The Mariátegui Project

Events and Ideas of the Russian Revolution

Unfolding alongside the crisis of liberal democracy — indeed, exacerbating it by offering the global proletariat an alternative to the bankrupt ideas of bourgeois democracy — was the Russian Revolution and the early days of Soviet state construction. Mariátegui, a keen student of art, current events, and cultural figures, was bound to take a keen interest in the Russian Revolution and its protagonists.

In this section of The Contemporary Scene, Mariátegui profiles some of the key figures of the revolution, including Trotsky and Zinoviev, and analyzes some of the global reaction to the establishment of the world’s first workers’ state.