Leon Aron and Vladimir Tismaneanu: A conversation on the Collapse of Marxism - 5/1

2:00-4:00pm on May 1, 2018
JMZ 0105

Leon Aron (American Enterprise Institute) will give a short presentation and then hold a dialogue with frequent collaborator and close friend, UMD professor of comparative politics Vladimir Tismaneanu. Aron and Tismaneanu personally witnessed the disintegration of the power of the Marxist myth over society in the 1980s. Comparing their areas of speciality, Aron on Russia (Roads to the Temple, Yale University Press, 2012) and Tismaneanu on Romania (Stalinism for All Seasons, University of California Press, 2003), they will examine why exactly the seemingly indomitable spirit of class struggle so quickly became nothing but a great lie in the eyes of the people. They will argue the fall of Communism cannot be accurately understood until we recognize the immense revolution in ideas that took place within Communist societies: from Leninist fundamentalism to a Human Rights-based insistence on tolerance and diversity, liberty and dignity. In an age dominated by the likes of Orban, Xi, Putin, and Trump, they will argue that this topic remains urgently relevant.