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A Short History Of Soviet Socialism
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A Short History Of Soviet Socialism
von: Mark Sandle
UCL Press, 1999
ISBN: 9780203500279
360 Seiten, Download: 2695 KB
 
Format:  PDF
geeignet für: Apple iPad, Android Tablet PC's Online-Lesen PC, MAC, Laptop

Typ: B (paralleler Zugriff)

 

 
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CHAPTER ONE The crucibles of Russian socialism (p. 6-7)

The history of Soviet socialism is inextricably caught up in the wider history of socialism as a political concept. The formation of a Soviet "model" of socialism after 1917 was a function of the collision of the ideas of socialism forged within Russian social democracy after 1883 with the hard reality of the Russian sociopolitical environment. Yet the notion of socialism which informed the postrevolutionary thinking of the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP hereafter) was itself the product of decades of Russian and European intellectual and historical development. The tensions and contradictions within socialism as both a political doctrine and a political movement, were reproduced and given specific form by their interpretation and translation into Russian conditions at the turn of the century. It is important to note that while Soviet socialism comprised a particular cluster of wider socialist values and perspectives, it was itself a complex, pluralistic phenomenon, with a good deal of internal diversity. Locating the historical and intellectual origins of Soviet socialism begins in the eighteenth century.

The origins of socialism

Socialism has always been a diverse, complex, eclectic doctrine. Socialists have been classified as "utopian", "scientific", "reformist", "revolutionary". The socialist movement has divided into Social Democrats, Eurocommunists, Leninists, Maoists, Trotskyists, Marxists, Fabians, Democratic Socialists, ecosocialists and so on.1 Universal agreement upon the core principles or features of a socialist society has been almost impossible to achieve. Scholars remain deeply divided over the reasons for this. Martin Malia argues that socialism as a term is "meaningless". For Malia, it has embraced such a wide variety of meanings, and been embraced by such a bewildering spectrum of political movements, that "it corresponds to no identifiable object in the sublunary world". Furthermore, there is an ineradicable tension within socialism between its economic forms and its moral principles: the former are intrinsically incapable of realizing the latter according to Malia. Other scholars—Berki, Lichtheim and others—have also highlighted many of the tensions within socialism, which can be explained by a combination of philosophical and historical factors.

Although socialism emerged as a modern political phenomenon at the end of the eighteenth century in the wake of the French and Industrial Revolutions, it was the heir of a longer tradition of moral protest and indignation. From Plato, through More to Winstanley and the Diggers during the English Civil War, there has been an ethical or moral critique of the inadequacies of the present way of life, and a corresponding aspiration for a fairer, more just society. The emergence of capitalism, and the demise of feudalism provided the impetus for the growth of socialism as moral critique. The extension of economic exploitation, poverty, wage labour and injustice encouraged this sense of rebellion against injustice. This was exemplified in the writings of Rousseau, Babeuf and others, who aspired to overturn the existing order, and to institute a new social order based upon egalitarianism, popular sovereignty and integral democracy. In their ideals they expressed a desire to move away from the growing individualism of modern society and to return to a society based upon harmony, fraternity and community.

An alternative strand within socialist doctrine emerged concurrently with this moralistic critique. This strand—which Berki has termed "rationalism"—was derived from the Enlightenment, and from the "Philosophes" in particular. It emphasized the emancipatory power of knowledge and education, and upheld the ideals of progress, reason and efficiency. This strand was an essentially modern one, drawing upon the ideals unleashed by the French Revolution, unlike the former strand’s pre-modern or classicist yearning.

Socialism’s rationalist strand, by enthroning human reason, argued that it was possible in a conscious way to plan and organize society rationally, so eliminating waste, inefficiency and inequality.



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