My friend read the manifesto and is interested in reading more about communism. I feel like Capital would be a bit heavy for him so i thought i’d ask here about what you think he should read. Also since his English isn’t that good i’d appreciate it if your recommendations had Persian translations as well. Thanks in advance!
Always “state and revolution” by lenin and “foundations of leninism” by stalin. Generally, stalin is so easy to read and so informative, its no wonder they spent 50+ years villifying him. Anyone who reads stalin will be a huge threat to capital dictatorship afterwards imho.
Yeah i was considering those as options since they have good translations as well. If they’re good for starting on their own then it would be pretty convenient.
State and revolution is very short and polemic, its funny to read. Foundations is also short but more stalins subdues hunour which is funny but not as on the nose. Both take turns at dumping on their political “enemies” aka the leftlibs aka trotsky, anarchists, menscheviks, etc. Its really funny to read if this is a humour you like. Ideologically, both are crucial imo.
No Persian translations linked unfortunately, but I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list that might be helpful!
Wow great list! This will actually be more helpful to me. I might be able to find Persian translations for some of them but since some are rather short i might translate them myself. Either way, thanks a lot! This is really useful.
If you have the time to help with translations, please apply to https://prolewiki.org/ !
I’v considered it but applying to it requires a level of study even more than i spend on my university😅😅
Thanks! And like what comrade rainpizza suggested, if you helped with prolewiki then that would be extremely useful for anyone that primarily speaks Persian!
Blackshirts and Reds is always a good intro for a newbie.
For further reading:
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
and
The Foundations of Leninism
Unfortunately i didn’t find a translation for Blackshirts and reds. But i’ll note the others. Thanks for the recommendations!
I don’t know what’s available in Persian but I wanna say this. Kapital isn’t good for start even for intermediate. It should be the last step to read to learn communism. Because, the book itself is a critique of capitalism and there’s minimal reference to socialism.
I think best to read for a start Terry Eagleton’s “Why Marx was right?”. I know he’s Trotskyist but he summarizes why Marx is still relevant today and why bourgeoisie is claiming that Marx is dead and his ideas in every 10 years.
That book is a good restarting to brain since we’re being installed so many anti-communist propaganda.
If the writer is a Trotskyist then i don’t think that eould be a good idea. My friend easily misunderstands stuff so that’s a bit risky. Might fall into the wrong rabbit hole.
There’s no Trotskyism in that book. I said the writer himself is a Trotskyist.
Got it
- Consider using AI/LLM such as deepseek to translate into farsi
- outside what’s already mentioned here: articles on redsails.org , maybe start with https://redsails.org/why-marxism/
First off, LMMs aren’t really good for translations. especially for text in this area and more especially for Persian as most tools don’t consider it most of times. Secondly, the language is called Persian, not Farsi. Please don’t call it that. But thanks for responding nonetheless!
Secondly, the language is called Persian, not Farsi.
Could you kindly explain why?
Sure! If you want a general answer you can look up endonyms and exonyms on wikipedia but if you want specifics for Persian i’ll write something short here. The correct form of the word is Persian because it is the one which English-speakers are and were more familiar with due to its long history. It basicly goes a couple thousand years back and correctly signifies the history of the language within the English-speaking mind As language of the people who lived in Iran (which was called Persia until the last century). Etc. However, with the mass immigration of Iranians to other countries and their unawareness of how endonyms and exonyms work, they started claiming their language is called Farsi, the word which is used to refer to the language in Persian, instead of Persian, which was word English-speakers used. Which incorrectly cuts the Persian language from its history and makes it appear as a newly built language since there are no mentions of it before the current century. This was intensified by the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles or US in general, which doubled down on their stupidity to build a new identity since thay no longer had connection with their own. Keep in mind that this is in no way a complete explanation. There’s a lot more to this. Enough to write a book. But this is the overall gist of things. Hope it helps!
Thanks for responding.
It’s partly because of endonyms vs exonyms I asked. I was curious about why one may uphold the English exonym over the native endonym? Does the term Farsi not capture the longer history?
(Diaspora can sometimes have problematic politics; often attempted assimilation can mean upholding western supremacist paradigms and if they were beneficiaries of more western aligned governments that were overthrown then they can be that much more vile)
Seeing as the word “Farsi” unlike Persian didn’t exist in the English language until a few decades ago, no it doesn’t capture the few thousand year history. And you’re completely correct about the diaspora since LA is basically the headquarters for pahlavi supporters and the birthplace of his brand of “nationalism”.
Yes pahlavi supporters have some of the most disgusting western boot licking opinions! They are the persian (I was going to use the word Iranian but given what we are discussing I will stick with this here) gusanos.
However, the word Persian is not thousands of years old either? Why bother with whatever English sensibilities in language naming conventions? Aren’t there are other persian languages/cultures that are not farsi? I seem to be missing something here.
Any western boot licker is a gusano
Well, if i remember correctly English got the word from Greek which is equally ancient. A reason (not the main one) i coud give is the claim of Iran being a newly built nation which is “occupying” the land. For example, the name Persian gulf is the best defence against the gulf countries trying to still its resource since the very word “Persian gulf” has more history than all of the countries mentioned.
Yes there are a lot of languages and people. If you’re wondering the correct term for the people is Iranian since not all of us are Persian. However, Persian is important to Iran because it’s the national language that connects people of different ethnicities and languages. Besides, it’s the most developed one and can be used as the language of science. Something most Iranian languages aren’t capable of yet.
Persian is more correct to use although we use Farsi but just say Persian and Yeah the Persian diaspora is fucked so are the people of Iran as they tend to have reactionary politics and beliefs speaking from personal experience
What would you like to read?
فعلاً که گمون کنم همون دولت و انقلاب لنین رو بدم بهش. خودم رو اگه میگی فعلاً دارم «ایران میان دو انقلاب» رو میخونم. بعدشم نظر دارم جنگ چریکی چهگوارا رو بخونم.
