Marxism-Lewinism and the origins of Stalinism

The Gallery at Matheson Library is the venue for a seminar and display of rare materials relating to Soviet Russia. Subject librarian Melanie Thorn writes about the seminar.

This Friday 25 May, the Sir Louis Matheson Library will be hosting its annual History seminar, titled Marxism-Lewinism and the origins of Stalinism.

Presented by Professor Mark Edele (Hansen Chair of History at the University of Melbourne), this year’s seminar focuses on the Marxism-Lewinism movement. Moshe Lewin (1921-2010) was a Polish Zionist, Jewish refugee, kolkhoznik, Soviet proletarian, Red Army officer, Holocaust survivor, kibbutznik, journalist, and communist.

Emigrating to Israel, France, and then to the United States, Moshe Lewin established an academic reputation as an English-language historian of the Soviet Union, inspiring a "Marxist-Lewinist" movement that identified as "social historians" in public and as "socialist historians" in private.

Friday’s seminar examines the intersection of Lewin’s life, politics, and research, with particular focus on his influence on the English-language historiography of Stalinism. This paper is part of two larger projects: a history of the writing of the history of Stalinism, and a study of the wartime experiences of Polish Jews who survived World War II in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Ada Booth  Slavic Collection showcase

To coincide with the seminar, the Library will showcase a selection of rare materials from the Ada Booth Slavic Collection, including Soviet propaganda posters and other print materials. The items reflect the development of Stalinism from the early 1920s to its decline in the 1990s.

Soviet posters from the 1950s to the 1980s will be on general display, and a selection of rare printed materials from the 1920s and 1930s displayed between 12-2pm. 

Also featured is a “Dembelsky” Album from 1987 and a 3-D printed Matryoshka doll containing the 2014 English translation of Yuri Mamleev’s The Sublimes, a science-fiction novel first published in 1966.

The rare items will be displayed from 12-2pm.

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