Gramsci in Russia. Translating a Revolution

Craig Brandist

Antonio Gramsci’s time in revolutionary Russia is one of the most neglected and misunderstood, but pivotal, periods of his life. The current volume provides new research on this formative period, detailing Gramsci’s intense engagement with early Soviet leaders and explaining the importance of this for understanding his subsequent work. The book provides translations of archival material covering Gramsci’s visits to Russia, some of which is published for the first time. It also includes important contextual materials, which are crucial in understanding the development of the concepts he employs in the famous Prison Notebooks.

Biographical Note

Craig Brandist is Professor of Cultural Theory and Intellectual History at the University of Sheffield. He has published numerous works on Marxism and early Soviet thought, including The Dimensions of Hegemony: Language, Culture and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (Brill, 2015)

Readership

This book is for specialists, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students, libraries and academic institutions dealing with modern history, cultural, social and political theory.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Organisations
Contributors

Introduction
Craig Brandist and Natalia Terekhova

A Note on Translation and Transliteration

Timeline
compiled by Craig Brandist and Peter D. Thomas

Part 1 New Research

1 Political, Economic and Cultural Aspects of the Struggle for Hegemony: Gramsci and Russian Marxism Revisited
Craig Brandist

2 Russian Pages of the Biography of Antonio Gramsci (1922–6) according to Documents in the Comintern Archive
Irina Vladimirovna Grigor’eva

3 Gramsci and His Circle in Letters to Moscow Bolsheviks and the Comintern 1920–1925
Natalia Terekhova

Part 2 Primary Sources

1 Gramsci before Russia: From Vladimir Degot’s Memoires (1923)

2 Geller’s Letters from Rome (December 1920)

3 Amadeo Bordiga’s Letter from Rome (16 May 1921)

4 The Proletcult Institute (January 1922)

5 Letter from Zinoviev to Bordiga (19 June 1922)

6 Telegram from Zinoviev and Gramsci to Bordiga (23 June 1922)

7 Gramsci’s Letter to Radek (22 July 1922)

8 Gramsci’s Letter to Zinoviev (28 August 1922)

9 Letter to the Executive of the PCI (3 September 1922)

10 Letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Italy (20 September 1922)

11 Articles in Rabochii Krai (16 and 18 October 1922)

12 Article in Pravda, ‘the Growth of Communism: Italy’ (7 November 1922)

13 Minutes of Meeting of Italian Delegation at the Hotel Lux (8 November 1922)

14 Minutes of Meeting of the Italian Delegation at the Hotel Lux (9 November 1922)

15 Article in Pravda, ‘Delegates of the Comintern on the 7 November Holiday’ (11 November 1922)

16 Minutes of Meeting of the Entire Italian Delegation at the Hotel Lux (13 November 1922)

17 Minutes of Meeting of the Entire Italian Delegation (18 November 1922)

18 Minutes of Meeting of the Italian Delegation (18 November 1922)

19 Minutes of Meeting of the Majority of the Italian Delegation (24 November 1922)

20 Minutes of Meetings of the Entire Italian Delegation (25 November 1922)

21 Minutes of Meeting of the Majority of the Italian Delegation (30 November and 1 December 1922)

22 Proceedings of the Majority of the Italian Delegation in the Negotiations with the Italian Commission (3 December 1922)

23 Minutes of Meeting of the Majority of the Italian Delegation (4 December 1922)

24 Minutes of General Meeting of the Executives of the Communist International and the Profintern to Discuss International Funds for the Struggle against Fascism (3 January 1923)

25 Meeting of ECCI (6 January 1923)

26 Letter to the Communist Party of Austria (13 January 1923)

27 Minutes of the Meeting of the Praesidium of the Communist International (17 January 1923)

28 Letter to the Comrades of the Circle A. Costa, Vienna (8 February 1923)

29 Minutes of the Meeting of the Praesidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (20 February 1923)

30 Minutes of Discussion of the Italian Question in the Meeting of the Praesidium (20 February 1923)

31 From the Minutes of Meetings of the Illegal Commission (26, 27 February; 20 March 1923)

32 Article in Pravda, ‘From the Italian Workers’ (1 May 1923)

33 Minutes of the Italian Commission (19 June 1923)

34 Angelo Tasca’s Letter to the Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (5 December 1923)

35 Angelo Tasca’s Letter to the Executive Committee of the Comintern (8 December 1923)

36 Umberto Terracini’s Letter to the Politburo of the RKP(b) (8 January 1924)

37 Gramsci’s Letter to the Secretariat of the Comintern (15 July 1924)

38 Jules Humbert-Droz’s Letter from Rome about the Aventine (6 October 1924)

39 Togliatti’s Letter to the Comintern (26 December 1924)

40 Meeting of the Yugoslavian Commission (30 March 1925)

41 Luigi Repossi’s Letter to Zinoviev (19 June 1925)

Part 3 Contextual Materials

1 Hegemony and the Revolutionary Movement
1 Proletarian Hegemony and the Fearfulness of the Bourgeoisie (Lev Borisovich Kamenev, 1906, Republished 1922)
2 Extracts from History of the Bolshevik Party From the Beginnings to February 1917 (Grigorii Zinoviev, 1923)

2 Proletarian Culture and Policy towards Art
1 The Proletariat and Questions of Artistic Policy (Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, 1925)
2 Decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) on the Policy of the Party in the Sphere of Artistic Literature, Pravda 1 July 1925

3 The Smychka and NEP
1 From The New Course (Trotsky, 1923)
2 Toward a Critique of the Economic Platform of the Opposition (the Lessons of October 1923) (Nikolai I. Bukharin, 1925)
3 A New Revelation concerning the Soviet Economy or How to Destroy the Worker – Peasant Bloc (on the Question of the Economic Basis of Trotskyism) (Nikolai I. Bukharin, 1925)
4 From ‘Once More about Socialist Accumulation: A Reply to Comrade Bukharin’ (Evgenii Preobrazhenskii, 1926)

Glossary of Names
Archival Sources
References
Index