Authors

Discussion

This paper proposes to study the bases and historical foundations of the authoritarian socialism built in the Soviet Union, with implications for Soviet history itself, up until the break-up of socialism in 1991, and also with an impact on all the revolutionary experiences throughout the 20th century.

Firstly, I postulate the need to recognise the existence of two revolutionary cycles in Russia: a first, democratic cycle, involving the 1905 revolution and the two revolutions that took place in 1917 (February and October); and a second, authoritarian cycle, which included, after a transitional phase (October 1917-June 1918), the civil wars (1918-1921), a new revolution in Kronstadt (1921).

Next, I intend to question the tradition - and the commonplace - of considering the October 1917 uprising as the fundamental cradle of authoritarian Soviet socialism. According to my hypothesis, it was in the context of the civil wars that the historical foundations of authoritarian socialism were laid, anchored in political dictatorship, Russian nationalism and pervasive statism.