Erik Van Ree
Biographic Data
| ID | 979959 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erik Van Ree |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erik |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Ree |
| SIGNATURE | VAN REE E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9419-1594 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Collective Self-Rule and Comprehensive Participation
This article critically explores council democracy as a utopian state order, on the basis of anarchist and Marxist works from western Europe and the United States, post-World War 2. As a system of national government, council democracy cannot possibly deliver on its utopian promises. Collective self-rule cannot put an end to domination/hierarchy/rule but will engender another variety of ‘democratic hierarchy’. Comprehensive citizen participation …
The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ Revisited
This article revisits the idea of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ in the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels at the hand of the concept of ‘sovereignty’. Proletarian dictatorship was conceptualized, first, in terms of popular sovereignty and of a democracy striking down bourgeois armed rebellions; and, second, in terms of a narrow, class-based sovereignty: a proletarian state placing the bourgeois class as such under a violent, oppressi…
"Standing against a State Requires the State"
This article explores “revolutionary etatization,” defined as the process of revolutionary organizations evolving into embryonic proto-states even before they have seized power. The article focuses on the period between the end of World War I and the present day. While the situation of inescapable violent competition (Tilly) represents the Darwinian driver of the process, we need the ideologicaland strategic dimensions to account for the variety …
The Rise of the Party in Arms
This article discusses the origin and nature of a novel type of revolutionary organization that emerged in the years between 1890 and 1914: the “party in arms.” A party in arms can be defined as a political party that possesses its own military branch. During this time parties in arms sprang up in eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America. This article shows how the emergence of the party in arms was part of a wider process of…
The Day the Dragon Licks Its Flank, You’ll Find Us at Your Side’
This article argues that people locked in extreme conditions involving life-and-death risks on a long-term basis, often undergo a process of ‘self-heroization’. Self-heroization includes the adoption of a heroic ethos and of an ‘epic consciousness’, i.e. people come to experience themselves as heroes living out an epic they themselves ‘write’ through their actions. The process will be explored at the hand of modern armed-struggle revolutionaries.…
Productive forces, the passions and natural philosophy
This article explores the emergence of Karl Marx’s concept of history over the period 1841 to 1846. Whereas in Marx’s view the productive forces shaped human history, it is argued in this article that Marx believed the productive forces in their turn were fuelled by psychological drives; in effect, Marx made the passions the deepest motive force of history. ‘Historical materialism’ as it crystallized in those early years was a theory of materiali…
Marx and Engels’s theory of history
This article argues that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s theory of history contained racist components. In Marx and Engels’s understanding, racial disparities emerged under the influence of shared natural and social conditions hardening into heredity and of the mixing of blood. They racialized skin-colour groups, ethnicities, nations and social classes, while endowing them with innate superior and inferior character traits. They regarded race as…
Stalinist Ritual and Belief System
This article offers a critical assessment of the Political Religion Theory on the basis of a comparative analysis of the Orthodox and Stalinist belief systems and ritual. The theory works under the assumption that sacralisation of secular objects endows these objects with a transcendental, divine aura. This article argues that the theory fails properly to distinguish between the sacred on one hand and the transcendental and divine on the other. H…
L enin (1870–1924), S talin (1878–1953), and Nationalism
Lenin and Stalin did not accept the classical nationalist view of the nation‐state as the most desirable form of state, but they recognized the nation as a significant political, economic, and cultural reality. The Soviet Union was organized as a federation of nations. Though the individual republics received some real power, the Moscow center monopolized the most important decisions. Both men acknowledged the right of Soviet nations to their own…
Boundaries of Utopia – Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin
The idea that socialism could be established in a single country was adopted as an official doctrine by the Soviet Union in 1925, Stalin and Bukharin being the main formulators of the policy. Before this there had been much debate as to whether the only way to secure socialism would be as a result of socialist revolution on a much broader scale, across all Europe or wider still. This book traces the development of ideas about communist utopia fro…
Boundaries of Utopia - Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin
Practicing Stalinism
Arch Getty's new book makes a powerful contribution to the neo-traditionalist interpretation of Soviet history. The book focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, but has much to say about the nature of Russ
Georgii Plekhanov and the Communist Manifesto
This article discusses the question of Georgii Plekhanov's contributions to Marxist revolutionary strategy. It argues that the strategy Plekhanov proposed in Our Differences (1885) was very different from the one he had earlier proposed in Socialism and Political Struggle (1883). Plekhanov pretended to model his Russian policies on the Communist Manifesto's policies for Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. However, in proposing that Russia's de…
The Stalin Cult
Jan Plamper, The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power . New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. xx + 310; illustrations; notes; index. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 9-780-300169-522 Ja
German Marxism and the Decline of the Permanent Revolution, 1870–1909
This article discusses the development of German Social Democratic Party strategy in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, as a result of the works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky. It ties the evolution of Marxist orthodoxy to the emergence of parliamentary democracy in different European societies. In particular, it discusses the way parliamentary conditions impacted on how the proletarian revol…
Problems of Communism
Whereas Soviet communism is receding further and further into the past, scholarly interest in it is far from diminishing. Writing the history of the Soviet Union is a flourishing pursuit. Since the opening of many of the archives in the early 1990s, the subject can now, for the first time, be studied in a comparatively ''normal'' way. Better access to Russia and to other successor states also has widened the scope for oral history. In the past, t…
German Marxism and the decline of the permanent revolution, 1870–1909
This article discusses the development of German Social Democratic Party strategy in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, as a result of the works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky.It ties the evolution of Marxist orthodoxy to the emergence of parliamentary democracy in different European societies.In particular, it discusses the way parliamentary conditions impacted on how the proletarian revolut…
Lenin's Conception of Socialism in One Country, 1915–17
This article discusses Lenin’s conception of ‘socialism in one country’ during the years 1915 to 1917, in the context of the militarisation of his strategic thinking. Contrary to the standard view, Lenin was not merely referring to socialist revolution in one country, but also to the possibility of constructing a socialist economy in a single country; and, in this regard, it can be said that during the 1920s Stalin interpreted Lenin’s views more …
Socialism in one country’ before Stalin
This article discusses the prehistory of the Stalinist concept of ‘socialism in one country’ in the German social democratic movement, from 1875 through to the first decade of the twentieth century. The internationalist Marxist discourse on the geography of socialism did not remain unchallenged in the party. German social-democrats hoped for their country to become the first to introduce the supposedly very efficient socialist mode of production.…
Reluctant terrorists? Transcaucasian social-cemocracy, 1901 – 1909
This article discusses the development of Transcaucasian social-democratic terrorism from 1901 to 1909. For two reasons the ‘psychohistorical’ model emphasising the subjective and irrational aspects of terrorism has only limited value for the Transcaucasian case. First, the significance of the contextual factor is powerfully underscored by the phenomenon of workers' ‘economic terrorism’. It was not uncommon even, for workers to blackmail reluctan…
The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin
This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the political thought of Joseph Stalin. Making full use of the documentation that has recently become available, including Stalin's private library with his handwritten margin notes, the book provides many insights on Stalin, and also on western and Russian Marxist intellectual traditions. Overall, the book argues that Stalin's political thought is not primarily indebted to the Russian autocratic tra…
Drugs, the democratic civilising process and the consumer society
The political thought of Joseph Stalin
Lenin's last struggle’ revisited
This article argues that ‘Lenin's last struggle’ against Stalin did not aim at the preservation of such democratic elements as remained in Soviet Russia, even in relative terms, but at the opposite goal of strengthening political centralism. In the last months of his active life the leader was driven by a new leftist radicalism and by hopes of acceleration of the construction of socialism. Concretely, his proposals aimed at strengthening state co…
Marxism as permanent revolution
This article argues that the 'permanent revolution' represented the dominant element in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' political discourse, and that it tended to overrule considerations encapsulated in 'historical materialism'. In Marx and Engels's understanding, permanent revolution did not represent a historical shortcut under exceptional circumstances, but the course revolutions in the modern era would normally take. Marx and Engels traced ba…
The concept of 'National Bolshevism
The concept of 'National Bolshevism' is mainly used in studies of twentieth-century German and Russian political radicalism. It has been subject to considerable inflation. The present article presents a case for a restrictive definition. National Bolshevism can most properly be defined as that radical tendency which combines a commitment to class struggle and total nationalization of the means of production with extreme state chauvinism. Definiti…
Marx and Engels’s theory of history
This article argues that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s theory of history contained racist components. In Marx and Engels’s understanding, racial disparities emerged under the influence of shared natural and social conditions hardening into heredity and of the mixing of blood. They racialized skin-colour groups, ethnicities, nations and social classes, while endowing them with innate superior and inferior character traits. They regarded race as…
Drugs, the democratic civilising process and the consumer society
Socialism in One Country
Practicing Stalinism
Arch Getty's new book makes a powerful contribution to the neo-traditionalist interpretation of Soviet history. The book focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, but has much to say about the nature of Russ
Lenin's Conception of Socialism in One Country, 1915–17
This article discusses Lenin’s conception of ‘socialism in one country’ during the years 1915 to 1917, in the context of the militarisation of his strategic thinking. Contrary to the standard view, Lenin was not merely referring to socialist revolution in one country, but also to the possibility of constructing a socialist economy in a single country; and, in this regard, it can be said that during the 1920s Stalin interpreted Lenin’s views more …
Socialism in one country’ before Stalin
This article discusses the prehistory of the Stalinist concept of ‘socialism in one country’ in the German social democratic movement, from 1875 through to the first decade of the twentieth century. The internationalist Marxist discourse on the geography of socialism did not remain unchallenged in the party. German social-democrats hoped for their country to become the first to introduce the supposedly very efficient socialist mode of production.…
Stalin and the national question
(1994). Stalin and the national question. Revolutionary Russia: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 214-238
Reluctant terrorists? Transcaucasian social-cemocracy, 1901 – 1909
This article discusses the development of Transcaucasian social-democratic terrorism from 1901 to 1909. For two reasons the ‘psychohistorical’ model emphasising the subjective and irrational aspects of terrorism has only limited value for the Transcaucasian case. First, the significance of the contextual factor is powerfully underscored by the phenomenon of workers' ‘economic terrorism’. It was not uncommon even, for workers to blackmail reluctan…
Socialism in One Zone
Stalinist Ritual and Belief System
This article offers a critical assessment of the Political Religion Theory on the basis of a comparative analysis of the Orthodox and Stalinist belief systems and ritual. The theory works under the assumption that sacralisation of secular objects endows these objects with a transcendental, divine aura. This article argues that the theory fails properly to distinguish between the sacred on one hand and the transcendental and divine on the other. H…
Georgii Plekhanov and the Communist Manifesto
This article discusses the question of Georgii Plekhanov's contributions to Marxist revolutionary strategy. It argues that the strategy Plekhanov proposed in Our Differences (1885) was very different from the one he had earlier proposed in Socialism and Political Struggle (1883). Plekhanov pretended to model his Russian policies on the Communist Manifesto's policies for Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. However, in proposing that Russia's de…
The Stalin Cult
Jan Plamper, The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power . New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. xx + 310; illustrations; notes; index. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 9-780-300169-522 Ja
Problems of Communism
Whereas Soviet communism is receding further and further into the past, scholarly interest in it is far from diminishing. Writing the history of the Soviet Union is a flourishing pursuit. Since the opening of many of the archives in the early 1990s, the subject can now, for the first time, be studied in a comparatively ''normal'' way. Better access to Russia and to other successor states also has widened the scope for oral history. In the past, t…
Stalin's bolshevism
This article criticises the thesis that Stalin believed that, as Russia needed an extended period of capitalist development, only a regime dominated by the liberal bourgeoisie was a feasible revolutionary perspective, which, again, turned him into a critical follower of the Provisional Government. In fact, only the socialist perspective contained in Lenin's April policies was new. The hope that the democratic republic would take on a Soviet form,…
Stalin as a Marxist Philosopher
Stalin's Organic Theory of the Party
Was the older Mao still a Maoist
1984). Was the older Mao still a Maoist? Journal of Contemporary Asia: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 82-93
Socialism in One Zone
Stalin's Organic Theory of the Party
Stalin and the national question
(1994). Stalin and the national question. Revolutionary Russia: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 214-238
The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Politburo
Stalin's Bolshevism
This article discusses Stalin's Bolshevism during his Tiflis and Baku periods in the first decade of the century. It focuses on his position in the inner-faction debate between Lenin and Bogdanov. It holds that Dzhugashvili's tactical and organizational views in the years from 1907 to 1909 moved from sympathetic to Bogdanov to a position near Lenin, though remaining somewhat to the left of the latter. Dzhugashvili never belonged to the leftist te…
Stalin and Marxism
Socialism in One Country
Drugs as a human right
Stalin's bolshevism
This article criticises the thesis that Stalin believed that, as Russia needed an extended period of capitalist development, only a regime dominated by the liberal bourgeoisie was a feasible revolutionary perspective, which, again, turned him into a critical follower of the Provisional Government. In fact, only the socialist perspective contained in Lenin's April policies was new. The hope that the democratic republic would take on a Soviet form,…
Stalin as a Marxist Philosopher
Lenin's last struggle’ revisited
This article argues that ‘Lenin's last struggle’ against Stalin did not aim at the preservation of such democratic elements as remained in Soviet Russia, even in relative terms, but at the opposite goal of strengthening political centralism. In the last months of his active life the leader was driven by a new leftist radicalism and by hopes of acceleration of the construction of socialism. Concretely, his proposals aimed at strengthening state co…
The concept of 'National Bolshevism
The concept of 'National Bolshevism' is mainly used in studies of twentieth-century German and Russian political radicalism. It has been subject to considerable inflation. The present article presents a case for a restrictive definition. National Bolshevism can most properly be defined as that radical tendency which combines a commitment to class struggle and total nationalization of the means of production with extreme state chauvinism. Definiti…
Drugs, the democratic civilising process and the consumer society
The political thought of Joseph Stalin
The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin
This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the political thought of Joseph Stalin. Making full use of the documentation that has recently become available, including Stalin's private library with his handwritten margin notes, the book provides many insights on Stalin, and also on western and Russian Marxist intellectual traditions. Overall, the book argues that Stalin's political thought is not primarily indebted to the Russian autocratic tra…
Reluctant terrorists? Transcaucasian social-cemocracy, 1901 – 1909
This article discusses the development of Transcaucasian social-democratic terrorism from 1901 to 1909. For two reasons the ‘psychohistorical’ model emphasising the subjective and irrational aspects of terrorism has only limited value for the Transcaucasian case. First, the significance of the contextual factor is powerfully underscored by the phenomenon of workers' ‘economic terrorism’. It was not uncommon even, for workers to blackmail reluctan…
Lenin's Conception of Socialism in One Country, 1915–17
This article discusses Lenin’s conception of ‘socialism in one country’ during the years 1915 to 1917, in the context of the militarisation of his strategic thinking. Contrary to the standard view, Lenin was not merely referring to socialist revolution in one country, but also to the possibility of constructing a socialist economy in a single country; and, in this regard, it can be said that during the 1920s Stalin interpreted Lenin’s views more …
Socialism in one country’ before Stalin
This article discusses the prehistory of the Stalinist concept of ‘socialism in one country’ in the German social democratic movement, from 1875 through to the first decade of the twentieth century. The internationalist Marxist discourse on the geography of socialism did not remain unchallenged in the party. German social-democrats hoped for their country to become the first to introduce the supposedly very efficient socialist mode of production.…
German Marxism and the decline of the permanent revolution, 1870–1909
This article discusses the development of German Social Democratic Party strategy in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, as a result of the works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky.It ties the evolution of Marxist orthodoxy to the emergence of parliamentary democracy in different European societies.In particular, it discusses the way parliamentary conditions impacted on how the proletarian revolut…
The Stalin Cult
Jan Plamper, The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power . New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. xx + 310; illustrations; notes; index. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 9-780-300169-522 Ja
German Marxism and the Decline of the Permanent Revolution, 1870–1909
This article discusses the development of German Social Democratic Party strategy in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, as a result of the works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky. It ties the evolution of Marxist orthodoxy to the emergence of parliamentary democracy in different European societies. In particular, it discusses the way parliamentary conditions impacted on how the proletarian revol…
Problems of Communism
Whereas Soviet communism is receding further and further into the past, scholarly interest in it is far from diminishing. Writing the history of the Soviet Union is a flourishing pursuit. Since the opening of many of the archives in the early 1990s, the subject can now, for the first time, be studied in a comparatively ''normal'' way. Better access to Russia and to other successor states also has widened the scope for oral history. In the past, t…
Georgii Plekhanov and the Communist Manifesto
This article discusses the question of Georgii Plekhanov's contributions to Marxist revolutionary strategy. It argues that the strategy Plekhanov proposed in Our Differences (1885) was very different from the one he had earlier proposed in Socialism and Political Struggle (1883). Plekhanov pretended to model his Russian policies on the Communist Manifesto's policies for Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. However, in proposing that Russia's de…
Practicing Stalinism
Arch Getty's new book makes a powerful contribution to the neo-traditionalist interpretation of Soviet history. The book focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, but has much to say about the nature of Russ
Political science (31 works) · Law (24 works) · Politics (23 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Law (21 works) · History (14 works) · History (13 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (13 works) · Economic history (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works)