World Revolution Research Articles

Years of hope: the new left in Bolivia, 1960—1980

This work is devoted to the emergence of the "new left" movement in Latin America in the 60s, considering as an example Bolivia. Here it is proposed to analyze the “new lefts” that arose as a result of the crisis of traditional orthodox Marxism and communism, and not those leftists that emerged on the continent after the collapse of the USSR and the dramatic changes in the left political space, the emergence of various variants of “socialism of the 21st century”, also called "new". In Bolivia, the “new left” was formed from the search for a synthesis of Marxism and nationalism, the renewal of the ideas of socialism at the expense of Western, unorthodox Marxism, and an alliance with social Catholicism. All the political and ideological currents of the "new left" arose under the dominant influence of the Cuban revolution, the guerrilla of Che Guevara, “theology of liberation” and the "world revolution" of 1968. This phenomenon had a short existence, entering a deep crisis in the late 80s, but at the same time leaving a rich legacy for the next generations of the Bolivian left, and there is a clear continuity between the “new left” of the 60s and 70s and today's Latin American left.

БАЛКАНЫ / ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНАЯ ЕВРОПА: РЕГИОН-ЗАГАДКА И РЕГИОН ЗАГАДОК

Based on the study of various types of sources and analysis of Russian and foreign literature, the author conceptually substantiates an approach to the study of the Balkan region / South-Eastern Europe. One of the main problems considered in the article is the change in the course of the history of the 19 th-21 st centuries the ratio of the concepts of «Balkans/South-Eastern Europe», «Eastern Europe», «Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe», «Western Balkans», «Western Balkan countries» and «European Western Balkans». The author characterizes various historical stages of the development of the region in the context of world wars and revolutions of the 20 th century, shows the specifics of political and ethnic processes, the internal political situation in each country and relations between the states of the region, the correlation between the processes of regionalization and globalization. With the disappearance of Eastern Europe in the form in which it existed in 1949-1991, after the anti-communist social and national revolutions in the former socialist countries of Europe in 1989-1992, an integral part of the process of national self-determination was the change in the regional self-identification of each people, society and state. If in the 2000 s, positive dynamics prevailed both in terms of internal political development, intraregional and global international relations, then in the 2010 s, the forward movement has stalled in terms of both the internal economic, social and political development of the states of the region, and the settlement of interethnic and interstate conflicts in the region against the background of a general aggravation of international relations. The article examines the role of regional identification and self-identification as elements of national self-awareness. The author also characterizes the challenges facing the countries of the region in the short, medium and long terms and indicates that the choice of the Balkans / South-Eastern Europe, despite the specificity caused by their historical fate, and all the difficulties of development and conflicts, has already been made: the Balkans (like Russia as well) is an integral part of Europe.

Историческое сознание и идеология на поворотных этапах российской истории

The evolution of the historical consciousness of Russian society over two centuries shows its potential to play a destructive or a saving role in dramatic moments of history, when out the prime value of the national statehood continuum is challenged by outer or inner attacks. The Russian intelligentsia's maximalist “reception” of Marxism resulted into total nihilism and a zeal to sacrifice the statehood for the sake of world revolution. However, having started in 1917 with a radical overthrow of Russian history, the authorities reincorporated it into the Soviet doctrine on the eve of the World War II, which resurrected national feeling and unity and enabled victory in the mortal fight. New ideological but equally nihilistic maxims once again prevailed and lead inter alia to the second collapse of the state in 1991. Historical consciousness of contemporary society, especially of young generations, is particularly prone to rapid changes and alternative extremes in the era of information technologies, which confirms the crucial importance of historical education to maintain spiritual sovereignty and national conscience as its core.

Cultural Results of the Youth Revolution

The review of the book “The Long ‘68: Radical Protest and its Enemies” by R. Vainen analyzes the contribution made by the author to the study of the problems of social disturbances in the West in 1968 and their further consequences. R. Vainen rightly points out that what happened can be likened to a world revolution — similarly to the revolution of 1848 in Europe. The author also does not hide his sympathies and dislikes, taking a very clear political position, although some of his assessments and emphasis (in particular, the arbitrary exclusion of Italy and Japan from the analysis) may cause objections. In addition, the author was well aware that the youth of “68” believed that the West was to blame for the troubles of the third world countries. This meant that developing countries should, first, “be left alone” with complete freedom of choice, and, secondly, they should be given means for economic development. Of course, the reader may not share the concept presented in the study of the English professor, but in any case it is of interest. Also, Vainen’s analysis of the prospects of the “long” 1968 might be corrected: it seems that these prospects can be extended to the position and indoctrination of the “new right” both in the United States and in other countries. But in general, Richard Vainen is right regarding 1968 as the touchstone of the most acute ideological struggle, which provided the world with new role models and inspiration.

Relationship of the Hungarian Department Under the Petrograd Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) with Hungarian Prisoners of War

This article, based on documents on the activities of the Hungarian Department at the Petrograd Provincial Committee (Gubkom) of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), examines the problem of the loyalty of foreign prisoners of war to the Soviet government, as well as issues related to their temporary stays in Petrograd and their repatriation. Analysis of materials of the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of Saint Petersburg allows us to conclude that the Hungarian prisoners were not always loyal towards the Communist movement and the idea of world revolution was far from absolute, and that their behaviour was determined, to a large extent, by urgent needs, not their consciences. The policy of the Hungarian Department at the Petrograd Gubkom of the RCP(b) in controlling the movement of prisoners of war and their exploitation was contradictory: measures to attract them through propaganda on the one hand, and their use in forced labour on the other. The attitude of the Hungarian Department towards the representatives of higher social classes — the Hungarian officers — was contradictory as well: hostility and distrust were combined with efforts aimed at attracting them to the revolutionary camp as it corresponded to the interests of the RCP(b) and Hungarian communists living in Petrograd. Consequently, the role of Petrograd as an important propaganda point and one of the training centres for Red commanders and agitators increased.

Comrades on Elephants: Economic Anti-Imperialism, Orientalism, and Soviet Diplomacy in Afghanistan, 1921–23

Comrades on ElephantsEconomic Anti-Imperialism, Orientalism, and Soviet Diplomacy in Afghanistan, 1921–23 Samuel J. Hirst (bio) A 1923 cover of the magazine Ogonek displays two Afghans and a third man in Soviet military clothing assisting a Russian couple in broad-brimmed hats onto an elephant (fig. 1). The headline proclaims the scene anti-British and anti-imperialist, but the image could easily adorn a Victorian celebration of empire. The photograph is emblematic of the time Fedor Raskoĺnikov and Larisa Reisner spent in Kabul: they urged Moscow to provide diplomatic and economic aid to the Afghan state while they themselves collected antique coins to take home with them when they left. Raskoĺnikov and Reisner demonstrated a pronounced sense of cultural superiority during their stay in Kabul, and they seem almost to embody the paradox that has led scholars to refer to the Soviet Union as an “anti-imperialist ‘empire.’”1 Yet Raskoĺnikov, Reisner, and the editors of Ogonek evidently saw little incongruity in their performance. The magazine confidently drew readers’ attention to the Soviet presence in a 19th-century site of imperial rivalry, to a landscape that evoked the Great Game. Sightseeing on elephants was an exotic but irrelevant sideshow; the radicalism of the Soviet Union’s approach to independent states in what was to become the Third World lay elsewhere. The Bolsheviks cared most about economics, and they were convinced that the imperative to consolidate political independence from and against a global capitalist system defined anti-imperialism. Raskoĺnikov and Reisner were part of the Bolshevik elite, and they promulgated its economic analysis even as many of their gestures evoked another [End Page 13] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. On 10 June 1923, Ogonek featured this photograph of Larisa Reisner and Fedor Raskoĺnikov in Afghanistan and described the couple as “A Thorn in Lord Curzon’s Side.” Just a couple of months earlier, British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon had demanded Raskoĺnikov’s recall from Kabul on the grounds that the latter was engaged in anti-British activities. Source: Rossiiskaia natsionaĺnaia biblioteka, St. Petersburg. Reproduced with permission. [End Page 14] world and time. The moment of transition to a new order offers a revealing view of the often uneasy fit of revolutionary ideology and cultural bias. Early engagements with Afghanistan were part of a broader process in which the Soviet Union and its diplomats generated principles and practices that were to play out in Soviet relations with formerly colonial or semicolonial states for much of the 20th century. Between the summer of 1921 and the fall of 1923, Raskoĺnikov and Reisner learned to practice anti-imperialist diplomacy on the ground and on the fly. Their Kabul sojourn began not long after they had led Soviet troops into northern Iran in support of the short-lived republic in Gilan, and they had little prior knowledge of this new posting.2 In Afghanistan, they had to reconfigure their revolutionary dreams. Raskoĺnikov and Reisner brought struggle from the battlegrounds of world revolution to negotiating tables with capitalist states and with states that, like Afghanistan, were nonsocialist but oppressed. Afghanistan had just fought the British Empire for its independence, and the couple drew on a Bolshevik ideology in which Lenin had identified imperialism as a phase of capitalism characterized by competition among industrialized, imperialist states.3 But Lenin’s key work on imperialism addressed the intra-European conflict of World War I, not the struggle within empires of colonies and metropoles. Lenin’s retrospective diagnosis of imperialism endured long beyond the Great War and came to shape economic policies that defended Soviet Russia’s predominantly agricultural society against a predatory system. As a result, whether it was the protectionism manifested in the monopoly on foreign trade or the anxiety about sovereignty reflected in strict control of concessions to foreign companies, Soviet economic interactions with the West bore resemblance to those of contemporary nationalists in countries with little industry.4 Under Lenin’s tutelage, safeguarding economic independence rather than defeating reactionary armies became the battleground between socialism and capitalism.5 [End Page 15] Events on the ground in Kabul reinforced Lenin’s...

We Are Kings: Political Theology and the Making of a Modern Individual by Spencer Jackson

Reviewed by: We Are Kings: Political Theology and the Making of a Modern Individual by Spencer Jackson Christian Thorne Spencer Jackson, We Are Kings: Political Theology and the Making of a Modern Individual (Charlottesville, VA: Univ. Virginia Press, 2020). Pp. 230. $32.50 paper. If you want to be able to appreciate what Spencer Jackson is up to in We Are Kings, it will help first to recall what John Milton was up to in Book 3 of [End Page 1024] Paradise Lost. A lot happens in Milton’s third book: We meet God for the first time, and also the Son, who immediately volunteers for a suicide mission, even as Satan is rocketing through outer space, landing on the sun, and asking anyone he can find whether they know the way to Earth. Book 3 also contains Milton’s compressed account of the End of Days—God’s insurrectionary Five Year Plan, which is to unfold in three stages: Stage #1: Already here, in humanity’s earliest days, God is losing interest in ruling as a monarch, choosing instead to hand his sovereignty off to Jesus, who is in some respects a lesser being, and who uniquely in his person will end up sharing that power with humanity. So that’s two sharings now: God is going to share power with the one who shares power. In the figure of the Son, God and humanity will in some not fully manifest sense rule together and so un-sovereignly: He “shalt reign both God and man” (3:316–17). What had been God’s power alone will eventually become a condominium of two. (Or is that three? Or is it many?) Power has already started its trajectory out- and downward. Stage #2: When the millennium comes, this figure of shared power is going to undertake a world revolution, installing himself as “universal king” (3:319) and thereby ridding the planet of its particular kings: its despots, tyrants, and bosses. Stage #3: The universal monarchy’s last act will be to abolish itself. The Un-lord will become immanent in the world, which will henceforth be self-governing: “God shall be all in all” (3:343). Our historicist scruples will never be pedantic enough to suppress the observation, as it flits across the mind, that Milton has in the passage of #2 to #3 anticipated the Bolshevik theory of revolution at its most controversial point: centralization as the counterintuitive path to decentralization, the amassing of power by one determined to give it all away. But we don’t have to establish that point here. For now, it will be enough to grasp that Milton’s prophecy also furnishes Spencer Jackson with the template for his argument. You might hear me as saying that Jackson has something new to report about Paradise Lost, but that’s not it. He has surprisingly little to say about Milton, in fact, and nothing at all about the epic’s third book. The point is rather that Jackson has silently and perhaps unwittingly modeled his book on Milton’s apocalypse. What if the millennium—the redeemed world, the all-in-all—had almost come to pass in 1812? Such is Jackson’s question to his readers. And what if its gospel had been eighteenth-century British literature, and not just this or that title from its canon, but all of them taken together, one long Book of Revelation to foretell Babylon’s late Hanoverian downcasting? And what if we had overshot the kingdom of ends, had missed our chance to build the reign of saints on earth, because it hadn’t occurred to us to read Augustan satire and the early novel as sacred texts? And what if we now had another crack at it? What if we could have the millennium after all if we only corrected our readings of Alexander Pope and Samuel Richardson? We Are Kings is by all appearances an academic book, with eleven pages of endnotes and a University of Virginia logo on its back cover. But it is, in fact, something else altogether—a whirlwind scroll of radical Protestant prophecy masquerading, not all that convincingly, as literary history. Jackson’s...

СОВЕТСКАЯ ПОМОЩЬ ИСПАНСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКЕ В 1936–1939 гг.: СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ КОНСЕРВАТИВНЫЕ ВЕРСИИ

The subject of the study is some modern conservative versions of the history of the Soviet Union’s military assistance to the Spanish Republic in 1936–1939. The aim of the article is to attempt a critical analysis of the new and revived versions of the motives of Soviet intervention in the Spanish conflict, of the involvement of the Soviet leadership in large-scale terror against civilians in the republican zone, of the degree of influence of the Soviet leadership and Soviet representatives in Spain on the governmental structure of the Spanish Republic, of the anti-fascist character of the war. The study has established the inconsistency of the versions about Soviet aid as a means of promoting the world revolution in Spain and as an attempt to draw the democratic and fascist states into a major war between themselves through the Spanish conflict, about the possibilities of Stalin in 1936 to manipulate the great powers. It has been proved that conservative historians exaggerate the degree of influence of Stalin and Soviet political representatives in Spain on the military-political leadership of the republic. The impact of the so-called “instruments” of Soviet influence in the Spanish Republic is also exaggerated. The first of the instruments is considered to be the relocation of part of the gold reserve to Moscow, which, allegedly, allowed the Soviet control over the finances of the republic to be established. The second is the activities of Soviet military advisers; the third is the Communist Party of Spain, which was part of the Comintern, and was considered as an obedient tool in the hands of Moscow. It was and still is traditional to attribute responsibility for unleashing large-scale terror against civilians in the republican zone to Stalin, which does not correspond to reality as convincingly proved by the British historian P. Preston in his famous work The Spanish Holocaust. The scale of terror was exaggerated in the republican zone and, accordingly, understated in the Francoist zone. The study shows the failure of attempts to distort the anti-fascist nature of the war waged by the Spanish Republic relying on the support of the Soviet Union, Mexico, the progressive public of most civilized countries of that time, as well as attempts to present the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in 1936–1939 as quite respectable. The new and updated critical versions of the Soviet aid to the Spanish Republic considered in the article are the result of the neoconservative wave in western historiography, which influenced representatives of both the classical historical school and the adherents of postmodernism.

Attitude of the Ukrainian and Polish Political Establishment towards the Military and Political Alliance of 1920

The article describes the state of scholarly research of the history of the Ukrainian-Polish Military and Political Alliance of 1920.It studies the problems of Ukrainian-Polish relations in 1919–1920, in particular the specifics of negotiations between Ukraine and Poland during that period, the main moments of preparation and conclusion of the Warsaw Pact between the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Commonwealth in April 1920. Attention is drawn to the reaction of various Ukrainian and Polish political forces to the signing of Pilsudski-Petliura Pact.The sociopolitical preconditions, the main events of the Ukrainian-Polish-Soviet War of 1920 are reconstructed, and the role of S. Petliura and J. Pilsudski in them is highlighted. The cooperation between Ukraine and Poland in the struggle against Bolshevist aggression is analyzed, as well as the contradictions that arose then in the relations between the two peoples. The attitude of the two state leaders towards the events that took place in Ukraine in 1919–1920 is singled out. The results of the Ukrainian-Polish-Soviet confrontation for Poland and Ukraine and its influence on Ukrainian-Polish mutual understanding in the future are comprehended.The author claims that the preparation and signing of the Pilsudski-Petliura Pact provoked a negative reaction from the majority of Ukrainian and Polish political forces and was not supported by them. The short-lived Ukrainian-Polish Military-Political Alliance collapsed in 1920 due to a number of foreign policy factors. The main ones are the Entente’s negative treatment of Ukraine, ambiguous attitude towards the union of different political parties of both countries, late signing of the treaty and pragmatism of J. Pilsudski, who in his policy adhered primarily to the interests of Poland and relied on the Entente for a long time.At the same time, the signing of the Warsaw Pact facilitated Ukraine’s entry into the international arena. As a result of cooperation with Poland, the Ukrainians continued the armed struggle for their independence against the RSFSR in 1920 and, together with Poland, did not allow it to advance further into Western Europe to bring the “world revolution” there.The signing of the Treaty of Riga in March 1921 and the end of the Ukrainian-Polish-Bolshevik War meant the defeat of the national liberation struggle of 1917–1921.

Os estatutos da Internacional Comunista: comparação entre os textos aprovados nos Congressos Mundiais de 1920, 1924 e 1928

A estrutura organizativa interna da Internacional Comunista (Comintern) era quase totalmente desconhecida àqueles que a observavam de fora. Contudo, ela foi fortemente influenciada pelas lutas políticas de bastidores, inclusive no Partido Comunista soviético, e pelas viradas geopolíticas promovidas pelos líderes de Moscou. Os três Estatutos da Comintern aprovados em seu 2º (1920), 5º (1924) e 6º (1928) Congressos Mundiais não esgotam a análise dos órgãos que a compunham, mas dão uma ideia de como sua estruturação, ao contrário do que pensa o senso comum, alterou-se radicalmente à medida que se desenrolavam as disputas de poder no Kremlin. Neste artigo, exponho os resultados de uma exaustiva comparação entre os três Estatutos, relacionando-os ao contexto político de cada época e apontando nas mudanças redacionais pistas sobre como se alteravam os conceitos de movimento comunista internacional e de revolução mundial.

The Issues of Republic, World Revolution, and National Communism in the Newspaper Anadolu’da Yeni Gün during the Turkish National Struggle

Anadolu’da Yeni Gün gazetesi Milli Mücadele yıllarında Hakimiyet-i Milliye gazetesinden sonra TBMM’nin sözcülüğünü yapmış Ankara’daki ikinci gazetedir. Gazete, Yeni Gün adıyla Yunus Nadi (Abalıoğlu) Bey yönetiminde 2 Eylül 1918’de İstanbul’da yayın hayatına başlamıştır. 10 Ağustos 1920’den itibaren Ankara’da Anadolu’da Yeni Gün adıyla yayını sürdürmüş, 8 Mayıs 1924’ten itibaren ise İstanbul’da Cumhuriyet adıyla yayımlanmıştır. Anadolu’da Yeni Gün gazetesi Ankara’daki yayın hayatı boyunca bazı ana temalar üzerinde odaklanmıştır. Bu temaların başında halk idaresi, halk hükümeti ve Cumhuriyet kavramları gelmektedir. Gazete bu temaları destekleyen bir yayın çizgisi izlemiştir. Bir diğer temel tema Milli Mücadele yıllarında BMM ve Sovyet Rusya arasında yakınlaşan ilişkiler nedeniyle Bolşeviklik, milli komünizm olmuş ve gelecekte Türk devletinin benimseyebileceği anlayış olarak “Şark Menşevikliği” kavramı önerilmiştir. Şark Meselesi, Anadolu’da Yeni Gün’de öne çıkan bir diğer temadır.

Review of Global Struggles and Social Change: From Prehistory to World Revolution in the Twenty-First Century

Review of Global Struggles and Social Change: From Prehistory to World Revolution in the Twenty-First Century

An Overview of Digital Marketing Practices in India

The most popular businesses adopt the Internet, not simply as another advertisement tool or marketing instrument. It is seen as a mechanism for transforming the companies and changing everything about the way computers and mobile devices function to serve their customer better and to connect with their suppliers. In short, digital marketing has sparked a business world revolution by pushing out some old established players and rising new leaders. The winners discover new market possibilities, enhanced ways to develop work and better ways to manage and run their companies. Despite this, the digital marketing entrepreneurs still have to take care of their clients and earn a profit to remain in the business. Web-based business success requires the entrepreneur to strike a balance between creating a digital marketing strategy that utilizes the strength of the Internet and meeting customer expectations of convenience and service. Consumer's present use of mobile devices, social media and search engines have led to developing integrated social –local-mobile strategies (SOLOMO). Entrepreneurs may use the SOLOMO strategy effectively as customers enhance their online activities by extensively using these three methods.

French Communist Group in Moscow: Formation and Activities (1918—1920)

The problem of studying the activities of the French Communist Group (FCG), created in Russia in 1918 on the initiative of the Russian Communist Party, is examined. In domestic and foreign historiography, there are works devoted to the history of the formation of this organization and the composition of the group. An analysis of the works shows that the work of the French group in several cities of Russia is presented as the activity of one organization. In this article, special attention is paid to studying the work of the main bureau of the FCG, located in Moscow in the 1918—1920s, as the key core of the organization. The source base of the study is archival documents and sources of personal origin. The appearance, activity and dissolution of the Moscow bureau of the Federal Financial Group are analyzed, the quantitative and professional composition of the participants, the structure of subordination and the distribution of responsibilities are revealed. The main task facing the bureau members was determined — propaganda activities. The main lines of propaganda activity of the Moscow bureau among compatriots are systematized: publication and distribution of print media, holding meetings and rallies, personal meetings and conversations, participation in the First and Second Congresses of the Comintern, work with the parliamentary opposition in France to end the intervention and spread of world revolution ideas. It is proved that, in addition to campaigning, there was also active assistance of the bureau members to French citizens residing or arrested in Russia.

Engagement y evolución de instagramers hispanohablantes de moda

Introducción: Con el auge tecnológico y el despliegue de dispositivos digitales, el fenómeno instagramer se convierte en una revolución global, produciendo un cambio del paradigma comunicativo, del que América Latina y España no quedan exentas; se requiere un análisis respecto al compromiso de los usuarios en la participación e interacción con los contenidos online. Metodología: Principalmente cuantitativa-descriptiva, con extracción de datos por medio de las herramientas de monitoreo SocialBlade y Fan Page Karma, que facilitan información sobre la actividad y engagement de los influencers en Instagram y las principales variables de interacción. Estudio transeccional del mes de febrero (2018, 2019 y 2020) en diez cuentas de instagramers hispanohablantes de moda (América Latina-España). Resultados: El nivel de engagement de las instagramers latinoamericanas es prominente en comparación al español. No existe relación entre el número de seguidores y el compromiso registrado para ambos casos, se observan variaciones destacables y tendencias similares en el sector de la moda. Conclusiones: Las instagramers hispanohablantes presentan una comunidad que suma millones con una tendencia descendente en cuanto a interacción con los contenidos, base del compromiso con sus seguidores, con nuevas correlaciones entre su capacidad para influir y el esfuerzo dedicado en Instagram.

WORLD-SYSTEM THEORY OF WALLERSTEIN AND THE FATE OF THE SYSTE

In the article, the E. Wallerstein world-system methodology is supplemented by the analysis of the counter-system factor in world history of the late Х1Х - the beginning of the ХХ1 century. The author dwells on the analysis of the key stages of the counter-system development. This is a) a counter-systemic challenge embodied in the K. Marx theory; b) Lenin's attempt to make a global counter-system revolution; c) the Stalinist technology of constructing and global expanding the counter-system structure; c) self-destruction of the socialist counter-system during Gorbachev's rule; d) the development of counter-system processes at the beginning of the 21st century, in which China begins to play a decisive role.The first(Marxist) stage is characterized by the theoretical development of the alternative world-system concept, new world-system which should replace the existing one. Marx formulated the basic principles of how the existing world-system should be reorganized. He made first steps towards in practical reorganization of world revolutionary process. According to Marx, Western Europe and, above all, Germany (by the end of the 19th century) have the most numerous and politically organized proletariat. So exactly this region should have become the “assemblage point” of a new world system with new social relations, new state and new government.The second (Leninist) stage is associated with an attempt through the "world revolution" completely eliminate the bourgeois world-system . However, this Lenin’s installation was not fully realized, limiting itself only to a breakthrough of the old world system "weak link". Nevertheless, a new configuration arose: a counter-systemic neoplasm appeared and began to develop rapidly. It carried distinct signs of a historical alternative. Appeared situation about which Marx did not write and Lenin could not foreseen.The thirdstage in development of the world-system alternative was the Stalinist USSR with its mobilization technology for an alternative future constructing. Stalin's strategic plan was not in the spontaneous "world revolution", but in the consistent projection of a pre-prepared world-system model (Soviet-style of socialism) on the rest of the world.This Stalinist project clashed with active resistance from the old world-system/ It generated German Nazism as a weapon of a global competitor eliminating. However, in reality, everything turned out differently than expected: before attacking his enemy, Nazism attacked his masters. This made them seek support from the USSR, their strategic adversary. So the situational “anti-Hitler coalition” was established.Ultimately, both competing world-systems did not achieve (each for himself) the full result. The capitalist world-system failed to destroy and assimilate the socialist world-system. The socialist world-system failed to totally crush the capitalist world-system and cover the whole world. The protracted process of "tug of war" between the socialist and capitalist world-systems has begun,After the death of Stalin, the socialist world-system lost its strategic initiative. The Stalinist successors are mired in petty political intrigues in short-sighted and ineffective geopolitical combinations, in imitations of a “victorious movement” towards communism. Having stopped in its external advancement, the socialist world-system began to lose its innovative potential, and, consequently, competitiveness.The logical conclusion to the involution of the post-Stalinist world-system was the fourth (Gorbachev’s) period. The socialist world-system, strategically disoriented, decaying morally and cheaply sold out by its own corrupt elite, became an object of absorption of the victorious capitalist world-system.However, from the beginning of the 21st century, the fifth period of world-system transformations had began. Anti-systemic moods are growing in the now-days world and anti-system processes are developing. The main "markers" of these processes were a) Islamist air attacs on the New York "twin towers", b) Russia's neo-imperial ambitions, and, c) most importantly, the emergence of the Chinese global alternative.The Chinese world-system alternative embodies a new strategy that is adequate to the realities of the 21st century. Its essence lies in the consistent “embedding” of a new world-system cluster into the existing world-system. One of the manifestations of such a new convergent strategy is the “Belt and Path project”. It can turn the Eurasian continent into a grandiose construction site with a huge scientific and technical scope. The article suggests that it is a new wave which is moving from the East. And that may symbolize the end of the 500-year history of the old capitalist world-system and the beginning of a new historical era.

Connecting with the First or the Third World?:: Two Paths Toward the Transnational Network Building in the Japanese Global Sixties

This paper is a sociological and historical investigation of the transnational alliances in the Japanese sixties movement. From the mid-1960s to 1970s, some Japanese New Left movements had prevailed by taking part in transnational activism. Yet, these movements had then bifurcated into two directions; those that were linked primarily with the western First World on the one hand and movements that were connected to the Third World revolutionary movements on the other hand. This paper explores the reasons for such bridging and division of transnational ties. By looking specifically at the civic anti-Vietnam War movement of Beheiren and the clandestine movement of the Japanese Red Army, the paper argues that it was the culture that had both bridged and created holes between the network clusters. Through investigation of the culture (ideology, beliefs, taste, etc.) and biographical backgrounds (class consciousness, generation, and memory) of each group member, the paper suggests that the activists’ culture and imaginative linkage with the outside world was the crucial factor in bridging the structural hole between movements that were remotely apart and embedded in different national settings. Yet, it also shows that different cultural and biographical backgrounds of the members of these two movements had created a cultural hole between the transnational networks that they have developed. Thus, in general, the paper shows how the duality of culture — bridging and diverging aspects — operates in the process of transnational network building.

민국시기 5·4운동 인식중의 대배경론 - 유라시아세계혁명과 戊戌이래사상계몽을 중심으로 -

Thus far, the academia has emphasized the New Culture Movement since 1915 and the Russian Revolution as the background of the May 4th Movement. This paper regarded the foregoing as a small background theory, and revealed that people in the Republican China perceived the May 4th Movement based on the grand background theory.<BR> The grand background theory synchronically acknowledges the effects of the Eurasian World Revolutionary Movement, including the March 1st Movement, and diachronically acknowledges the accumulation of thought enlightenment since the 1898 reforms(戊戌維新). A representative work that grasped the two in a close internal relationship with each other is Chen Duanzhi(陳端志)

Oswald Spengler. Young Conservative Geopolitics

Oswald Spengler belongs to the trend in the so-called “conservative revolution” which was entitled “young conservatism” (Jungkonservative) in times of Weimar Republic and was close to the political position of German business and military elites. The projects of those elites before and during the First World War and their development up to the seizer of power by the Nazis and the Second World War apply to the geopolitics, and Spengler was one of the most talented representatives and creators of those plans in world politics. His views on the world politics are determined by the Lebensphilosophie (philosophy of life) described in the fragments of his main “metaphysical” work Urfragen and his philosophy of history stated in the book “Decline of Europe”. Particular attention in the article is paid to his views on Russia, both in the second volume of “Decline of Europe” and in his last work “The Years of Decision”. The transition from culture to civilization that started in the 19th century, lead to the epoch of world wars and revolutions in the 20th century. According to Spengler, two types of revolution threatened the West, - the “white revolution” in western countries themselves, that Spengler termed “Bolshevism”, and the “colour revolution’ in the colonies. The military power of new Caesars would put the end to those revolutions, as well as liberalism and parliamentarism. According to Spengler, Germany was the only land, that preserved the main features of the “Nordic race”; and that’s why could unite Western countries in the struggle for self-preservation. Spengler’s heroic pessimism affirmed the readiness to resist the history course: the time of the “Faust” culture was nearly over, but for two more centuries it would be necessary to fight hard from the losing positions.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk on the old and the new Russia in his work “The World Revolution” (on occasion on his 170th anniversary)

The article justifies the answer to the question: which were reasons for events T. G. Masaryk called the world revolution, and in this perspective - what practical steps and further conclusions for the construction of the Czechoslovak statehood he took as the future president of the country - the great ideal and real-politician of the 20th century. It is noted that this statehood was conceived by Masaryk on the basis of the old (until February 1917) Russia, and it was created in the course of complex interactions with the new Russia. An attempt was made to show that it was the flair of real politics that prevented Masaryk from renouncing certain provisions of ideal politics - if one recognizes among them the respect for the free choice of peoples. Masaryk adequately and, it can be said, relevantly describes the key moments of the Russian Revolution - the motor of the world revolution, during which “small” peoples received (or returned) their statehood. Hence the respectful attitude to the very fact of the revolution against the background of ideologically engaged judgements, and to the almost unopposed choice of the Russian people. Reading the work “The World Revolution” from this perspective encourages an adequate assessment of the state wisdom of the thinker and politician, the real president of the new country. The urgency of a new reading of T. G. Masaryk’s work is argued, it is noted that a number of its provisions are significant for modern times, when ideal inducements to political activity are not allocated to second or even third plans. This same reading can help in understanding the reasons not only for the originating of the Czechoslovak state, but for its breaking up as well.