ABSTRACT
The rise of the Nazis in Germany and the Bolshevik Revolution both powerfully mark Bloch’s work. The ‘triumph’ of Fascism not merely revealed the terrifying dynamics of capitalism in crisis; it also revealed the deep inadequacies of much left-wing, including Marxist, analysis. Bloch responded both with subtle analyses and with a characteristic political toughness. The complex psychological and ideological wiles of Fascism had to be uncovered, and indeed countered, but the hard facts of the political climate had also to be recognised. This had important consequences in his approach to the Soviet Union. As we shall see, Bloch was a stern critic - at its very inception - of the autocratic aspects of the Bolshevik Revolution. However, his recognition of the constraints of Russia’s underdeveloped economy, and a growing conviction that the Soviet experiment had to be defended against the hostile attacks of world capitalism, were part of his move, in the 192Os, towards a much closer attachment to the world Communist movement. Needless to say there was also a good deal of ignorance and naivety in this move. The rise of Fascism reinforced Bloch’s belief that the USSR had to be defended, especially as it seemed that there was no plausible alternative bulwark against the menace of Fascist domination. Inevitably, this introduced tensions into his work. In the second section of this chapter we will deal with the theoretical basis of Bloch’s Marxism, a basis deeply influenced by Marx’s early radical humanism. Thus we shall be confronted with the incongruous spectacle of a humanist Marxism coexisting with a public defence of Stalinism.
