Hi Comrades — thanks for the positive feedback on this blog series. As a young communist, I was always wondering what to read and what resources to turn to. After all these years, I’ve gathered quite a few. This is my attempt to share them.
Below, I talk about a book by Lenin (We’re reading it together on Thursday night), a second episode of the podcast recommended by my friend Andrey, and some news on t-shirts!
Read on or jump to your favorite section:
👕 Shirts
I’ve been asked to create merch - something people can purchase to wear and represent while supporting the stream. I’m proud to announce we offer some really striking designs through StreamElements. StreamElements integrates with Twitch, so Twitch subscribers get a discount on the shop!
📚 Books
This week, I read Lenin’s Lenin, Vladimir Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution. It’s a good read for folks questioning what our involvement should be in times of imperialist war. This work begins to show how “women and children” fit into the revolution.
Read it here:
EN: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/miliprog/i.htm
RU: https://leninism.su/works/69-tom-30/1989-voennaya-programma-proletarskoj-revolyuczii.html
We’ll be discussing the book this Thursday on Discord at 9 PM ET. Learn more about our book club below!
🎙️ Podcasts
Reimagine Soviet Georgia, Episode 8
Thanks to my friend Andrey for this recommendation!
📝 Articles
Poetry about Lenin:
April 22 was Lenin’s birthday, so I chose to share some poetry about Lenin. As a result, I was recommended Mayakovsky’s poems.
Imperialism:
I curated some quotes from the KKE (Greek communist party) regarding the imperialist war in Ukraine. http://www.idcommunism.com/2023/04/kke-on-so-called-world-anti-imperialist-platform-and-its-damaging-and-disorienting-position.html
☕️ Ko-fi Membership
I’ve been working on revamping my Ko-fi page for quite some time. I’m proud to announce one of the newest features: Instagram Roundups. Many of you already follow my Instagram account, and you know how I love posting Soviet history. This new “Instagram Roundup” on Ko-fi will give you early access to my posts AND extra history. Previously, I’ve been unable to share links to the photos and extra history due to post caption size. Now Pioneer members on Ko-fi will get this exclusive access! See the new post here:
📈 Projects to Boost!
Comrades, if you’ve read this far, I ask you to help boost some projects of mine:
- Instagram Posts - sharing these to your Instagram story or sending them directly to friends really helps spread the word: https://www.instagram.com/p/CrgoORju4ZY/
- Book Club - Join our book club to engage in thoughtful Marxist discussions that challenges dominant narratives and promotes critical thinking. We had great turnout last Thursday night at 9 PM ET. We’re doing the same time this week! RSVP here: https://discord.com/events/1015662550781800559/1099204315069034586
💬 Comments from Comrades
In this section, I want to share commentary from my friends that grew up in the USSR.
Each day, we swap stories about life, culture, and politics. We’ve shared so much over the years, that I’ve lost interesting anecdotes along the way. I want to share some of these with you. I hope this will give you an idea of the thoughts of communists that lived in the USSR.
This comment comes from my friend in Saratov, Russia:
Hello Kyle! I was looking for Russian oppositional newspapers issued in the 1990s (in 1992 - 1993 or so) because I wanted to explain where I had learned the word "comprador", and I found an interesting article about pro-government and oppositional newspapers of that period (the first part of the article is about pro-government/pro-Yeltsin issues, the second one is about the opposition supporting the Supreme Soviet). I wouldn't say that I recommend this outlet, but this particular article is informative (at least, fir those who live in Russia). I found out some funny facts. In my view, one of the most important problems of the leftists in the 1990s was the fact that they were ready to cooperate with everyone who didn't like Yeltsin and his policy including nationalists. The explanation is as follows: Former leaders of the CPSU (Gorbachev, Yeltsin and so on) had compromised Marxism, therefore very few people took communists seriously. Nevertheless, ideas of the Soviet patriotism and some "Popular front" of anti-Yeltsin (for a big part of people, anti-Yeltsin=anti-capitalist=anti-Western) opposition looked attractive. In the picture of Завтра (Zavtra "Tomorrow") I noticed an interview with some people including Nevzorov entitled Our People in the Duma. Nevzorov was a "patriot" at that moment, now he is a liberal (once, I shared with you a song about him, "He is not Zorro" 😄). Everything has changed 100%. 😂 Further, the outlet where I found this article is issued by Gleb Pavlovsky, who was Putin's political technologist. However, now he has become a liberal oppositional politician. But that's not all. In 1985, Boris Kagarlitsky (the host of the Marxist channel Rabkor /"Worker correspondent"/, who in my view, has "created" Rudoy and Vestnik Buri, at least, they are influenced by him) was politically close to Pavlovsky. This is the reason why I don’t like Kagarlitsky (a Marxist philosopher who doesn't understand anything about political views of his "like-minded" friends).
Extra information:
⏭️ What’s next…
- Catch me live on Twitch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5 PM ET
- Join our Book Club meeting each Thursday at 9 PM ET on Discord
- Follow my Instagram for daily updates
- Read last week’s post!