The Ideas of Nikolai Bukharin

Nikolai Bukharin was a pioneer and founder member of Soviet Communism. An Old Bolshevik and a close comrade of Lenin, he was shot by Stalin, but eventually reinstated, posthumously, under Gorbachev. This collection of essays by an international range of scholars is a systematic study of his ideas. The book analyzes three major areas of his thought: economics and the peasantry, politics and international relations, and culture and science, and examines his influence both on his contempories and on subsequent thinkers. Anthony Kemp-Welch’s extensive introduction establishes the context for this discussion, and he also provides a historical evaluation of Bukharin’s role in relation to the emergence of Stalinism, the phenomenon that finally removed him from the political stage. Bukharin’s intellectual legacy is only now beginning to be appreciated fully and this book seeks to serve as a major source for anyone wanting a more thorough analysis of his intellectual contribution.