The Crisis of Capitalist Imperialism as a Lived Experience of Bolshevik Deep-Time Scholars in the Soviet Union

• In Event: Left Perspectives on State- and Post-Socialism III: Bolshevik Marxism

Abstract

This paper argues that the politicization of Soviet archaeology in the late 1920s and early 1930s in terms of Marxist theory was informed by scholars’ lived experiences of social injustice, war, and revolution. It focuses on Vladislav Ravdonikas, showing how his encounters with the crisis of capitalist imperialism and humanitarian struggles shaped his commitment to an anti-colonial deep-time framework. By situating Ravdonikas’s life within broader historical contexts, the paper highlights how personal experiences converged with political radicalization to transform Bolshevik deep-time studies.

Author

• Dmitrii Blyshko, U of Houston