Revolutionary Democracy: Emancipation in Classical Marxism

by Soma Marik

In this wide-ranging and insightful work, Soma Marik defends the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution, arguing against many of its detractors that the early communist regime was centrally concerned with both the liberation of women and the expansion of democracy. Soma Marik teaches history at RKSM Vivekananda Vidyabhavan, Kolkata, and is a former visiting professor, School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University. She is involved as an activist in the women's movement, through the Nari Nirjatan Pratirodh Mancha (Kolkata) and the network Das Theke Das Hajar, as well as with general democratic and anticommunal work. She has published extensively on class and gender relations in socialist and communist history.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

560 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2018

Reviews

[Oisín]

An excellent study of the formulation of Marxist thought and its real-life execution – Marik is clear-sighted in both her praise and her criticism of Marxism and Bolshevism, from Young Marx to the beginning of Stalinism. She is particularly good on contextualising the development of Marx and Engel's theory, as well as underscoring that this coincided with their often ignored contributions to revolutionary praxis.

The passages on the role and struggles of women within the movement are necessary and well informed, but they are rather awkwardly slotted into the structure of each chapter, almost tacked on at the end. This is unfortunate, as it almost lends itself to the separatist reading of women and class struggle that Marik denigrates throughout the book. She does, however, write very well on women's unique position within class struggle (I'm hoping there's a book out there that expands on this perspective), and the book would ultimately be poorer without these sections, tacked on or not.

Additionally, I found the final chapter to be something of a mad dash to the finish line: chunks of undigested facts strewn about; abrupt shifts between micro and macro perspectives (pages where nothing happens and pages where decades happen) that aren't justified by their subject-matter; and certain points suffered from a loss of energy in Marik's writing, leaving rather anaemic spots in their wake.

Ultimately, this really is a useful book that I will be barraging friends with, as it has proven to be a very accessible, somewhat comprehensive, historical of both theory and praxis, as well as a highly intelligent piece of political criticism.

[Mike]

Yes