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    Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy: An Anarchist Fairytale From the Russian Revolution
    Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy: An Anarchist Fairytale From the Russian Revolution
    Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy: An Anarchist Fairytale From the Russian Revolution
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy: An Anarchist Fairytale From the Russian Revolution

    By Abba Gordin and Wolf Gordin

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A revolutionary fairy tale for adults that makes sharpening your critique of capitalism fun.

    Why? follows the travels of a boy named Pochemu—“Why” in Russian—as he tries to understand the Tsar’s empire, capitalism, state violence, and more. The answers his rapid-fire questions elicit, which make less and less sense the deeper he probes, are just as ridiculous today as they were a century ago, and just as descriptive of a society gone wrong. When Pochemu eventually enters the Land of Anarchy, he is confronted by his own strangeness to its citizens, who study the bizarre customs he brings to their free society. This is a timeless tale of the ludicrousness of power and its deluded defenders.


    In this fable, a child’s innocent questions meet the lies used to justify a world of cruelty and inequality. The result is quasi-absurdist, political comedy. Abba and Wolf Gordin, Jewish anarchists in the Russian Revolution, wrote proletarian literature to enlighten and entertain. It’s a genre that no longer really exists, but given this delightful book, maybe it should. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAK Press
    Release dateMay 23, 2023
    ISBN9781849355032
    Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy: An Anarchist Fairytale From the Russian Revolution
    Author

    Abba Gordin

    Abba Gordin (1887–1964) was a witness to the Russian Revolution as a young adult. Persecuted under the Bolsheviks he emigrated to the US in 1927 and became co-editor of the Yiddish anarchist paper Freie Arbeiter Stimme. He is author of numerous works in Russian, Yiddish, and English.

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      Book preview

      Why? or, How a Peasant Got Into the Land of Anarchy - Abba Gordin

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