The October Revolution as Leftist Fascism: From the Curbing of Capitalists to the Curbing of Artists

Abstract

The paper discusses the phenomenon of the October Revolution through the prism of Lenin’s article The State and Revolution, which describes and anticipates the mechanisms of revolutionary action intended to eliminate the exploitation of the working class and to establish a more just social order. The study compares Lenin’s theory with his revolutionary practice by accentuating the concept of ‘the curbing of capitalists’, illuminated by and examined through a series of synchronic and diachronic perspectives, which ultimately led to the formation of the term ‘enemy of the people’ (‘class enemy’). At the same time, it attempts to define and historically determine the actual duration of the October Revolution. The second part of the paper applies the concept of ‘curbing’ to the situation of artists within the Bolshevik state. Thus it presents a range of artists’ attitudes to the Revolution, which had lumped critical and independent artists together with capitalists as ‘enemies of the people’.