Socialist Europe and revolutionary Russia

About this book

Socialist Europe and revolutionary Russia: perception and prejudice, 1848- 1923, analyses perceptions and images of Russia held by European socialists in the period between the revolutions of 1848 and firm establishment of the Soviet regime in the early 1920s. Professor Naarden investigates in detail the sometimes pernicious influence of the age-old Western image of Russia on the ideological outlook and actions of the largest organised political movement in Europe. Whereas the history of socialism has been largely written from a national point of view, or within a national framework, this survey of a major pan-European theme permits an alternative perspective on contemporary East-West relations, and on numerous important aspects of nineteenth-century socialism, not least the powerful role in its development of a number of Russian writers, whether as protagonists or opponents. The recent resurgence within Russia of alternative, non-Leninist political traditions gives much of this book, in which the Mensheviks assume special significance, considerable topical relevance at the present time.