Revisionism
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Revisionism is a word which has several meanings. One of its first (neutral) uses was the revision of Marx's doctrine by Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky in the late 19th century. Historical revisionism is often viewed as a legitimate effort by historians to broaden the awareness of certain historical events by re-examining conventional wisdom. However, the term has also been used in a pejorative sense, indicating an attempt to rewrite history by downgrading or simply ignoring essential facts, as in for example Holocaust denial (see historical revisionism (negationism)). The term is also used neutrally in describing fiction which alters or comments on a previous fictional work or genre.
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Revisionism in the Socialist movement
Image:Destroy soviet revisionists.jpg
Revisionism (particularly in the western socialist context) has most usually been applied to the reformulation, or for its detractors, the watering down, or abandonment, of cherished principles. For the more authoritarian currents within socialism, but not necessarily exclusively, the term has been used as a term of abuse. It has, however, been used in different ways at different times about different socialist trends.
- In the late 19th century revisionism was used to describe writers such as Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky who sought to revise the teachings of Karl Marx by claiming that a violent revolution was not necessary to achieve socialism. In all further uses of this term, there was an initial intent to create "guilt by association" between the abused socialist, and the actions of Bernstein in opposing violent revolution. See reformism.
- In the 1940s and 1950s within the international Communist movement, revisionism was used to describe Communists who focused on consumer goods production instead of heavy industry, accepted national differences and encouraged democratic reforms. Revisionism was one of the charges leveled at Titoists in a series of purges beginning in 1949 in Eastern Europe. After Stalin's death revisionism became briefly acceptable in Hungary during Imre Nagy's government (1953-1955) and in Poland during Wladyslaw Gomulka's government, although neither Nagy nor Gomulka described themselves as revisionists.
- Following the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, many people, particularly intellectuals, resigned from western Communist parties in protest. They were sometimes accused of revisionism by "loyalist" Communists. E. P. Thompson's New Reasoner was an example of this revisionism. This movement eventually became known as the New Left.
- The views, so described, of Anthony Crosland, Hugh Gaitskell and their followers in the United Kingdom's Labour Party in the 1950s and subsequently, concerning the relevance of Public ownership in the party's objectives.
- In the early 1960s, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China revived the term revisionism to attack Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet Union over various ideological and political issues, as part of the Sino-Soviet split. The Chinese routinely described the Soviets as "modern revisionists" through the 1960s. This usage was copied by the various Maoist groups that split off from Communist parties around the world.
Historical revisionism
The term historical revisionism has a respectable meaning among historians and journalists as, illustrated in the Washington Post article "History In The Remaking: Reagan's Story Doesn't End Here" <ref>Lewis L. Gould History In the Remaking Reagan's Story Doesn't End Here in the Washington Post, June 13, 2004, Page B01.</ref>. Historical revisionism also has a more specific meaning when it is used as a label to describe the views of self-taught historians who publish articles that deliberately misrepresent and manipulate historical evidence. An example of this secondary usage is reported in another Washington Post article, "Conservatives Celebrate Winning One for the Gipper" <ref>Lisa de Moraes Conservatives Celebrate Winning One for the Gipper in the Washington Post, November 6, 2003, Page C07</ref>:
- People for the American Way saw it in a different light [...] Our primary concern is continued right-wing intimidation against the expressions of opposing points of view, whether attacks on dissent, intimidation of scientific researchers, or a demand for historical revisionism – or historical cleansing – regarding Ronald Reagan. (emphasis added).
This second common usage has occurred because some authors who publish articles that deliberately misrepresent and manipulate historical evidence (such as David Irving, a proponent of Holocaust denial), have called themselves "historical revisionists"<ref> Page 145. Richard J. Evans "Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial", (2001), ISBN 0465021530.</ref>, and this label has been used by others as a pejorative to describe them when criticising their work.
Territorial revisionism
- Territorial revisionism is sometimes used as an euphemism for revanchism or irredentism. The term has some usage in European post-Cold War debate, where many ethnic minorities hope to change the state borders drawn up after World War II.
- Revisionist Zionism was a movement founded by Vladimir Jabotinsky, who argued that the terms of the British Mandate in Palestine should be revised to make explicit the objective of creating a Jewish state there. Today's Likud party is a direct descendant of the Revisionists.
Fictional revisionism
- In fiction, revisionism is the retelling of a story or type of story with substantial alterations in character or environment, to "revise" the view shown in the original work. For example, the film Dances With Wolves is a revisionist Western because it portrays the Native Americans sympathetically instead of as the savages of traditional Westerns, which have been criticized as racist. Similarly, the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire is a revisionist account of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which portrays The Wicked Witch of the West being on the right side and the Wizard being evil. This usage is not generally considered pejorative.
Footnotes
<references/>et:Revisionism lt:Reformizmas nl:Historisch revisionisme no:Revisjonisme nn:Revisjonisme sv:Revisionism zh:修正主义