The First Red Century by Jacobin

The First Red Century Reviews

• 
  Kaleb Wulf

  lol this shits on goodreads? so despite my 4 star rating, im still never quite sure what to think of Jacobin. there seems to be very informative and rousing articles every once in a while. but a lot of the time, it either goes over my head or doesn't really make any point? i don't know. still subscribed
• 
  Greg

  Definitely the best one i've read so far. Balances well the condemnation of what went wrong with the Russian Revolution without condemning the entire affair. Stalinism and the absurdly bureaucratic nature of the late Soviet Union feature heavily as negatives while literacy & education programs get the credit they deserve. The internationalism of the Soviet Union and Cuba gets contrasted against the internationalism of the USA in a way that deserves attention. Gorbachev gets discussed in a balanced manner: none of the "he was incompetent and destroyed the Soviet Union" or "he was a hero for opening up the country."
• 
  Augusto Delgado

  Not what I expected, perhaps the bar was risen too high, considering the celebratory character and the commemoration mood of the First Red Century, or the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution, but the magazine has a feel of lacking something, somewhat more on the actual opening circumstances that led to such a incredible century; but unfortunately it is mostly devoted to random accounts of the so called socialist countries. Maybe the Jacobin is a centrist crew, not that liberal centrist between the republican far right and the democrat near right, albeit centrist falling in the Marxist definition of an organization whose politics and programme dwells between reform and revolution.
  The positives are the gorgeous editing, graphics, the cover and its flip side, and the main article "The Few Who Won" by Bhaskar Sunkara that closes with a provocative paragraph:
  
  "The Bolsheviks, having seen
  over ten million killed in a capitalist war, and living in an
  era of upheaval, can be forgiven. We can also forgive them
  because they were first.
  What is less forgivable is that a model built from errors
  and excesses, forged in the worst of conditions, came to
  dominate a left living in an unrecognizable world"
  
  One can disagree or not, considering that their narrative is biased with the imperialist propaganda of the inevitability of the stalinist counter revolution. Still worth an analytical re read.
• 
  Timothy Riley

  One article stands out, the one about the Soviet education system. Not a propaganda machine or a system to prepare workers for employment but an experimental, hands out, group planning and execution of major projects-pretty much what most educators believe is the best philosophy in the 21st century.
• 
  Soph Nova

  Learned some good information, especially right after reading a Lenin biography. I feel like the issue veered far towards 'well there were lots of faults in the last century' even though it ostensibly is there for the Left to be able to celebrate its wins....
• 
  Adam McPhee

  Good essays on: the Soviet hockey program, some American who became an East German movie star, Henry Wallace, Gorbachev, David Kline's love of Pol Pot. Plus an interesting autobiographical story from Georgi Derluguian, a Soviet africanist scholar. Vivek Chibber's essay was unreadable, but because of the design, which was infuriating. Plus I want to work my way through Eileen Jones's guide to Soviet film this year (triple heart eyes emojis for the world's best film critic, always).