Bukharin and Ben Bella

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I've been asked to write biographical essays on Bukharin and Ben Bella (a leader of the FLN in the Algerian war for independence). Would anyone know of any good biographies or articles on these two revolutionaries? I do have Bukharin's fictionalized autobiography, How It All Began(which I'm just starting) but that's about it.

Any help would be appreciated.

[l'Enfermé]

Do you speak French?

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Unfortunately, je parle un peu francais. A little. If its online I could do google translate.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I own this http://www.amazon.com/Bukharin-Bolshevik-Revolution-Political-Biography/dp/0195026977 but I read it so long ago and at a time when my politics were very new to me so I can only offer a neutral recommendation because I dont really remember a whole lot about it. Best of luck.

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

I own this http://www.amazon.com/Bukharin-Bolshevik-Revolution-Political-Biography/dp/0195026977 but I read it so long ago and at a time when my politics were very new to me so I can only offer a neutral recommendation because I dont really remember a whole lot about it. Best of luck.
I read it for a college class, around 1980. I actually still have the book. I think it should be taken with many grains of salt. Cohen seemed to me to be an apologist for Bukharin. At the time, people were casting about for alternatives to Stalinism and Trotskyism and somehow Bukharin became hot for a while, especially in Eurocommunist circles. That being said, Cohen did a decent job and provides lots of information. I just think he greatly overstates the importance of Bukharin as a politician, and even more so as a theoretician.

At first glance I though the op was supposed to write an essay about Bukharin and Ben Bella. Now that would be a rather strange assignment.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Stephen Cohen also apparently recovered the manuscript, translated and wrote the intro to Bukharin's How It All Began.The Medvedev brothers are or were Bukharinsts, otherwise no one I know-from Trotskyists to Maoists- really seems to have a huge opinion of the guy.Jay Lovestone maybe. Still an interesting historical figure.

[Red Commissar]

I can't vouch for this but looking around at books, I found one for Ben Bella. Robert Merle's biography of Ben Bella was made by the author's own personal conversations with him in 1964 when he was nearing what we know now to be the end of his presidency. So if you're looking at details about the revolution and the FLN it'd have some good details, but nothing afterwards (the coup and his later political irrelevance). It would be a valuable resource, though probably not the most objective.

[subcp]

Stephen Cohen also apparently recovered the manuscript, translated and wrote the intro to Bukharin's How It All Began.The Medvedev brothers are or were Bukharinsts, otherwise no one I know-from Trotskyists to Maoists- really seems to have a huge opinion of the guy.Jay Lovestone maybe. Still an interesting historical figure.

I think his work is underrated; especially given he is most remembered for his 'Right Opposition', and his theoretical work and earlier activity in the revolution is largely forgotten.

I second Shuras' recommendation of the SI texts.