Category Archives: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR

Foreign intervention in the Soviet Union

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The newly formed Red Army, 1918

The newly formed Red Army, 1918

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Foreign intervention in the Soviet Union

Once the capitalist and imperialist countries (which had been trying to destroy each others power for four years in the ‘First World War’ of 1914-19) realised that the October Revolution in Russia of the Bolsheviks, led by VI Lenin, was a revolution of a ‘new type’ they did all in their power to destroy the first workers’ state.

In this they used outright military intervention – when 14 nations united on the side of the reactionary forces of feudalism and Tsarism, the so-called ‘Whites’ – but also conspiracy, espionage, sabotage and any other tactics to undermine the revolution. Assassination was part of their game, using local dupes to carry out the act, which included the failed attempt upon the life of Comrade Lenin himself.

Once defeated in the Civil War the imperialists used economic warfare to frustrate the nascent Soviet Union from building a society that was organised for and by the workers and peasants, those who produced all the wealth of the country. Later traitors, and those disaffected within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik), were also recruited in activities that sought to weaken the country in the face of threat of fascism from Germany and Japan.

The documents below seek to tell a small part of that history.

The ‘Hands off Russia’ Movement, direct action against military involvement, Laura Forster and Patricia Wheeler,. nd., n.p., 3 pages.

The Epic of the Black Sea, mutiny against fighting the Russian people following the October Revolution, Andre Marty, Modern Books, London, n.d., 37 pages.

Memoirs of a British Agent, being an account of the author’s early life in many lands and of his official mission to Moscow in 1918, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Putman, London, 1931, 355 pages.

Armed Intervention Russia 1918-1922, WP and Zelda Coates, Gollanz, London, 1935, 400 pages.

The Great Conspiracy against Russia, Michael Sayers and Albert E Khan, Collets Holdings, London, 1946, 486 pages.

The State Department and the Cold War, DN Pritt, International Publishers, New York, 1948, 96 pages.

Conspiracy against peace, Ralph Parker, Literaturnaya Gazeta Publishers, Moscow, 1949, 248 pages. (There’s a printing error on pages 145-161. They are all there – but not in the correct order.)

The truth about American diplomats, Annabelle Bucar, Literatunaya Gazeta Publishers, Moscow, 1949, 176 pages.

Why have you come to Mourmansk?, leaflet, addressed to ‘English’ soldiers sent to fight against the Russian revolutionaries, signed by N (VI) Lenin and G Tchitcherine (Chicherin), no date but probably mid to late 1918, 1 page.

Armed Intervention in Russia: 1918-1922, W. P. Coates & Zelda K. Coates, Victor Gollancz, London, 1935, 400 pages.

They are betraying the peace, Jean Cathalo, former chief of the Information Department of the French Embassy in Moscow, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moscow, 1951, 232 pages.

The Western Interventions in the Soviet Union, 1918-1920, D. F. Fleming, reprinted as a pamphlet from New World Review, Fall 1967, 16 pages.

Special issue of Wisconsin Magazine of History, with 3 articles about American military intervention in Archangel, 1918-1919, and the American military landing in Vladivostok and its operation of part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Well illustrated. Volume 62, No. 3, Spring 1979, 92 pages.

The secret war against Soviet Russia, David Golinkov, Novosti, Moscow, 1981, 105 pages.

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History of the USSR

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The defence of Petrograd
The defence of Petrograd

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History of the USSR

The history of the Soviet Union is one of constant struggle. It was born out of violence with the October Revolution in 1917 and then was immediately thrust into a life and death struggle for its existence against the capitalist and imperialist forces that could not countenance the existence of a state outside of their control.

Once the civil war was won the Communists in the Soviet Union then had the struggle to convince the population that a new world was possible whilst at the same time providing them with the lifestyle that was a radical improvement upon what they had lived under during the dark centuries of Czarism, a long period of feudalism and serfdom for the majority whilst the very few lived in luxury.

But even after wining the war against the foreign, imperialist invaders (supporting the moribund forces of reaction) the threat of external attack was never far away and the country always had to be aware of a potential foreign intervention, socially, economically and militarily. That ultimately led to the Hitlerite invasion of the country and the start of the Great Patriotic War – which ended when the Red Army chased the Nazi beast back to its lair.

The items on this page attempt to provide a background to this tumultuous period in history.

Ten Days that Shook the World, by John Reed, a stirring account of the proletarian seizure of power in November 1917, first published in 1919, ebook format 2017, 399 pages.

Six Red Months in Russia, an observers account of Russia before and during the proletarian dictatorship, Louise Bryant, first published 1919, Slavia Publishers, Blooming, 2017, 187 pages.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat, L Kamenev, The Toiler, Cleaveland, 1920, 14 pages.

A Short Course of Economic Science, A Bogdanoff, CPGB, London, 1925, 391 pages.

An Outline of Political Economy, Political Economy and Soviet Economics, I Lapidus and K Ostrovityanov, Martin Lawrence, London, 1929, 546 pages.

Dialectical Materialism, Collective of the Institute of Philosophy of the Communist Academy under the leadership of MB Mitin, np., 1934, 219 pages.

Last days of the Tsar, PM Bykov, International Publishers, New York, 1934, 90 pages.

A History of the Civil War in the U.S.S.R. – Volume 1 – The Prelude to the Great Proletarian Revolution, edited by M. Gorky, S. Kirov, K. Voroshilov, A. Zhdanov, and J. Stalin, FLPH, Moscow, 1936, 573 pages.

World affairs and the USSR, WP and Zelda Coates, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1939, 251 pages.

A History of the Civil War in the U.S.S.R. – Volume 2 – The Great Proletarian Revolution (October-November 1917), edited by M. Gorky, V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov, S. Kirov, A. Zhdanov, and J. Stalin, FLPH, Moscow, 1946, 680 pages.

Our country, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1937, 79 pages.

Moscow 1937, Lion Feuchtwanger, Viking Press, New York, 1937, 151 pages.

A Short History of the USSR, Textbook for 3rd and 4th Classes, edited by Professor AV Shestakov, Cooperative Publishing Company of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1938, 257 pages.

First Session of the 1st Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Moscow, January 12-19 1938, Cooperative Publishing Company of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1938, 142 pages.

Second Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, August 10-20 1938, verbatim report, FLPH, Moscow, 1938, 685 pages.

The World Hails 20th Anniversary of the Soviet Union, Cooperative Publishing Company of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1938, 247 pages.

The USSR and the capitalist countries, edited by L Mekhlis, Y Varga and V Karpinsky, FLPH, Moscow, 1938, 94 pages.

Two Systems, Socialist economy and capitalist economy, Eugene Varga, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1939, 268 pages.

The USSR and Finland, Outstanding Facts and Documents, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 46 pages.

October 1917 in Russia, this vivid account of the actual seizure of power is based on historic documents in the archives of the Revolution, I Mintz, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1940, 84 pages.

Russia, Finland and the Baltic, WP and ZK Coates, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1940, 144 pages.

War on the USSR, University Socialist Club, Cambridge, University Labour Federation, London, 1940, 16 pages.

History of Anarchism in Russia, E Yarolavsky, Lawrence and Wishart, London, nd., early 1940’s?, 127 pages.

Soviet Russia – A Syllabus for study courses, Joan Thompson, Russia Today Society, London, 1941?, 23 pages.

Our ally Russia – the Truth, Jennie Lee, WH Allen, London, 1942, 64 pages.

Russian Cavalcade, EH Carter, Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, 1944, 152 pages.

Political Economy in the Soviet Union, the full text of the Soviet article which provoked wide discussion and speculation in the American press, previously published only in parts, International Publishers, New York, 1944, 48 pages.

From the Russian Revolution to Yalta, a review of Soviet Foreign Policy, Pat Sloan, Russia Today, London, 1945, 28 pages.

History of Anglo-Soviet Relations, 1917-1942, Volume 1, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1945, 816 pages.

Soviet Foreign Policy 1917-1947, John Quinn, British Soviet Society, London, 1947, 32 pages.

Stalin must have peace, Edgar Snow, Random House, New York, 1947, 176 pages.

Man and plan in Soviet Society, Andrew Rothstein, (originally published in London in 1948), Stalin Society of India, n.d., 146 pages.

Moscow Correspondent, Ralph Parker, Frederick Muller, London, 1949, 304 pages.

A History of the USSR, Andrew Rothstein, first published Penguin Books, London, 1950, reprinted version Red Star Press, New York, 2013, 398 pages.

Mission to Moscow, Joseph E Davies, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1936-1938, a record of confidential dispatches to the State Department, official and personal correspondence, current diary and journal entries, including notes and comment up to October 1941, Victor Gollanz, London, 1945, 472 pages.

The Soviet Transition from Socialism to Communism, Emile Burns, The Communist Party, London, 1950, 16 pages.

The social and state structure of the USSR, V Karpinsky, FLPH, Moscow, 1950, 239 pages.

Russia is for Peace, DN Pritt, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1951, 106 pages.

The Great October Socialist Revolution and its significance, II Mints and GN Golikov, n.p., Moscow, 1955, 99 pages.

History of Anglo-Soviet Relations, 1943-1950, Volume 2, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1958, 463 pages.

The Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 341 pages.

First decrees of Soviet Power, compiled, with introductory notes and explanatory notes by Yuri Akhapkin, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1970, 186 pages.

On the transition to Socialism, Paul M Sweezy and Charles Bettleheim, Monthly Review, New York, 1971, 122 pages.

The USSR and the Middle East, problems of peace and security 1947-1971, Novosti, Moscow, 1972, 295 pages.

The October storm and after, stories and reminiscences, Progress, Moscow, 1974, 354 pages.

The Great October Revolution and the Intelligentsia, S Fedyukin, Progress, Moscow, 1975, 229 pages.

Soviet foreign policy, Volume 1, 1917-1945, Progress, Moscow, 1981, 501 pages.

Soviet foreign policy, Volume 2, 1945-1980, Progress, Moscow, 1981, 728 pages.

Ten Days that Shook the World, John Reed, Progress, Moscow, 1987, 336 pages.

Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship, the Red Army and the Soviet State 1917-1930, Mark Van Hagen, Cornell University, New York, 1993, 397 pages.

Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union, from Hitler to Hearst, from Conquest to Solzhenitsyn: the history of the millions of people who, allegedly, were incarcerated and died in the labour camps of the Soviet Union and as a result of starvation in Stalin’s time, Mario Sousa, KPML(r), Sweden, 1999, 17 pages.

Ten days that shock the world, John Reed, Blackmask Online, 2000, 228 pages.

CIA’s Analysis of the Soviet Union 1947-1991, edited by Gerald K. Haines and Robert E. Leggett, Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA, Washington, 2001, 323 pages. Some interesting documents, especially those related to the early ‘Cold War’ and the establishment of NATO.

Charles Bettelheim on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Class Struggles in the USSR, First Period, 1917-1923, Charles Bettleheim, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1976, 567 pages.

Class Struggles in the USSR, Second Period, 1923-1930, Charles Bettleheim, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1978, 640 pages.

Class Struggles in the USSR, Third Period, 1930-1941, Part1 – the Dominated, Charles Bettelheim, TR Publications, Madras, 1994, 301 pages.

Class Struggles in the USSR, Third Period, 1930-1941, Part 2 – the Dominators, Charles Bettelheim, TR Publications, Madras, 1996, 345 pages.

Economic Calculation and forms of property, an essay on the transition from capitalism to Socialism, Charles Bettleheim, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1975, 168 pages.

Marxism and Mr Bettelheim, Sunil Sen, revolutionarydemocracry.org, 1999, 13 pages.

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Soviet Society

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A Collective Farm Festival

A Collective Farm Festival

More on the USSR

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Soviet Society

A view of different aspects of life when the people of the USSR were attempting to construct a new society in a hostile world of capitalism and imperialism – which used every opportunity to undermine the task of the revolutionary workers and peasants in the country that covered one-sixth of the world’s land mass.

The Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia, complete text of first code of laws of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic dealing with Civil Status and Domestic Relations, Marriage, the Family and Guardianship, Soviet Russia Pamphlets No. 2, The Russian Soviet Government Bureua, New York, 1921, 49 pages.

Red Star in Samarkand, Anna Louise Strong, Coward McCann, New York, 1929, 329 pages.

The Soviet Five-year Plan and its effect on world trade, HR Knickerbocker, Bodley Head, London, 1931, 245 pages.

From the First to the Second Five-Year Plan, a Symposium, J Stalin, V Molotov, L Kaganovich, K Voroshilov and others, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1933, 490 pages.

In Place of Profit, social incentives in the Soviet Union, Harry F Ward, Scibner’s Sons, New York, 1933, 460 pages.

Foreign trade in the USSR, JD Yanson, The New Soviet Library, Gollanz, London, 1934, 175 pages.

Buryat-Mongolia, International Publishers, New York, 1936, 56 pages.

Soviet Russia and Religion, Corliss Lamont, International pamphlets No 49, International Publishers, New York, 1936, 23 pages.

The Reconstruction of Moscow, Lev Perchik, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow. 1936, 72 pages.

Soviet Communism, a new civilisation, Volume One, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Scibners, New York, 1936, 528 pages.

Soviet Communism, a new civilisation, Volume Two, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Scibners, New York, 1936, 645 pages.

Handbook on the Soviet Trade Unions, for workers’ delegations, edited by A Lozovsky, Cooperative Publishing Company of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1937, 144 pages.

Soviet Democracy, Pat Sloan, Left Book Club, Victor Gollanz, London, 1937, 288 pages.

Socialised Medicine in the Soviet Union, Henry E Sigerist, Left Book Club, Victor Gollanz, London, 1937, 397 pages.

The position of women in the USSR, GN Serebrennikov, Victor Gollanz, London, 1937, 117 pages.

A Visit to Russia, Report of Durham Miners Association, 1937, 56 pages.

From Tsardom to the Stalin Constitution, WP and Zelda Cpates, Aleen and Unwin, london, 1938, 332 pages.

The Moscow Subway, Y Abakumov, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 24 pages.

Universities in the USSR, ULF Pamphlet No 7, University Labour Federation, London, 1939, 20 pages.

The State Farms of the USSR, P Lobanov, People’s Commissar of State Farms of the USSR and Member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 32 pages.

Soviet Students, S Kaftanov, Chairman of the Committee on Higher Education of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars of the USSR, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 32 pages.

Sport In the USSR, A Starostin, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 31 pages. (Apologies, bad scan. Pages out of sequence.)

State Farms of the USSR, P Lobanov, People’s Commissar of State Farms of the USSR, FLPH, 1939, 32 pages.

Light on Moscow, DN Pritt, Penguin, London, 1940, 223 pages.

USSR speaks for itself, No 1, Industry, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, 95 pages.

USSR speaks for itself, No 2, Agriculture and Transport, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, 104 pages.

USSR Speaks for itself, No 3, Democracy in Practice, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, 104 pages.

How the Soviet State is run, Pat Sloan, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, 128 pages.

Marriage and The Family in the USSR, D Erde, Soviet Booklets, No. 2, Soviet War News, London, 1942, p16.

The Russians are people, Anna Louise Strong, Cobbett Publishing, London, 1943, 202 pages.

Peoples of the USSR, Anna Louise Strong, Macmillan, New York, 1944, 246 pages.

The truth about Soviet Union, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, with an essay on the Webbs by Bernard Shaw, Longmans, London, 1944, 79 pages.

Soviet Farmers, Anna Louise Strong, Pocket Library of the USSR, National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, New York?, n.d., 1944?, 47 pages.

Soviet Local Government, the administration of village and city explained, rates and taxes, elections, gas, water, electricity and other municipal services, Don Brown, Russia Today, London, 1945, 24 pages. (Apologies, bad scan, pages out of order.)

USSR, her life and her people, Maurice Dobb, University of London Press, 1945, 139 pages.

The Pattern of Soviet Power, Edgar Snow, Random House, New York, 1945, 219 pages.

These are the Russians, Richard Lauterback, Harper, New York, 1945, 368 pages.

Introducing the USSR, Beatrice King, Pitman, London, 1946, 112 pages.

Soviet Democracy, Harry F. Ward, Soviet Russia Today, New York, 1947, 48 pages.

Soviet Communism, A New Civilization, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Longman’s, London, 1947, 1007 pages.

The Right-Wing Social-Democrats Today, O Kuusinen, FLPH, Moscow, 1948, 35 pages.

Industry in the USSR, E Lokshin, FLPH, Moscow, 1948, 170 pages.

The Soviet way of life, an examination, Maurice Lovell, Methuen, London, 1948, 213 pages.

The Law of the Soviet State, Andrei Yanuaryevich Vyshinskiy, Macmillan Company, New York, 1948, 749 pages.

Man and Plan in Soviet Economy, Andrew Rothstein, digitised version, first published in London 1948, 145 pages.

Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Maurice Dobb, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1948, 487 pages.

Industry in the USSR, E Lokshin, FLPH, Moscow, 1948, 170 pages.

Dialectical Materialism and Historical Science, VP Volgin, np., 1949, 5 pages.

Across the map of the USSR, N Mikhailov, FLPH, Moscow, 1949, 344 pages.

Fulfilment of the USSR State Plan for 1949, communique of the Central Statistical Administrration of the USSR Council of Ministers, Soviet News, London, 1950, 22 pages.

The role of the State in the Socialist Transformation of the economy of the USSR, KV Ostroviyanov, FLPH, Moscow, 1950, 11 pages.

The Soviet Union Today, a scientist’s impressions, SM Manton, with an foreword by Lord Boyd-Orr, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1952, 133 pages.

Questions and answers on Property (Public and Private) in the USSR, Soviet News, London, 1954, 24 pages.

Soviet Law and Soviet Society, ethical foundations of the Soviet structure, mechanism of the planned economy, duties and rights of peasants and workers, rulers and toilers, the family and the state, Soviet justice, national minorities and their autonomy, the People’s Democracies and the Soviet pattern for a united world, George Guins, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1954, 457 pages.

The Soviet Regime, Communism in Practice, WW Kulski, Syracuse University Press, New York, 1954, 807 pages.

Education in the USSR, ASYFA, n.d., n.p., 12 pages. (Apologies, bad scan, pages all out of sequence.)

Questions and answers on Working Conditions in Soviet Industry, Soviet News, London, 1954, 30 pages.

Engineering progress in the USSR, A Zvorykin, FLPH, Moscow, 1955, 80 pages.

Problems and Achievements of Soviet Historical Science, abridged from the brief survey presented to the International Congress in Rome in September 1955, AL Sidorov, Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, London, 1955, 13 pages.

Soviet civilization, Corliss Lamont, Philosophical Library, New York, 1955, 447 pages.

Political economy – a textbook issued by the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1957, 623 pages.

Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Maurice Dobb, International Publishers, New York, 1966 (reprint of 1948 original), 515 pages.

Jews in the Soviet Union – Fact versus Fiction, British Soviet Friendship Society, London, 1971, 4 pages.

Fraud, famine and fascism, the Ukrainian genocide myth from Hitler to Harvard, Douglas Tottle, Progress Books, Toronto, 1987, 167 pages.

Anton Semenovich Makarenko

 ….was a Ukrainian and Soviet educator, social worker and writer, became the most influential educational theorist in the Soviet Union.

Lectures to Parents, National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, 1961, 30 pages. These texts are lectures that were given by Makarenko over the radio in 1937. They were published in the Literaturnaia Gazetta after he died in 1939, and also in the Collected Works of Makarenko, Vol. 4, 1951.

A Book for Parents, FLPH, Moscow, 1954, 410 pages.

Workers control and socialist democracy, The Soviet experience, Carmen Sirianni, Verso, London, 1982, 437 pages.

Road to Life, Part 1, n.p., n.d., 282 pages.

Road to Life, an epic of education, volume 2, FLPH, Moscow, 1955, 179 pages. Online Version: A. S. Makarenko Reference Archive (marxists.org) 2002.

Anton Semyonovitch Makarenko, an analysis of his educational ideas in the context of Soviet Society, Frederic Lilge, University of California, Berkeley, 1958, 52 pages.

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