It is difficult to disentangle Bukharin’s writings and
their reception from the intrigues, distortions, and
ambitions of the Russian political ELITE, among whom
Bukharin moved. After being arrested by the czar’s
police and later escaping Russia to Western Europe, he
joined Lenin in Poland. He worked on the Bolshevik
newspaper Pravdaand later on a similar project in the
United States. Following the Russian revolution in
1917, Bukharin returned to Russia, became a member
of the Communist Party Central Committee, and was
appointed editor of Pravda.After the death of Lenin,
Bukharin was appointed to the Politburo and became
closely involved in the intrigues and disagreements
concerning economic policy, which pitted those who
believed in the “gradualism” of allowing the economy
to develop in accord with materialist Marxist predic-
tions against those who wanted to intervene and initi-
ate a quick industrialization. Bukharin took the former
view, but when STALINchanged his opinion in 1928,
Bukharin’s position became precarious. He was
expelled from the party in 1929, reinstated later after
recanting his views. In January 1937, he was arrested,
expelled again from the party, accused by being a
counterrevolutionary, put on trial, and executed.
Bukharin’s most famous work is Historical Material-
ism.Its purpose is to give an accessible account of the
principles and ideas of Marx’s theory of HISTORICAL
MATERIALISM. In this sense it is textbook; however,
Bukharin also wanted to offer some new thoughts and
interpretations in defense of Marx’s account of history.
This work displays the influence of Western sociology
on Bukharin’s thought in the attention he gives to the
possible independence of the superstructure from the
material base of society and his moving away from the
strict determinism of the classical Marxist model.
However, Bukharin’s awareness of the real political
consequences of subscribing to this “Western” view is
evident in his insistence that he remains true to strictly
Marxist premises.
After his execution, Bukharin was officially written
out of Russian history as part of the Bukharin-Trotsky
gang of spies, wreckers, and traitors. This Stalinist-
imposed silence has lifted, and the important role he
played in Russian politics in the 1920s has been recog-
nized. He has become associated with a “humanist
SOCIALISM,” a specifically anti-Stalinist possibility for
communism. However, little of this reputation rests on
his writings or ideas but rests rather on his political
activities and the memory of his fate at the hands of
Stalin.
Further Reading
Cohen, S. Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution. New Y ork:
Knopf, 1973.Bunyan, John (1628–1688) English Puritan
writer and activist
Most famous for his book Pilgrim’s Progress,a CHRIS-
TIANallegory of the individual soul’s travel from sin to
salvation, Bunyan influenced Puritan theology in
Britain and America. The themes of INDIVIDUALISM, LIB-
ERTYof conscience, and EQUALITYcomplemented the
REPUBLICAN parliamentary cause in England and the
Puritan settlements in North America. Seeing a per-
son’s life as a journey involving a series of moral
choices conformed nicely with MODERN PROTESTANT
POLITICAL THOUGHTand DEMOCRATICpolitics.
Born to a poor family in Bedfordshire, England,
Bunyan read only the Bible in his youth. He served in
the parliamentary army during the English civil war
(1644–46), married a pious Christian woman who
introduced him to EVANGELICAL thought, joined an
independent (congregational) church in 1653, and was
ordained a minister in 1657. After the restoration of
the monarchy in 1660 and general persecution of
Christian “dissenters” occurred, causing Bunyan to be
imprisoned for preaching the Gospel, he spent much
of the time between 1660 and 1672 in prison. There he
wrote his famous autobiography, Grace Abounding to
the Chief of Sinners (1666). In it and in Pilgrim’s
Progress Bunyan ties the individual’s moral develop-
ment with spiritual warfare and social turmoil.
The Puritan themes emphasize that “worldly” soci-
ety—like the corrupt, luxurious, and decadent ARIS-
TOCRACYin England—presents temptations that lead to
the soul’s destruction and damnation and advocate a
simple, godly lifestyle that must appeal to poor, simple
folks. The hope for a decent, wholesome Christian
society that would obey God’s laws and prevent God’s
wrath from destroying the City of Destruction fed into
American Puritan society. Puritans fleeing to Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut saw this as leaving “Sodom
and Gomorrah” and entering the Promised Land,
establishing a city on a hill as a beacon to the lost of
the world. Such New Jerusalem theology influenced
America’s view of itself, including the presidency of
Ronald REAGAN, who employed Puritan rhetoric in his
speeches. Bunyan’s Puritan theology underlies many
PROTESTANTcountries’ views of their COVENANTobliga-
tions to God and their destiny.40 Bunyan, John