We’re back! But so is the bourgeoisie.Sources:Cliff, Tony. Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917-1923. Haymarket Books 2012.Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.Reed, John. 10 Days That Shook The World. Public domain, available on marxists.org. Originally published 1919.Russian Wikipedia article, Oktyabrskoe vooruzhenoe Vosstanie v Moskve (1917). Last accessed 20 Oct 2025.
--------
1:02:02
--------
1:02:02
Episode 17 - Lessons to be Learned
Wherein we find out what the point of all this was, and close the book on the revolutionary period.
--------
55:43
--------
55:43
Episode 16 - Filling in the Blanks
This is the first of a two-episode retrospective on the Russian Revolution. In this episode, we discuss some of the finer details that we passed over, in order to provide a more complete understanding of the revolutionary period.
--------
48:25
--------
48:25
Episode 15, supplemental b - Address of the Second All-Russian Congress
About The Sickle and the Hammer: A Socialist History of the Soviet Union
We are often told the USSR was an oppressive, authoritarian society, lacking freedom and democracy. There were endless purges that claimed the lives of millions of “dissidents,” purges that were designed for one thing and one thing only: to keep power in the hands of those who wielded it.And as we all know, the economy was based on socialist and communist principles, which is why it barely functioned at all. There were endless famines, genocides against minorities within the nation, and an industrial base that was constantly tottering on the edge of collapse.But instead of trying to address these issues at home, the leaders of the USSR were fixated only on world domination, on spreading communism in order to destroy freedom around the world. From Europe and Asia to Latin America and Africa, the Communists were a threat to freedom the world over.…. Or were they?Learn the story of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic you’ve never heard! What was life really like in the Soviet Union? How authoritarian was it? Did a “totalitarian” state really exist? How did the economy function to meet the needs of its citizens? How were the governing apparatus structured? And were the Soviets hell-bent on world domination…. Or world liberation? Or neither?Subscribe to find out!
Listen to The Sickle and the Hammer: A Socialist History of the Soviet Union, Real Dictators and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
South Africa