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Electrification

Electrification © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156920611X573752 Historical Materialism 19.1 (2011) 319–323 brill.nl/hima Electrification A: kahraba. – G: Elektrifizierung. – F: électri- fication. – R: ėlektrifikazija. – S: electrifi- cación. – C: dianqihua 电气化 ‘Communism is Soviet power plus the electri- fication of the whole country’. This famous statement of Lenin ’s, made at the Eighth Congress of Soviets on 22 December 1920 ( LCW 31, 516), has been widely taken to encapsulate the Soviet approach to industriali- sation. Undoubtedly, Lenin’s words were a powerful and impressive slogan; the circum- stances of its formulation shed considerable light on the larger issues of Soviet socialism and its project of forced catch-up industrialisation. 1. The potentially revolutionary implica- tions of electricity were already evoked by Engels , notably in his remark that it would ‘prove the most powerful of levers in eliminat- ing the antithesis between town and country’ and would thereby give ‘the productive forces . . . a range such that they will, with increasing rapidity, outstrip the control of the bourgeoisie’ ( MECW 46, 449). The intellectual and political context of Lenin ’s pronouncement was similar. It fol- lowed immediately upon an allusion to com- munism’s http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Historical Materialism Brill

Electrification

Wallis, Victor
Historical Materialism , Volume 19 (1): 319 – Jan 1, 2011
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1465-4466
eISSN
1569-206X
DOI
10.1163/156920611X573752
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156920611X573752 Historical Materialism 19.1 (2011) 319–323 brill.nl/hima Electrification A: kahraba. – G: Elektrifizierung. – F: électri- fication. – R: ėlektrifikazija. – S: electrifi- cación. – C: dianqihua 电气化 ‘Communism is Soviet power plus the electri- fication of the whole country’. This famous statement of Lenin ’s, made at the Eighth Congress of Soviets on 22 December 1920 ( LCW 31, 516), has been widely taken to encapsulate the Soviet approach to industriali- sation. Undoubtedly, Lenin’s words were a powerful and impressive slogan; the circum- stances of its formulation shed considerable light on the larger issues of Soviet socialism and its project of forced catch-up industrialisation. 1. The potentially revolutionary implica- tions of electricity were already evoked by Engels , notably in his remark that it would ‘prove the most powerful of levers in eliminat- ing the antithesis between town and country’ and would thereby give ‘the productive forces . . . a range such that they will, with increasing rapidity, outstrip the control of the bourgeoisie’ ( MECW 46, 449). The intellectual and political context of Lenin ’s pronouncement was similar. It fol- lowed immediately upon an allusion to com- munism’s

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Historical Materialism – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2011

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