Bukharin’s Prison Manuscripts were written in Moscow’s Lubyanka prison during 1937-1938 while awaiting his inevitable liquidation. Like Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Bukharin’s Manuscripts too have their central emphasis on issues such as culture, ideology and philosophy in the context of building up an alternative vision of socialism, as against capitalism, fascism and the kind of socialism practiced in the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Written between February and April 1937, this thought-provoking volume deals with themes such as: the realization of the concept of total man , the problem of freedom, the problem of equality and hierarchy, the style of socialist culture, the problem of progress, diversities in capitalism and socialism, the role of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat in the cultural revolution. It is an important work for anyone interested in cultural studies, history of socialism, philosophy and ethics.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Bukharin’s Fate
Stephen F. Cohen
Translator’s Introduction
George Shriver
Foreword
Boris Frezinsky
To the Reader
Svetlana Gurvich-Bukharina
The Crisis of Capitalist Culture and Socialism: Socialism and Its Culture, Part II
On the Historical Point of View and Historical Criteria for Making Evaluations (B.D.)
The Material Base for Socialist Culture
Creating a Whole Person
The Problem of Nationalist Cultures and the Creation of an Integrated Socialist Culture (Europe and Asia)
Creating an Integrated Humanity
Diversity in Capitalist Society and Diversity in the Society of Socialism
The Problem of the Individual and Society
The Problem of Equality and Hierarchy
The Problem of Freedom
The Problem of Progress
The Style of Socialist Culture
Role of the Party and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the Cultural Revolution
Conclusion
Appendix
Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Culture (Speech in Paris on 3 April 1936, addressed to l’Association pour l’étude de la culture soviétique [the Association for the Study of Soviet Culture])