New Episode of Reimagining Soviet Georgia!
#en #podcast #history
Episode 55: Soviet History, the Left and the Crisis of Liberalism with Alex Marshall

Using his works such as "The Caucasus under Soviet Rule" (2010) and the edited volume "Global Impacts of Russia's Great War and Revolution: The Arc of Revolution, 1917-24" (2019) as jumping off points, we discuss everything from how Soviet history is written and persistent historiographic debates, to why the Soviet past is still relevant to the left and how current political shifts influence how questions about the Soviet Union are asked and why. Framing the whole discussion is liberalism's terminal crisis, and what this means for history writing about the Soviet Union, the historical and political imagination of the left and more.

Alex Marshall is a senior lecturer of History at the University of Glasgow. His books include "The Caucasus Under Soviet Rule" (2010) and the edited volume "Global Impacts of Russia's Great War and Revolution: The Arc of Revolution, 1917-24" (2019). He is currently working on a manuscript about Soviet Second Secretary during the Cold War, Mikhail Suslov.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5H78FsSpdyhj1fA4x7t6Uu?si=7cc1ce18666b4e85

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reimagining-soviet-georgia/id1555761205?i=1000713420154

Ідеї інтернаціоналізму, солідарності й дружби народів сьогодні звучать як заяложені радянські формули. Але в історії XX століття були численні випадки, коли ці принципи справді втілювалися в реальність.

У 1923 році понад сто ремісників, робітників та інженерів із Чехословаччини добровільно об’єдналися в кооператив «Інтергельпо» та разом із киргизами, узбеками, дунганами, росіянами й українцями будували соціалістичне інтернаціоналістське місто на території Киргизстану.

Коли 1925 року перша група кооператорів прибула до Пішпека (нині — Бішкек), їх зустрів сухий, майже пустельний ландшафт. У місті не було електрики, водогону, а залізничною станцією слугувала дерев’яна платформа серед степу.

Проте вже за кілька років зусиллями інтергельпців тут зʼявилися електростанція, меблеві й текстильні фабрики, пивоварня, школа й садок, шкіряний завод і житловий квартал. А для повсякденного спілкування в багатонаціональному середовищі вони навіть розробили власну імпровізовану мову — спонтанне есперанто.

Цей експеримент не пережив сталінський терор і був остаточно згорнутий під час Другої світової. Сьогодні Інтергельпо — занедбаний район неподалік центру Бішкека, історію якого майже не памʼятають навіть його мешканці.

Проте спадок цього місця навряд чи можна означувати самими руїнами. Адже втілення кооперативу в життя — це приклад, що повертає політичну уяву.

👉 Більше про Інтергельпо читайте у дослідженні німецького історика Давіда Лойпольда, заснованому на архівних документах і польовій роботі в Киргизстані.

#ru #article #history

Идеи интернационализма, солидарности и дружбы народов сегодня звучат как избитые советские формулы. Но в истории XX века были многочисленные случаи, когда эти принципы действительно воплощались в реальность.

В 1923 году более ста ремесленников, рабочих и инженеров из Чехословакии добровольно объединились в кооператив «Интергельпо» и вместе с кыргызами, узбеками, дунганами, русскими и украинцами строили социалистический интернационалистский город на территории Кыргызстана.

Когда в 1925 году первая группа кооператоров прибыла в Пишпек (ныне - Бишкек), их встретил сухой, почти пустынный ландшафт. В городе не было электричества, водопровода, а железнодорожной станцией служила деревянная платформа среди степи.

Однако уже через несколько лет усилиями интергельпцев здесь появились электростанция, мебельные и текстильные фабрики, пивоварня, школа и садик, кожевенный завод и жилой квартал. А для повседневного общения в многонациональной среде они даже разработали собственный импровизированный язык - спонтанное эсперанто.

Этот эксперимент не пережил сталинский террор и был окончательно свернут во время Второй мировой. Сегодня Интергельпо - заброшенный район недалеко от центра Бишкека, историю которого почти не помнят даже его жители.

Однако наследие этого места вряд ли можно обозначать одними руинами. Ведь воплощение кооператива в жизнь - это пример, возвращающий политическое воображение.

👉 Больше об Интергельпо читайте в исследовании немецкого историка Давида Лойпольда

‼️В день столетия теоретика антиколониализма и антирасизма Франца Фанона предлагаем подборку его книг на разных языках.

Франц Фанон прожил короткую жизнь: он умер от лейкемии 6 декабря 1961 года в возрасте 36 лет недалеко от Вашингтона, округ Колумбия. Он не дожил до обретения Алжиром независимости, которой посвятил последние годы своей жизни.

Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi was a towering figure in the field of Indian history-writing. His works, informed by a creative application of Marxist ideas, brought about a paradigm shift in the scholarly understanding of ancient India.
#en #article #history

Read: https://jacobin.com/2025/07/kosambi-india-marxism-historians-colonialism

Announcement from Historical Materialism journal

Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital is a new journal launched by Historical Materialism

First CfP: Abstracts due 31st of October 2025

Full details of the call and new journal here: workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org

The journal's starting point is a shared understanding that Marxism can provide important conceptual tools for understanding - and intervening in - the relation between workers and capital. This open-access journal aims to cultivate rigorous, critical, and strategic inquiry into labour and work, broadly defined, without allegiance to any one Marxist tradition or variant. Marx demanded the ‘merciless criticism of everything that exists.’ For us, that must also include Marxism itself. In this light, the journal does not begin from fixed theoretical positions, but insists that work and workers must be the point of departure.

As editors of this new journal, we believe that there is a growing need for a journal that focuses on workers. There has been a proliferation of new research on work, both within and beyond the university. Political journals like Notes from Below and Long-Haul have published contemporary inquiries and workers' writing. At the same time, the workplace has reemerged globally as a crucial site for building power in anti-authoritarian, ecological, anti-imperialist, and anticapitalist struggles.

While many journals include work or workers within their scope, they are often neither radical nor Marxist in their approach. This means that the question of work is not understood within a framework that allows for critical reflection, integration into a wider understanding of capitalism, or connection to strategic concerns. Centering the question of work within a broader commitment to Marxist critique, materialist analysis, and political strategy is, therefore, what makes this journal unique.

While we start with open questions, our research does not begin from a blank page. For the first issue, we are particularly interested in reflections on what we’ve learned - and failed to learn - over the past years and decades in our research into work, class composition, and struggle: What concepts and theories have been useful? What frameworks or assumptions need rethinking? What new developments - economic, technological, ecological, political - challenge our conceptions? What questions should we think seriously about for future inquiries?

We want to collectively ask what it means to focus on workers in our analysis of capitalism. This is both about what new empirical research can teach us about the current conjuncture, but also considering the intellectual and political implications of such an undertaking. There have been huge transformations for industrial, service, unpaid and rural workers, particularly with contemporary changes relating to digital technology and broader economic restructuring. These developments have opened up new modalities of class struggle while exposing the limits of certain organisational and strategic orthodoxies. The central aim of Workers & Capital is to reorient international working-class struggle around these new realities.

Our "ruthless criticism" needs, of course, to be extended beyond Marxism and the research communities that we are part of. Across academic disciplines, research on work increasingly relies on taken-for-granted concepts, frameworks, and methodologies - many of which are indifferent or even hostile to the project of building workers’ power or fostering meaningful political intervention. We welcome contributions that aim to demystify and critically interrogate these mainstream discourses, while developing grounded, radical alternatives of our own.

To address these questions, we encourage contributions that develop critical theories to make sense of data and build new arguments about the changing organisation of work. Our aim is to develop a critical conversation that draws from analyses of contemporary workplaces, workforces, sectors, and production more broadly.

This is not about answering all of the questions of work and strategy, but developing a sober, critical and materialist assessment of the difficult realities of the conjuncture.

In doing so, we aim to develop a crucial aspect of the broader Historical Materialism project: creating a space where Marxist analysis can engage with organisers and scholars alike. We want to bridge the gap between Marxists inside and outside the university, encouraging dialogue across disciplines, contexts, and roles - from trade unionists and workplace militants to researchers and theorists. The journal is intended as one part of this project, alongside the stream at the annual Historical Materialism London Conference and the expanding international network of conferences.

This first call is intended to be broad and open. We invite submissions on the following, non-exhaustive, topics:

* The changing nature of work across industries and occupations.
* Changing trends in capítal mobility and types of capital
* The persistence and limits of inherited or mainstream theoretical categories and organisational practices
* Strategic dilemmas in contemporary labour organising
* The relationship between media, data, and labour discipline in digital capitalism
* Peripheral and precarious labour in the Global South and North
* Old and new migration patterns in the global division of labour and their impact on the organisation of work and workers
* Workers’ responses to the climate crisis, authoritarian neoliberalism, precarious living and technological displacement
* The continuities-discontinuities between “traditional” Taylorism and contemporary algorithmic management, with a focus on the question of whether capital is still organising labour

The deadline for submitting abstracts of 300 words max is the 31st of October 2025. Please submit abstracts through the form on the website.

If the abstract is accepted, the deadline for submitting the first draft is the 3rd of April 2026, with the aim of publishing the first issue of the journal later in 2026.

We follow a similar format to the main Historical Materialism journal for submissions. The word limit for articles is between 8,000 and 12,000 words, including references. They are submitted for anonymous peer review. We invite peer reviewers and then discuss each piece as the editorial board, making the decision based on both the reviews and our collective discussion. Our aim is to develop a rigorous and critical process of reviewing, while remaining both comradely and constructive. The publication is open-access and freely available to read online in multiple formats.

We particularly invite new writers and those outside the university. If you are interested in contributing but would like to discuss any part of the process, please contact us.

More details here: workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org

Petro Poroshenko in an alternate reality
#meme #history
One of the engravings from the Chile Sojuzgado portfolio

First editorial work by the “new” generation of the Mexican Taller de Gráfica Popular. During the 1960s, most of the members of the Taller had left the collective or died.

Jesús Álvarez Amaya, determined to revive the organization. After several years of training and financial difficulties, which they managed to overcome by selling an archive of 3,000 works to the government, the TGP was revived with this publication, Chile Sojuzgado.

The portfolio consists of reproductions of the works that were presented in an exhibition at the workshop itself on September 11, 1974. It was created to denounce the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and “to remember Salvador Allende, the constitutional president of Chile, assassinated by the military junta that bloodied the country, crushing the sister nation and brutally crushing all legal order and democratic treatment,” according to Amaya himself.

Glory to Ukraine! (a Soviet version from 1967, created by Hanna Valiuha)

Слава Україні! (по-радянськи - 1967)