1921 turning point?
Mike Macnair spoke to Online Communist Forum on March 7 about the related centenaries of the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, the adoption of the NEP and the ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party
This talk was titled ‘NEP, the banning of factions and Kronstadt - the turning point in the Russian Revolution?’ I began by emphasising the question mark, and giving the preliminary answer to the question: ‘No’. But we have to start with the centenary.
By spring 1921, it looked as though the civil war was won, while the war with Poland was over for practical purposes. In this context, at the beginning of March the Kronstadt garrison held fresh elections to the local soviet and raised a whole series of demands - including, notably, the right to free speech, the right of opposition parties to organise and the right to free elections - and those Bolsheviks who did not leave the fortress were arrested.
Rembrandt’s Empty Bookshelf
We remember the Dutch Golden Age for its paintings – which may be why so few realise that it was Europe’s publishing powerhouse.
When, in 1656, Rembrandt was forced to declare bankruptcy, a full inventory of his remaining possessions was made. Among the paintings, furniture and household goods at the house on the Breestraat were just 22 books. By this time Rembrandt, one of the greatest artists of the age, had fallen a long way. An earlier sale had cleared out most of his art collection; what remained was the sad residue of a rampageous and self-indulgent celebrity lifestyle. The fact that Rembrandt possessed so few books, in Amsterdam of all places, was a fitting mark of his near destitution. The Dutch Republic was a land teeming with books. Its publishers produced some of the most fabulous books of the age. Its citizens raead and owned more books than anywhere else in Europe.
Brent is a senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at The Heritage Foundation. U.S. President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor during his remarks before signing an Executive Order on the economy on February 24, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Doug Mills / Pool / Getty Images
Key Takeaways
Today the United States relies on other foreign-sourced strategic materials that will have to be secured in times of crisis or conflict.
Failure to manage the supply of these critical components can bring an entire industry to a standstill as is playing out today in the auto industry.
While the U.S. government has come to realize in recent years the danger posed to the defense supply chain, more is needed.
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