Book, Shadow of October: Russian Revolution and the specters of the Soviets[LS]

Much has been debated about the 1917 Revolution, the rise and fall of Soviet socialism, the triumph of markets and the adherence of communist governments to capitalist logic. However, the fundamental problem of the left around the world continues to be the Bolshevik myth, the idea that the true Revolution is that of October, with its authoritarian praxis, and all that this implies when making it the measure by which all political actions for change must be measured. What does October mean today? Christian Laval and Pierre Dardot carry out a critical review of this much mythologized and misunderstood event, highlighting how Bolshevism betrayed the Soviets of the February Revolution: instead of popular self-organization, the cult of the State and its leader and the struggle for power at all costs and its maintenance. Laval and Dardot take as a counterpoint to this the Mexican Revolution - which followed another path, influenced by anarchism - and, as an illustrative model of the Bolshevik way of acting, the Spanish Civil War and its internal conflict between libertarian anti-fascists and Stalinists. From this perspective, the authors defend a new common policy that, linked to other revolutionary experiences, is capable of democratically implementing self-government, dispelling the October Shadow once and for all.