Review of all books by historian Arch Getty

I review all the books by historian J. Arch Getty. They are the following (with timestamps):
Origins of the Great Purges 03:29
Stalinist Terror 15:47
The Road to Terror 20:30
Yezhov: The Rise of Stalin's Iron Fist 27:50
Practicing Stalinism 38:10

[Getty also has a book called "The Central Party Archive: A Research Guide" which I did not review because it seems only like a manual for researchers]

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[Heundeullim]

I love your channel and I am eternally thankful for all the work you have put into all of these videos. You are dedicated.

[sinthoras]

Well, once we have the resources again, proletarian academies of sciences will have to be founded again to research everything properly and from a proletarian standpoint

[contingenceBoston]

Damn dude, I commend you for going through five entire anti-communist texts and having genuinely insightful shit to say about them. I don't have the stomach for that, haha

[Ash-sosr]

Finbol has to be one of the best read Marxists online that's why I enjoy your videos, this channel and socialism for all I think because of that very fact of actually reading all he material they get their hands on present the best content.

[Darwinator]

I see "Practising Stalinism" by Arch Getty in a way, that the bureaucratic cilques, who behaved like feudal lords, is more of the marxist concept of the birthmarks of the old societies. Burceaucracy was enomormous in tsarist Russia and you can't wish it awy, just because you had an revolution. The intersting part in this book is how Getty documents this bureaucarcy and corruption, especially in the OGPU/NKVD (and the notion that the creation of the NKVD was a move to eliminate the powers of the Secret Police) and the fact that Stalin is the only one in Soviet & Russian history who destroyed these bureacratic cliques (which Trots don't like^^). Of course Getty himself doesn't get any close to this marxist interpretation and babbles about boyars and zars ...

[Octoberfurst]

I applaud you for reading those books to informing us of their content. I had heard of Getty but I didn't know what type of books he wrote on Stalin.

[beepboop]

Been waiting for a response like this, I’ve breezed through all his books except the one tailored for Yezhov.

“Origins” def made me realize how corrupt and excessive local provincial officials/local party orgs could be, and how there was significant lack of control from Moscow. For a thesis based on an unorganized Smolensk party archive it’s crazy how the work has kinda held up post Soviet archives opening. Kinda wish I knew there was an online pdf before throwing money on the book but oh well lol.

You’re certainly right about Stalinist terror being very dense. I wish you emphasized the more (if few) positive details about the movement in “Stalinist terror” and his works in general. Such as exposure of Secretary Kovalev’s corruption/excess in the Belyi district.

Quite shocking to see the Belyi officials falsifying production records to send a worker delegate, ironically, to a _Stakhanovite_ livestock tenders conference _in Moscow_ of all places…an event Stalin attended, lmao talk about vindicating the revisionist school (Pg 174, footnote 36 I think). So too with Thurston’s condemnatory writing on Stakhonivism, even he concedes how a Plant manager Likhachev built an engaging workplace, so much so that Moscow’s Stalin automotive factory was later named after him (Pg 148?)

I believe Practicing Stalinism even had an example of local officials partaking in literal banditry, ect. ect. One could ramble on.

Edit: Pg 194 in “Practicing Stalinism”, Party leaders and head of local police in Riazan openly engaging in banditry.

[maciekGTR]

the last 10 or so minutes are pure gold, good video komrad

[villemlaas]

Could you make a video about the annexation of the Baltic states by the USSR? Here in Estonia, the narrative has always been very anti-communist. Would be nice to get a different viewpoint on the subject.

[Fnidner]

Getty's voice is now canonically that of Mr. Mackey.
Thx Finbol

[shady]

The thing about Liberal historians is that they are very specialized per say in like "being good". I would imagine the reason for this is due to the archives being released so late (and any rational human being using them primarily since that's what you would do for literally any history thing ever) and they go in thinking "Stalin and USSR bad", look into it and basically see the opposite, but they can only really go so far so to speak. They only look at certain events and certain things. Tauger is a perfect example. He probably debunked the Holodomor myth more thoroughly then anyone else on earth, however I'm sure he thinks the Great purge was when Stalin personally killed 1 million people because they all disagreed with them.

[MK-jcus]

Thanks for making a video on Getty. I am not familiar with this author. By the way, do you have anything on books that analyse Beria (Beria My Father for example) ?

One "criticism" from my part. At the beginning of the video, you mention that philosophy "answers" questions. Well, following a materialist approach, we could say that philosophy raises questions and that sciences ("hard" or "social") are the ones answering those questions.

[sherbertherman]

Which books would you recommend to someone looking to really understand Soviet History? All I have planned out for future reading are the works of Grover Furr, Edward Hallett Carr, and the books Hakim recommended.

I also found your point about universality relates a lot to the videos Cockshott has been putting out on historical materialism, how one must look at the various ensembles of past and possible histories rather than individual histories. To attribute "Russian-ness" to Bolshevism ignores the common characteristics Bolshevism shares with many other movements, these characteristics arising from concrete conditions *not* unique to Russia.

[stalindisciple]

Great work as always Comrade. It is refreshing to see a ML as well-read and well-spoken as you. With that said, would you look at Praxben's video titled "Socialism has never worked". I would like to see your response.

[leozirg-smu]

What do you think about Wendy Goldman's "Terror and Democracy in Stalin's Era"? You should make a vídeo about this one too!

[mikemurray]

That was great. I've read Origins, Yezhov and a lot of the documents in TGT. I won't bother with the others after hearing your views on them, since I pretty much thought the same as you do about the ones I've read, and about Thurston.

[mattbaur]

Thank you for another great video! But damnit, what game is that...i know I should probably know but I don't recognize it for some reason

[jyrtynkular]

Have you read works of Viktor Zemskov? How I know, he is pioneer in working with real documents about 30s, which were opened in the end of 80s.

[kobacangaco]

What are best historian about ussr your opnion?

[Peter-rhgn]

Comrade FinnishBolshevik: Please read P N’s intellectual property abolition thread here. IP abolition is an incredibly important international cause for the working class.