The Political Theory of Bolshevism: A Critical Analysis

The Political Theory of Bolshevism: A Critical Analysis.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948. iv, 60 pp. Reprinted 2007 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-158477-764-9. ISBN-10: 1-58477-764-8. Cloth. $65.

* Written during a tense period of the Cold War, this study observed that Bolshevism was a system that embraces anarchism in theory and totalitarianism in practice. In order to survive, the Bolshevist state must obliterate the potentially destabilizing forces inherent in democracy through a party dictatorship that is presented as the political self-determination of a free people. "A deep-cutting analysis of some of the fundamental contradictions in Communist theory and practice, particularly in regard to democracy and the dictatorial function of the state.": Foreign Affairs 27 (1948-49) 679.