Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Possessed contains one of the sharper satires of the Left ever put to paper. About halfway through, there’s a meeting of proto-socialists, anarchists, liberals, and other self-styled intellectuals and reformers. Their chief theorist, Shigalyev, pontificates to the crowd, lamenting that his program for an ideal social system began with a commitment […]

This post was originally published on Jacobin.