Ideology of Soviet Communism
Encyclopedia
The State ideology of the Soviet Union embodied a number of different theoretical streams, originating primarily from within the Marxist ideology of socialism
, but with some minor threads emerging from within the Russian revolutionary movement such as the ideology of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
or from within anarcho-communism such as Makhnovism
. After 1921, Russian developed social-democratic ideologies predominated within the ideology of Soviet Communism.
within the Soviet council
s of the Russian revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
(RSFSR) and later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As such the early period of Soviet ideology was typified by intellectual competition between varying trends, then between the predominant trend, Bolshevik
Russian social democracy
, and then the resultant ideological changes within the official ideology of the Soviet Union.
and the Soviet Red Army
, combined with the Kronstadt Uprising led to the suppression of anarcho-communist ideologies. In addition to this, the military and political success of the Bolshevik led Red Army caused numerous political activists to realign themselves behind Bolshevik ideology.
's external critiques of Bolshevism form a central component of what is called in the contemporary period Leninism
.
within the Bolshevik Party, and the Central Committee line. In both instances the minority ideology was surpressed, without the supporters of the ideological position being persecuted.
, is generally held to being with the imposition of the New Economic Policy
(NEP). While the NEP was debated throughout the 1920s, serious divisions emerged within the Bolshevik Party. Many of these divisions were expressed ideology in terms of debates over socialist development and internationalism, and resulted in the development of three broad lines of Soviet Ideology.
. While this group was politically weak, it has had a great and continuing influence in ideological circles through the work of Leon Trotsky
and his subsequent followers and supporters.
's advocacy of developing socialism within the Soviet Union without seeking overseas revolution. The chief document of Stalinist ideology under Stalin was the Short course history of the CPSU(b). Followers of this ideological position have generally referred to themselves as "Marxist-Leninists" after 1956.
's advocacy of developing quality in preference to quantity in Soviet development and the pursuit of peaceful coexistence
; and the declaration of the Brezhnev doctrine
. During the 1940s 1950s and 1960s numerous experiments were made in political or organisational issues within Soviet communist framework in Eastern European actually existing socialist states, though there was little systematic creative ideological work conducted by State-supporting mainstream Marxists, the dissenting Marxists tending to produce new ideological material outside of the Soviet communist traditions. However, Imre Nagy
's humanist socialism and Alexander Dubcek
's socialism with a human face were developments of Soviet communist ideologists. Towards the end, Mikhail Gorbachev
introduced new innovations in political life which were perceived by some to indicate ideological change. In 1985, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. Initially, his reforms were called uskoreniye
(acceleration) but later the terms such as glasnost
(liberalisation, opening up) and perestroika
(restructuring) became more popular.
was commissioned by the government of the United States
to complete a major work of Marxist analysis on the ideology of Soviet Communism, titled Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis.
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, but with some minor threads emerging from within the Russian revolutionary movement such as the ideology of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
In 1917, Russia the Socialist-Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Provisional Government, established after the February Revolution, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection....
or from within anarcho-communism such as Makhnovism
Makhnovism
Makhnovism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by anarchist revolutionary leader Nestor Makhno, and by other theorists who claim to be carrying on Makhno's work. Makhnovism builds upon and elaborates the ideas of Peter Kropotkin, and serves as the philosophical...
. After 1921, Russian developed social-democratic ideologies predominated within the ideology of Soviet Communism.
Soviet Communist ideology
Soviet communism can broadly be considered as the ideology, or systematic belief structure, of the advocates of communismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
within the Soviet council
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
s of the Russian revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
(RSFSR) and later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As such the early period of Soviet ideology was typified by intellectual competition between varying trends, then between the predominant trend, Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Russian social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, and then the resultant ideological changes within the official ideology of the Soviet Union.
The competing ideologies of the revolutionary period to 1923
Prior to 1923, ideology was both intellectually and politically contested within the Russian Revolution. At first, after the October Revolution, all party governments were formed amongst: Social Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and limited anarchist groups. At the central level, the RSDLP's Bolshevik party was predominant, but at the local level power was held by ideologically mixed non-workplace soviets or workplace council soviets. Through the course of the Revolution, falling outs occurred, significantly between the Left-SR party organisation and the Bolsheviks over the issue of war, leading to a rift with and suppression of Left-SR ideology. Additionally, the crisis between the Makhnovist Black ArmyBlack Army
Black Army can refer to several different groups and affiliations:* Several anarchist factions of the Russian Civil War, also known as the Black Guards* Black Army of Hungary was the name of the royal army of Matthias Corvinus, a 15th century king of Hungary...
and the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, combined with the Kronstadt Uprising led to the suppression of anarcho-communist ideologies. In addition to this, the military and political success of the Bolshevik led Red Army caused numerous political activists to realign themselves behind Bolshevik ideology.
Early Bolshevik Ideology
Most histories of Bolshevik ideology emphasise the central role of VI Lenin's internal party struggles in creating a cohesive ideological structure. To a lesser extent, Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
's external critiques of Bolshevism form a central component of what is called in the contemporary period Leninism
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
.
Bolshevik ideological conflicts during the Civil War period
Towards the later stages of the civil war a conflict emerged between the more workerist ideology of the left communists and later the Workers' OppositionWorkers' Opposition
The Workers' Opposition was a faction of the Russian Communist Party that emerged in 1920 as a response to the perceived over-bureaucratisation that was occurring in Soviet Russia.-Membership:...
within the Bolshevik Party, and the Central Committee line. In both instances the minority ideology was surpressed, without the supporters of the ideological position being persecuted.
Competition within the Central Committee during the 1920s
The end of the Civil War's effects on Soviet Ideology, and of the position of War CommunismWar communism
War communism or military communism was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921...
, is generally held to being with the imposition of the New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
(NEP). While the NEP was debated throughout the 1920s, serious divisions emerged within the Bolshevik Party. Many of these divisions were expressed ideology in terms of debates over socialist development and internationalism, and resulted in the development of three broad lines of Soviet Ideology.
Trotskyism and the International Left Opposition
The smallest grouping was of the International Left Opposition and the supporters of Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
. While this group was politically weak, it has had a great and continuing influence in ideological circles through the work of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and his subsequent followers and supporters.
The International Right Opposition
The International Right Opposition was the second largest ideological grouping at the end of the 1920s. They emphasised the political development of socialism within continuing market relations. Ideologically this group proved to be ultimately sterile, though a significant amount of political work was published during the 1930s with some ideological implications.Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism
The largest group within Bolshevik ideology at the end of the 1920s were the followers and supporters of Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's advocacy of developing socialism within the Soviet Union without seeking overseas revolution. The chief document of Stalinist ideology under Stalin was the Short course history of the CPSU(b). Followers of this ideological position have generally referred to themselves as "Marxist-Leninists" after 1956.
Post-Stalin ideologies
Subsequent to Stalin, some changes occurred in Soviet Ideology. Chief amongst these were Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's advocacy of developing quality in preference to quantity in Soviet development and the pursuit of peaceful coexistence
Peaceful coexistence
Peaceful coexistence was a theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of its ostensibly Marxist–Leninist foreign policy and was adopted by Soviet-influenced "Communist states" that they could peacefully coexist with the capitalist bloc...
; and the declaration of the Brezhnev doctrine
Brezhnev Doctrine
The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet Union foreign policy, first and most clearly outlined by S. Kovalev in a September 26, 1968 Pravda article, entitled “Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries.” Leonid Brezhnev reiterated it in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the...
. During the 1940s 1950s and 1960s numerous experiments were made in political or organisational issues within Soviet communist framework in Eastern European actually existing socialist states, though there was little systematic creative ideological work conducted by State-supporting mainstream Marxists, the dissenting Marxists tending to produce new ideological material outside of the Soviet communist traditions. However, Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
's humanist socialism and Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
's socialism with a human face were developments of Soviet communist ideologists. Towards the end, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
introduced new innovations in political life which were perceived by some to indicate ideological change. In 1985, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. Initially, his reforms were called uskoreniye
Uskoreniye
Uskoreniye was a slogan and a policy announced by Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on April 20, 1985 at a Soviet Party Plenum, aimed at the acceleration of social and economical development of the Soviet Union...
(acceleration) but later the terms such as glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
(liberalisation, opening up) and perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
(restructuring) became more popular.
Criticism
In the 1950s the Marxist intellectual Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
was commissioned by the government of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to complete a major work of Marxist analysis on the ideology of Soviet Communism, titled Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis.