The ABC of Communism (Russian: Азбука коммунизма, Azbuka Kommunizma) is a book written by Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky in 1920, during the Russian Civil War.[1] Originally written to convince the proletariat of Russia to support the Bolsheviks, it became "an elementary textbook of communist knowledge".[2][3] It became the best known and most widely circulated of all pre-Stalinist expositions of Bolshevism and the most widely read political work in Soviet Russia.[4][5]
The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks.[6] Bolshevik armed forces began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October;[6] however 25 October JC was the date when the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, the capital of Russia) was captured.
The ABC of Communism was written during the civil war, and was written to convince the citizens of Russia.[2] In keeping with the period in which it was written, its mood was that of war communism, a militant optimism. It was a statement of Utopian hopes, not Soviet reality.[4]
Preobrazhensky's co-authorship eventually became "half-forgotten", and The ABC soon became inextricably associated with Bukharin, spreading his fame and giving rise to his reputation.[4]
