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These Notebooks are for you who are generations away from the great Russian Revolution of 1917 and seek to understand what went wrong.
Baitalsky describes the process through the eyes of young Ukrainians like him, who came of age fighting for the Revolution but were murdered in the late 1930s as the Revolution “degenerated” under Joseph Stalin. How did Stalin come to power and manage to retain power? What did this “political counterrevolution” look like to this Ukrainian–and Jewish–communist In the 1920s and after?
Arrested three times by the Stalin regime, Baitalsky survived to tell you what happened.
Baitalsky describes the process through the eyes of young Ukrainians like him, who came of age fighting for the Revolution but were murdered in the late 1930s as the Revolution “degenerated” under Joseph Stalin. How did Stalin come to power and manage to retain power? What did this “political counterrevolution” look like to this Ukrainian–and Jewish–communist In the 1920s and after?
Arrested three times by the Stalin regime, Baitalsky survived to tell you what happened.
Price: $185.00
Pages: 564
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Historical Materialism Book Series
Publication Date:
03 April 2025
ISBN: 9789004316096
Format: Hardcover
“These Notebooks are an incredibly rich source of information, insight and inspiration about the nature and meaning of the Russian Revolution -- and of its betrayal. Baitalsky's thoughtfulness and honesty, and his heroic persistence in the face of horrific repression, stand as an enduring testament to the human spirit.”
—— Paul Le Blanc, author of Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution (Pluto Press); editorial board member, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg(Verso); Professor of History, La Roche University (Pittsburgh)
“[Baitalsky is] one of the most remarkable samizdat writers of the 1960s and 1970s.”
—— Stephen F. Cohen, author of Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938; former Professor of Politics and Russian Studies, Princeton University
“Baitalsky’s Notebooks are a vital contribution to our knowledge of the Soviet Gulag, one of the largest and longest-lasting systems of forced labour in modern history. Not only is Baitalsky a keen observer, he offers the unusual perspective of an unrepentant Trotskyist. His multiple stints in the Gulag are richly recalled in Vogt-Downey’s masterful translation.”
—— Alan Barenberg, author of The Gulag: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press); Associate Professor, Texas Tech University
—— Paul Le Blanc, author of Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution (Pluto Press); editorial board member, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg(Verso); Professor of History, La Roche University (Pittsburgh)
“[Baitalsky is] one of the most remarkable samizdat writers of the 1960s and 1970s.”
—— Stephen F. Cohen, author of Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938; former Professor of Politics and Russian Studies, Princeton University
“Baitalsky’s Notebooks are a vital contribution to our knowledge of the Soviet Gulag, one of the largest and longest-lasting systems of forced labour in modern history. Not only is Baitalsky a keen observer, he offers the unusual perspective of an unrepentant Trotskyist. His multiple stints in the Gulag are richly recalled in Vogt-Downey’s masterful translation.”
—— Alan Barenberg, author of The Gulag: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press); Associate Professor, Texas Tech University
Marilyn Vogt-Downey translated for the Pathfinder Press Writings of Leon Trotsky series (1970s), Samizdat: Voices of the Soviet Opposition (Pathfinder in 1974), The Bulletin in Defense of Marxism (1990s) and The USSR 1987-1991: Marxists Perspectives (Humanity Books, 1993).