this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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I have the opportunity to pitch a book at my leftist book club. What is a book to help counter anti-ML attitudes from people who lean more anarchist and/or have a strong opposition to Lenin/Stalin? (hexbear.net)
submitted 4 days ago by TheDeed@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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My circles tend to be very anti Lenin or anti Stalin, most of them are anarchists or left leaning people who have a pretty strong opposition to MLs. I would like to have a dialogue with them or least give them some tools so that they can have a good background with which to critique ML even if they don't change their mind and become MLs.

Bonus if it includes info about the Bund in relation to Lenin & the Bolsheviks or information about Jews in the Soviet Union or ML Jews in general - most of us are Jewish, and a lot of strong opposition is rooted in the Jewish experience of those eras and strong emotional and ideological affinity to the legacy of the Bund.

These don't quite cover the Jewish experience as much but, some books or articles top of my mind for at least countering anticommunism are:

  • Western Marxism Loves Purity and Martyrdom, But Not Real Revolution
  • Blackshirts and Reds

Would love to hear yalls thoughts.

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[–] CarlMarks@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 3 days ago

Blackshirts and Reds is great for this purpose.

Not just because of the content, but because it is very short and written simply. An anti-Lenin group of anarchists will be mostly people that literally do not read books to challenge themselves. In addition to being a sick burn it is also generally true, even in reading groups.

I have been in anarchist-dominated reading groups where all they wanted to read were extended pamphlets from anarchists. Sometimes anonymous modern anarchists with no stated relevant experience in what they were writing about or cited sources, just a vaguely left lsnguage dump on, I shit you not, why anarchists should volunteer to fight Russia in Ukraine. The other type of reading they did that was actual books tended to be "lived experiences" explorations centered on liberal identity politics. Useful for picking up some context but politically incoherent and highly liberal.