This article is adapted from an original work. It may be also be translated from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, EcuRed, or Baidu Baike.
The Marxists Internet Archive (MIA) is a volunteer-based, non-profit online public library for Marxist texts. Established in its current form in 1998, it has 70 active volunteers from 33 different countries as of 2017. It contains the writings of 850 different authors in 80 different languages, amounting to over 180,000 documents and 288 GB of data. In 2016, MIA averaged 2.1 million visitors per month, transferring an average of 12.4 million files for the same period, representing a 63% increase in visitors since 2010.[1]
Criticism
Trotskyist bias and censorship
The Marxists Internet Archive's potential use an educational resource is hampered by the Trotskyist bias of the site's owners. The most obvious example of this bias is the absence of Stalin and Mao on the main pages of each of the language sections and on the list of selected significant Marxist authors. By the site's own admission, the owners think that the USSR under Stalin's leadership and Mao's China do not represent Marxism.[2] Their glossary of terms claims that "Stalinism" had uprooted Marxism and Leninism.[3]
The uploaders of texts also sometimes censor them by omitting content. Two chapters were removed from Mastering Bolshevism[4] and the endnotes in the texts of Lenin have been "deleted, corrected, or toned down".[5]
The site also hosts a subsite dedicated to Trotskyism, Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online (ETOL).[6]
References
- ↑ Marxists Internet Archive. Introduction.
- ↑ Marxists Internet Archive. FAQ
- ↑ Marxists Internet Archive. Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of Terms
- ↑ Marxists Internet Archive. Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskyite and Other Double Dealers
- ↑ Marxists Internet Archive. A Note on Notes and other issues…
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL) Index