Marx's Theory of Revolutions: Root Mission

Monday, June 1, 2020

The Root Mission

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the United States having added itself to the line-up of countries involved in the clash of imperialists on the previous April 7, the mission of Elihu Root from President Woodrow Wilson to the Provisional Government of Russia was in Petrograd. Root promised American loans, but only if Russia stayed in the fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the coalition government here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

June, 1917: Root Mission

President Wilson sends former Secretary of War Elihu Root to Petrograd with messages on the United States war aims and conditions for securing US loans for the further prosecution of the war. He summed up the US attitude, as Wikipedia says, very trenchantly: "No fight, no loans."

Thus, the US offered credits of up to $75 million, contingent on Russia undertaking the summer offensive. The Romanovs expressed a desire to subscribe, contingent on the state treasury’s support for the tsar’s family. But the Russian big bourgeoisie refused to subscribe.

100 Years Ago Today, in Russia

The most recent entry is at the top, so the entries appear in reverse chronological order. Follow this link to the first post, February 27 – February 14, 1917: Last State Duma. Then click Newer Post at the bottom of the page to find the entries in chronological order.

Now (November 29) the entries from the beginning of the February Revolution to the end of the October Revolution have been compiled into chapters. The chapters are in chronological order and run five pages or more in length.

I have now (October 24) published a number of supplementary posts for items in the narrative that were omitted from the original chronology. The posts contain navigation permitting readers to follow them in chronological order. A link at the bottom of the previous post leads to the supplementary post next in the chronology, and a link at the bottom of the supplementary post leads forward in time from there.

Dates are given new style first, followed by old style (then in use in Russia). By 1917, the old style (Julian) dates were 13 days behind the new style (Gregorian) dates. The new style dates are in fact “100 years ago today” dates, but the old style dates gave rise to the terms “February Revolution” and “October Revolution” that describe the two most important stages of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The principal sources are Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, first published in 1930 after Trotsky had been exiled from Stalin’s Russia, and, for the October Revolution, the American journalist John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World, published in 1919.

About this Blog

The Theory of Revolutions is now the chronology of one particular revolution, the Russian Revolution that took place a hundred years ago.

Earlier entries, ending in 2013, apply the theory of revolutions to an analysis of the Arab Spring.

These are the cornerstones of the theory.

It’s Speculative Philosophy. It’s neither punditry nor social science, but really and only philosophy.

It uses Dialectical Logic. In a revolution, revolutionaries as subjective entities seek the negation of the objective conditions (some or all) formerly in existence. The movement generated by these subjective and objective moments in a revolution is termed “dialectical.”

Finally, it is Class Analysis. In other words, when people as economic beings find themselves in certain conditions, sometimes they vote, and sometimes they revolt.

Follow this link for a more nuanced explanation About This Blog. And visit Marx’s Political Economy for posts about domestic and local politics.