Orlov Boris

FROM FEBRUARY TO OCTOBER. February Process of 1917 in the Context of the Confrontation of Subcultures

In the search of the answer what let the Bolsheviks to implement their adventurous ideas B.Orlov analyzes the political subcultures which expressed themselves in the activity of different social groups and organizations, the main participants of the February process. In his opinion at the beginning of the revolution the representatives of two different political subcultures came to the political arena - the consensus one whose carriers were trade and industrial circles, liberal intelligentsia, urban middle class and the confrontation one. Lenin and his extremist supporters used the latter to come to the power. These were not the Soviets that gave them the "green light" but the wave of the protests of peasants who were just trying on worker`s overalls, a soldier or a sailor uniform.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-135-157

Georgy Plekhanov and today.

In 1970s-1980s the author showed himself to be a reputed specialist in Western social democracy studies, and in the post-Soviet period he played a visible role in the attempts to recreate and activate a social democratic movement in Russia. It is for this reason that the Orlov’s interest to Plehanov’s legacy is so natural. The article raises the question of the extent to which Plehanov’s views could be applied to today’s Russia in the situation when, after the collapse of socialist experiment, against which he warned repeatedly, the country returned to the frontier of February 1917, to the initial stand of market economy and representative democracy.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2006-42-3-112-120

Pages: 112-120

BETWEEN THE TWO TOTALITARIANISMS (ON THE BOOKS BY W.LEONHARD «THE REVOLUTION LETS ITS CHILDREN GO» AND «FORTY YEARS LATER: LOOKING FOR THE TRAITS OF THE PAST»)

W.Leonhard, a prominent German publicist had an outstanding life story. He was a son of a German anti-fascist mother and a witness of the events that took place in the USSR in the 30-s. Later he participated actively in the arrangement of the post-war life in the Eastern part of Germany. Having lost all illusions about the political regimes of the USSR and the Eastern Germany, he immigrated to the Western Germany in the 50-s and published a number of books devoted to the nature of the totalitarian regimes in those two countries. These books – «The Revolution Lets its Children Go» in the first place – have become political best-sellers.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-9-3-101-111

Pages: 101-111

XX Century: the Total Utopia Temptation

B. Orlov reviews the recent collection "Totalitatianism in Europe of the XX century", published by scholars of the Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences. Reflecting on the book contents has inspired the author to develop his own position on major characteristics of totalitarianism and to oppose some widely held assumptions about the topic.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1997-4-2-85-92

Pages: 85-92

Prospects for the development of social democracy in Russia (two parties – two political cultures)

The abstract is not found

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1997-3-1-88-97

Pages: 88-97