This is another episode in which Mike Duncan includes a lot of different stuff (some episodes can be like that). There's the international socialist scene, the post World War I diplomatic scene, the final fate of Nestor Makhno, and the political wrangling about the formation of the USSR.
I don't really have a lot to say about this episode other than my usual comments--it was really interesting, and I learned a lot from it.
Other notes:
* Mike compares Stalin to Ben Franklin. I thought this was interesting. It adds some balance to the view that the integration of the smaller SSRs into the USSR was Russian hegemony.
* Mike mentions in this episode that Kerensky was an SR. I hadn't realized that before I started listening to this podcast. (Like a lot of people, I had thought Kerensky was one of the liberals, not one of the socialists.) Although I remember Kerensky being an SR had popped up in the comments section on an episode several months back. I don't remember Mike himself really making a big deal of Kerensky being an SR during his narrative, however.
It's another fascinating episode. And once again, something I knew almost nothing about.
I had known in vague terms that the SRs had been persecuted by the Bolsheviks. (And in fact, I used to bring up the treatment of the SRs as a frequent debating point back in the days lived in Melbourne and used to debate with Trotskyists a lot.)
But I had never known about the details. And the details of the whole thing were fascinating to learn about.
A point which Mike Duncan really drives home at the end is that these are exactly the kind of show trials that we normally associate with Stalin, but the trial of the SRs occurred in the days of Lenin and Trotsky.
(Although... if I had to make a criticism of this episode, it's that we don't get to hear much about Lenin and Trotsky's involvement. Everything is just "the Bolsheviks did this or that" instead of mentioning individuals. Lenin and Trotsky are barely mentioned. It would have been interesting to hear more about individual names. How involved was Trotsky in all this?)
Another thing I thought was interesting was when Mike Duncan mentioned that there were 3 competing organizations for the mantle of the 3rd International. I hadn't known that. Interesting stuff. (Mike said he'd get more into it next week, so I'm looking forward to that.)
Other Odds and Ends:
* In the opening add for Audible, Mike Duncan mentioned he is trying to get The Brothers Karamazov finished off his list of books to read before he dies. I'm happy to say that this is a rare occasion when I'm one step ahead of Mike Duncan. I read the book (and reviewed) that book back in 2017.
* On the homepage for the podcast, I actually chimed in on the comments this week.
Somebody was pleading with Mike to do the Spanish Civil War next. He had posted the same comment 3 times (HERE, HERE and HERE). So I thought maybe somebody better help him out, or he would just keep posting. So I put into the comments:
Hi Ashley, here is (to the best of my knowledge) Mike's latest statement on the Spanish Civil War.
Revolutions is ending with Russia. But the model is such that in five or ten years I can always just up and decide to do another series. And Spanish Civil War is high on that list.
As the subtitle indicates, it's a depressing episode of history. And yet, as always, I learned so many things from this episode that I found it interesting in spite of its grim subject matter.
As Mike Duncan emphasizes at the end of this episode, the really fascinating thing about all of this is how it was ultimately Herbert Hoover and the Americans who saved the Soviet Union! That's something that seems to have been forgotten about during the decades of enmity during the cold war.
Other Random Thoughts:
* The description of the horror of famine in this episode scares me a bit. Especially since I've been reading a lot about the speculation of crop failures in my own lifetime due to Climate Change. (I really hope it never comes to that, but from everything I've been reading, it seems like it's a possibility if humanity doesn't get its act together.)
* Mike Duncan repeats in this episode something that he said last episode--there are only a few more episodes left in this series. But based on what he outlined, the remaining episodes sound like they're going to be really fascinating. Sounds like he's going to cover everything I hoped he would cover, but just pick up the pace a little bit.
* Mike Duncan was a few days late in getting this episode out this week, as he explained about HERE and HERE
Hey friends, had a Personal Thing unexpectedly hit this week that consumed way more of my mental bandwidth than allowed for making a good episode on time. All is well, nothing grave, but fair warning I'm looking at the state of things and Ep. 10.96 aint gonna be out on time.
