![Vadim Rogovin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Vadim_Rogovin.jpg)
Vadim Zakharovich Rogovin (russian: Вади́м Заха́рович Рого́вин; 10 May 1937 – 18 September 1998) was a Russian
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
(
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
)
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
sociologist, Ph.D. in philosophy,
Leading Researcher
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...
at the Institute of Sociology of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
, and the author of ''Was There An Alternative?'', the 7-volume study of the
Stalin era between 1923 and 1940, with an emphasis on the Trotskyist opposition.
He was considered the leading one among Trotskyist Soviet historians emerging after
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
. Rogovin was a supporter of the
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site, and another linked to the Workers Rev ...
.
In 1998, Rogovin died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, survived by his wife, Galina Valiuzhenich.
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''Was There An Alternative?''
Introduction
In the introduction to the first volume of the ''Was There An Alternative?'' series, Rogovin explains his position and the purpose of this work as follows. In the history of the Soviet Union
The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
a crucial question was to find out the reason for the emergence of the phenomenon of Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
. Rogovin writes there are basically two diametrically opposed approaches. The first one is that Stalinism with its terror was a logical, unavoidable evolution of Marxism-Leninism within Bolshevism
Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, fo ...
from the Socialist revolution. Another approach is to consider that Stalinism was a historically accidental development and that there was an alternative movement within Bolshevism (Trotskyism), and the major function of Stalinist terror was to suppress this movement.
Rogovin suggests that the first approach has become dominant in historical research for two major reasons. The first one is the coincidence of the goals in this respect of two major historical schools: of the official pro-Soviet school with the tradition of demonizing of Trotsky and Trotskyism and of the anti-Soviet, anti-Communist school, with its tradition of demonizing the whole Communist movement
The history of communism encompasses a wide variety of ideologies and political movements sharing the core theoretical values of common ownership of wealth, economic enterprise, and property. Most modern forms of communism are grounded at least ...
, for which purpose it was convenient to attribute the traits of Stalinism to Communism as a whole. The second reason is that with a few exceptions of émigrés, all Trotskyists were physically eliminated by Stalin so that there are virtually no memoirs, and nearly all documents of the Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (b) from 1923 to 1927 headed ''de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet fou ...
were made inaccessible. Therefore the historical picture has become distorted in this area for both subjective and objective reasons.
During Perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
a large amount of memoirs of repressed people have become available. Unfortunately the memoirs of "true" Trotskyists (as opposed to the ones falsely accused of Trotskyism during Soviet repressions), are close to none, because all these real political opponents were physically eliminated. Fortunately the policy of ''glasnost
''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
'' had led to the opening of numerous archives, which make it possible to better trace the evolution towards Stalinism.
Rogovin writes that the treatise did not consider the debunking of various misconceptions, in order not to unnecessarily disrupt the harmony of the exposition of the second alternative mentioned above: to demonstrate that Stalinism was not the only logical possibility of the evolution of the principles of Bolshevism.
With the above purpose in mind, the major focus of the treatise was necessarily Trotskyism and the Left Opposition movement within Bolshevism. This focus gave rise to accusations of bias. For example, historian Yuri Felshtinsky
Yuri Georgievich Felshtinsky (russian: Юрий Георгиевич Фельштинский, born 7 September 1956 in Moscow) is a Russian American historian. Felshtinsky has authored a number of books on Russian history, including ''The Bol ...
recognized the value of his work, while expressing an opinion that ''..Все эти книги, однако, проникнуты безудержной апологетикой Троцкого и проистекающим отсюда догматизмом'' ("All of these books, however, are imbued with rampant apologetics
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
of Trotsky and with the dogmatism stemming from the former.").
In response to such criticism Mikhail Voeikov, Doctor of Economic Sciences and a Professor of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, writes
Some opponents of Rogovin ascribe to him an apologetic attitude towards the person and the activity of Trotsky. Persons who are well acquainted with the whole world literature on this subject might agree with this impression. But for us, for the Russian readers who discovered the truth about Trotsky for the first time in the books of V.Z. Rogovin, no, we do not come away with an impression of apologetics. The very theme chosen by the author, "alternatives to Stalinism," by the nature of this genre presupposes the sort of tonality which is used by V.Z. Rogovin. However, even here one must bear in mind that in many cases Rogovin points out the miscalculations and errors of Trotsky. The book ''World Revolution and World War'' even contains a chapter entitled "In what and why did Trotsky err?" In general, however, Rogovin's books are not only about Trotsky. Behind some trees, even the very large ones, one must also see the forest.
Bibliography
* ''Two Lectures: Stalin's Great Terror: Origins and Consequences: Leon Trotsky and the Fate of Marxism in the USSR'' (1996) Mehring Books
* ''1937: Stalin's Year of Terror'' (1998) Mehring Books
* ''Was there an alternative to Stalinism in the USSR?: Two essays ''(1995) Labor Publications
* ''Stalin's Terror of 1937-1938: Political Genocide in the USSR'' (2009) Mehring Books (pbk.) (cloth)
''Was There An Alternative?'' Series
#Роговин В. З. «Троцкизм»: взгляд через годы. — М.: Терра, 1992. — Т. 1. — 399 с.
#* Was There An Alternative? / ''Byla li alternativa?: Trotskizm, vzgliad cherez gody ''(1992)
#* ''Was There an Alternative? - Trotskyism: A Look Through the Years'' (2003) Mehring Books
#Роговин В. З. Власть и оппозиции. — М.: Товарищество «Журнал „Театр“», 1993. — Т. 2. — 398 с.
#*Power and Oppositions / ''Vlast i oppozitsii ''(1993)
#Роговин В. З. Сталинский неонэп. — М., 1994. — Т. 3. — 382 с.
#*Stalin's Neo- NEP / ''Stalinskii neonep ''(1994)
#Роговин В. З. 1937. — М., 1996. — Т. 4. — 479 с.
#*''1937''(1996)
#Роговин В. З. Партия расстрелянных. — М., 1997. — Т. 5. — 526 с.
#*The Party of the Executed / '' Partiia rasstreliannykh''(1997)
#Роговин В. З. Мировая революция и мировая война. — М., 1998. — Т. 6. — 415 с.
#*World War and World Revolution / ''Mirovaia revoliutsiia i mirovaia voina'' (1998)
#Роговин В. З. Конец означает начало. / "The End Means the Beginning" — М.: Антидор, 2002. — Т. 7. — 480 с."Конец означает начало — 7-й том исследования Вадима Роговина"
a presentation of Rogovin's Volume 7 (At the time of his death, Rogovin was only drafting chapters of Volume 7.
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References
External links
Lectures and Articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogovin, Vadim
1937 births
1998 deaths
Writers from Moscow
Russian Jews
Russian Trotskyists
Russian Marxist historians
Historians of Russia
20th-century Russian historians
Russian sociologists