa chiave, per il rivoluzionario scioglimento da Marx la prima volta in queste pagine descritto. Per ridiventare da non sé stesso, sé stesso; da non uomo, uomo; il lavoratore estraniato non tenderà a riconquistare la sua persona, il suo individuo di prima, chiudendo un ciclo inutile e stupido che non avrebbe altra prospettiva che una seconda ed eterna autovendita per schiavo, ma riconquisterà, con la sua classe, e per tutta la società e la specie umana, la qualità di uomo, non più come individuo singolo, ma come parte della nuova umanità, del comunismo. Il quadro della società nuova è da questo momento tracciato, e questo modello è valido fino al tempo storico della sua attuazione futura.

INTRO As I put final touches on this write-up, at 3pm PST, on 30 May 2024. DJT was just convicted in a NY corrupt court, via fabricated charges, some not even known. What the repercussions will be are unknown to me. Two things are certain. It will certainly bolster his vote count and it ain't over until the fat lady sings. There are a few major investigations that have occurred (see bottom page). And many, many more in the works. For some reason, despite me intentionally, hardly ever, forwarding my circle of folks ANY Trump related emails or election propaganda, or out of abundance of caution rarely

There is the necessity of a Manifesto for a new communist planetary movement (which must be anticapitalistic, feminist, animalist and ecologist). On the opposite side of the question the actual social and democratic disintegration becomes a real objective for western institutional (economic, political and military) powers, through the tempted eradication of the radical and revolutionary principle (the living and concrete infinite): the creative and relational, individual and collective, source of existence and living. In this way the western Dictatorship of Capital makes alive again the traditional philosophical concept of the necessary and absolute One (the abstract and alienative infinite), in order to subjugate and to exploit the populations and the goods of the entire planet Earth. This book enucleates some theoretical, political and educational points that will be able to oppose to this neutralization and mortification of existence and life, individual and collective.

The authors take a deep dive into the correlation between rational and irrational in both Enlightenment philosophy and classical Marxism, which is embodied in Russia in the form of Marxism-Leninism. The cult of Rationalism prevailed during the first years of Soviet power, which was expressed in V.I. Lenin's academic works and was implemented into political practice. However, the established rationality resulted in the Mythology of Reason and mystification of science, which, like magic, "is capable of everything". This kind of rationalism penetrated deeply into different forms of mass consciousness and gave birth to the irrational Kingdom of Reason, based on which all spheres of life within Soviet society were supposed to be transformed.

Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar a historia e o desenvolvimento das categorias politico-pedagogicas enunciadas nas obras de Gramsci para verificar se Togliatti, responsavel pelo arquivo e divulgacao do pensamento gramsciano, ao assim fazer, realizou omissoes e interferencias que pudessem adulterar o pensamento gramsciano. Neste aspecto, a pesquisa prioriza a categoria politico-pedagogica, visto que entende ser ela essencial na perspectiva historica, social e educacional de Gramsci. Por intermedio de uma pesquisa bibliografica (livros, artigos cientificos, depoimentos, correspondencias etc.) busca-se verificar a genese, a producao e a divulgacao do pensamento de Gramsci entre as decadas de 1910 e 1960. No caso, considerando o contexto historico da epoca (Segunda Guerra Mundial, Guerra Fria, ascencao e declinio do stalinismo e do fascismo, bem como, as lutas politicas internas no Partido Comunista Italiano (PCI) e na Internacional Comunista), buscou-se compreender a forma de a...

Este ensaio discute a trajetória do Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB) e como se localiza na elaboração teórica e política brasileira ao longo do século XX. Procura-se demonstrar que ideias como a "revolução por etapas" ou a alianças com a "burguesia progressista" são elementos que aparecem continuamente em suas elaborações, desde a década de 1920. Para tanto, são apresentados e analisados documentos produzidos pela PCB e por outras organizações de esquerda ao longo do século XX.

Marx hat keine systematische Abhandlung zur Moral und Moralphilosophie verfasst. Gelegentlich er-wähnt er sie zusammen mit anderen sozialen Teilbereichen, Institutionen oder Bewusstseinsformen, denen er den „Schein der Selbstständigkeit“ (MEGA² I/5, 136) nehmen will, indem er sie auf den Stand der Produktivkräfte und Produktionsverhältnisse bezieht. Moral wird hier in einem Atemzug mit Geset-zen, Religion, Metaphysik, Wissenschaft, Familie und Kunst genannt (vgl. ebd., 135, MEGA² I/2, 264, MEW 4, 480). Die Stoßrichtung ist stets dieselbe: „Das Bewußtsein kann nie etwas Andres sein als das bewußte Sein, & das Sein der Menschen ist ihr wirklicher Lebensprozeß.“ (MEGA² I/5, 136) Nicht um die Spezifik der Moral und Moralphilosophie geht es hier, sondern um das allgemeine Verhältnis von mate-rieller und geistiger Produktion oder von Basis und Überbau. Eine Analyse dieser und vergleichbarer Passagen würde folglich nur in einer weiteren Abhandlung über den Historischen Materialismus mün-den.
Stattdessen möchte ich mich den Stellen widmen, in denen Moral und Moralphilosophie ein be-sonderer Gegenstand der Betrachtung sind. Dabei wird sich zeigen, dass der frühe Marx der Moral und Moralphilosophie nicht etwa kritisch gegenüberstand, weil er Determinist gewesen wäre (1.), sondern weil er ihre Existenz als Symptom entfremdeter Verhältnisse deutete (2.). Beim späten Marx findet sich diese soziologische Fundamentalkritik nicht mehr. Vielmehr geht er mit spezifischen moralphilosophi-schen Vorstellungen und Prinzipien ins Gericht – wie in seiner Auseinandersetzung mit Proudhons Kapi-talismuskritik (3.) oder leistungsbezogenen Sozialismusvorstellungen (4.). Marx begibt sich hier implizit auf das Terrain der normativen Ethik und gibt sich als relationaler Egalitarist und ethischer Perfektionist zu erkennen. Nach einem Rekurs auf die Entfremdungstheorie des frühen Marx (5.) werde ich dafür argumentieren, dass ihre normativen Prämissen auch für den späten Marx noch verbindlich waren (6.). Abschließend werde ich dem Vorwurf entgegentreten, Marx sei nicht nur sozialontologischer Holist, sondern auch sozialethischer Kollektivist gewesen.

U tekstu se prikazuju događaji iz završnog razdoblja Drugog svjetskog rata u Jugoslaviji i neposrednog poraća, kada se novi komunistički režim obračunao i s jugoslavenskim monarhističkim protukomunističkim postrojbama i brojnim njima naklonjenim civilima koji su se pred napredovanjem partizana od jeseni 1944. okupili u Sloveniji i Austriji.

The Russian Revolution of October 1917 was an important event in the world history which showed a new ray of hope to the suppressed classes of all nations. This revolution was led by the Bolshevik party in the leadership of Vladmir Ilych who is popularly known as Lenin. This Bolshevik party took its shape after a long theoretical debate and practices which has a glorious history of its foundation.

As startling as the sudden and total disintegration of the Soviet Union may have been, the complete oblivion to which communism has quickly been consigned has been no less surprising. Political analyses of democratisation in eastern Europe have all but forgotten the rise of communism in Russia after 1917 and its enormous influence on the politics of the twentieth century. This book brings communism back into the study of democracy. The reason for such a return is not nostalgia for a failed political experiment, but the conviction that the rash classification of communism as an object of study for historians overlooks its active role in shaping the post-communist order. The unexpected collapse of communism indicated that much social science research was prejudiced with ideas about the immutable and eternal nature of communist power. Its sudden disappearance not only prevented corrections of this cognitive failure but also privileged views on communism as a ‘legacy’ rather than a soci...

Портрет Огюста Бланкі, чиї риси робітництво колись бачило з глибокою ясністю, у сьогоденні оповитий напівзабуттям та напівлегендами. Такий консенсус стосовно постаті революціонера полягає, зокрема, у відсутності теоретичного вкладу. Міркуючи, що за сих обставин плідніше — новаторство чи рутинерство — спробуймо замість історії надати матеріали для неї.

Angesichts einer Vielzahl ungelöster Probleme, aktuell verschärft durch eine weltweite Finanzkrise, wird nach Alternativen zum marktwirtschaftlichen System gesucht. Søren Nielsen-Mans Buch, das auf eine Abschlussarbeit an der Universität in Aarhus zurückgeht, plädiert dafür, die kommunistische Lehre nicht von vornherein aus diesen Überlegungen auszuschließen. Aus dieser Überlegung heraus untersucht er die Grundlagen der kommunistischen Demokratieauffassung in Theorie und Praxis. Sein Buch versteht er als einen Beitrag zur aktuellen Zeitgeschichtsdebatte Dänemarks, in der Kommunismus und Demokratie oft als Gegensätze gesehen werden. Gegen diese "Dämonisierung des Kommunismusbegriffs" (S. 279) wendet sich Nielsen-Mans Untersuchung der Geschichte der Kommunistischen Partei Dänemarks (KPDä) für die Jahre 1919 bis 1947.

9 For Kamenev's list, located in AMSAB-ISG, Folder 625.2810, see Appendix A. fKamenev's list was reproduced faithfully in the consolidated list of the Russian "Section" in Huitième Congrès... (1911), 28-29. See Appendix B. 17 Partly owing to police harassment, partly because a number of Mensheviks had refused to take part, a Russia-based "Collegium" of the Central Committee that had also been approved by the January Plenum never met in full quorum.

В книзі проаналізовані закономірності Російської революції, яка почалася з повалення самодержавства в березні (лютому за ст. ст.) 1917 р. і завершилася розгоном Установчих зборів у січні 1918 р. Показано, що головною рушійною силою революції на всіх етапах
були органи революційної самодіяльності народних низів – ради робітничих і солдатських депутатів, які добивались виходу з війни
та експропріації власності поміщиків та буржуазії. Проаналізована підступна стратегія В. Леніна, який привласненням радянських
гасел («Фабрики – робітникам!», «Землю – селянам!» і «Мир – народам!») спромігся перетворити свою партію на масову, витіснити
з рад конкуруючі політичні сили і здійснити один за одним два державні перевороти – відсторонення від влади коаліції партій
цензової та соціалістичної демократій і розгін обраних на демократичних виборах депутатів Установчих зборів. Це дозволило
вождю більшовиків укласти сепаратний мир з кайзерівською Німеччиною та її союзниками, після чого під облудною пропагандою
«світлого майбутнього для всього людства» в Росії і в поневоленій нею Україні розгорнулася експропріація існуючої партії більшовиків її вождями, експропріація держави – цією партією і, нарешті, експропріація суспільства державою-комуною, як назвав В. Ленін утворювану ним державу.

„Mikil umræða hefur verið að undanförnu um sögu kommúnismans og sögukalda stríðsins. Bók Snorra er framlag til hins fyrrnefnda sem sé sögu
kommúnismans og sósíalismans á Íslandi. Óhætt er að láta það koma fram að Snorri er hægra megin við miðju í litrófi stjórnmálanna og þess vegna fallaskrif hans í flokk með skrifum fræðimanna á borð við Hannes Hólmstein Gissurarson og Þór Whitehead. “

On November 24, 1946, the first municipal elections in Belgium since the end of the Second World War were held. The Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-KPB), which had had relatively little presence in the municipalities until then, achieved what was to be its best electoral and political performance at this level. After the election, the communist leaders reported a significant electoral leap compared to the previous local elections-1926, 1932 and 1938-and they claimed that they had won twenty mayoral positions and that more than one hundred of their candidates had been elected as aldermen. Compared to prewar elections, the result was an undeniable step forward and a potential lever for increased influence. But did this really turn out to be the case ? This article tackles the question from two perspectives. The first concerns the data analysis of the election. What were the PCB-KPB's actual electoral and political results ? This is a highly complex question as no database for the 1946 municipal elections exists. Furthermore, information about the communal councils is often patchy or even missing. The second perspective concerns the PCB-KPB itself, notably in terms of its ambitions : how did the PCB-KPB experience and analyse its results on November 24, 1946 ?

Muzeul Judeţean Buzău, în preajma împlinirii a 20 de ani de la Revoluţia română, a demarat un proiect de înregistrare video a mărturiilor celor care au luat parte la aceste evenimente fierbinţi, în oraşul Buzău. Înregistrările video s-au făcut până în prezent, în trei etape: în toamna anului 2009, în vara şi toamna anului 2010. Cu ocazia comemorării a 20 de ani de la acest eveniment major din istoria contemporană a oraşului-martir Buzău, Muzeul Judeţean Buzău, în colaborare cu membrii "Clubului 22" Buzău şi prin amabilitatea preşedintelui acestuia, domnul Marcel Maxim şi, în special, prin amabilitatea domnului Călin Gheţu, a organizat în data de 22.12.2009, la sediul Palatului Comunal, o expoziţie temporară intitulată "Decembrie 1989: Buzău". Revenind la interviurile realizate, menţionăm că acestea s-au fructificat după îndelungi eforturi, mulţi dintre cei invitaţi să participe la un astfel de proiect refuzând sau amânând până la o dată nedeterminată o astfel de colaborare în vederea înregistrării mărturiilor legate de evenimentele tulburi din decembrie 1989. Cu excepţia unui singur interviu înregistrat la Bucureşti, interviurile s-au desfăşurat la sediul Muzeului Judeţean Buzău, după cum urmează:

Visual Rhetorics of Communist Romania: Life under the Totalitarian Gaze offers personal accounts and theoretical insight into the Cold War era when little information about life beyond the Iron Curtain could transpire to the West. Adriana Cordali develops a unique visual rhetorical theory for analyzing communist totalitarian propaganda and the resistance to it, and reveals the deliberate, strategic in/visibilities the rhetoric of power engaged in. Building upon the local history, ideology, and politics of the regime imposed after WWII, she identifies propaganda’s rhetorical features, visual tropes, and symbols and examines striking photographs and print materials from Ceaușescu’s regime (1965-1989) and the time of regime change (1989-1990), as well as an award-winning Romanian film that depicts women’s life at the time. Converging visual rhetoric and culture with history and politics, Visual Rhetorics of Communist Romania is a first book of this kind and will interest readers of rhetoric and communication, visual rhetoric, and political discourse in the region.