Based on extensive research in the archives of the Soviet Communist Party, and the Russian secret police, Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885-1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik stirringly recounts the political life of Alexander Shlyapnikov. Though purged from Soviet history books, Shlyapnikov was a leading member of the Workers’ Opposition (1919-21), and the most prominent of their ranks to call for the trade unionsas distinct from the Communist Partyto play a direct role in realizing workers’ control over the economy. Despite the defeat of this position, Shlyapnikov continued to advocate views on the Soviet socialist project that provided a counterpoint to Stalin’s vision. Arrested during the Great Terror, Shlyapnikov refused to confess to his alleged crimes against the party, openly declaring the charges illogical and unsubstantiated. What emerges from Allen’s political portrait is an Old Bolshevik who stands in striking contrast to Stalin’s and the NKVD’s image of the ideal party member.

Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885-1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik (Historical Materialism)

Biographies & Memoirs

Allen, Barbara C.

Historical

Haymarket Books

This is the first book to examine the Rope, the special ladies-only group of spiritual seekers that G. I. Gurdjieff formed on Paris' Left Bank. All lesbians, except one, the group included such people as Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, co-editors of the Little Review, the archetype of all avant garde literary magazines; Kathryn Hulme, author of The Nuns's Story and Undiscovered Country; Solita Solano, author, editor and companion of Janet Flanner who wrote for The New Yorker as Genet; and Georgette Leblanc, diva, actress and mistress of Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian playwright best known for The Blue Bird. 
During his thirty-seven years of work in the West, Gurdjieff's creation of the Rope remains his most enigmatic. Recognizing, at the turn of the century, that the world would destroy itself unless there was an awakening in the West, he understood that a fundamental shock had to be applied. Although the Fourth Way was rooted in Tradition, nevertheless, he intentionally introduced this ancient esoteric teaching to the uninitiated. 
Breaking vows of secrecy, in the hope that the originality, scale and practicality of the teaching would arouse enough people to undergo the rigors of self-awakening, he understood that he would be castigated by initiates and the uninitiated alike. That he took an even further risk and introduced the teaching to the ladies of the Rope is a subject which until now has never been examined. The conclusions reached by the author about why Gurdjieff created the Rope are as original as they are surprising and will be of serious interest to those involved with feminine spirituality in all its many forms.

Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group

Politics & Social Sciences

Patterson, William Patrick

Women's Studies

Arete Pubns

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Books by Allen, Barbara C.