The Russian revolutions and the emergence of authoritarian socialism

Abstract

This articles discusses the Russian revolutions and the need to leave aside the platitudes of both liberal and Soviet historiographic traditions. The insertion of the Revolution of October 1917 in the context of a revolutionary cycle comprising five moments: the revolution of 1905; the two Revolutions of 1917; the civil wars that lasted from 1918 to 1921; the Kronstadt Uprising in 1921. The decisive importance of the civil wars (revolutions within the revolution) in the emergence of a new type of socialism - an authoritarian socialism, unforeseen and unwanted by socialist traditions in the nineteenth century. The debate about the character of the October Revolution and Soviet socialism. The need to think about the historical and social foundations of authoritarian socialism from the point of view of its overcoming and the construction of a - reinvented - socialism in the 21st century.