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One of the first and best attempts by a ' critical Marxist to present a comprehensive and balanced evaluation of Soviet society and ideology.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
AN INTERESTING, IF ULTIMATELY UNSUCCESSFUL, ANALYSIS OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM,
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This review is from: SOVIET MARXISM (Mass Market Paperback)
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Briefly lionized during the 1960s as the "Father of the New Left" (a term he disliked), he actually wrote some significant philosophical works such as One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, Eros and Civilization (Ark Paperbacks), etc. He identified himself as a Marxist and socialist.In this 1958 book, he stated (in the Preface to the 1961 Vintage edition) that he was trying to present a "relatively objective analysis based on a reasoned interpretation of historical developments" in Soviet Marxism. He observes (Pg. 67) that the Soviet system seems to be "skipping" several developmental stages in the traditional Marxist model (e.g., of free competitive enterprise, of matured middle-class culture, etc.). He states that "what is irrational if measured from without the system is rational within the system." This is supposedly because the propositions of Soviet Marxism are not truth-statements, but "pragmatic directives for action," that are intended to BRING ABOUT the desired facts by their historial decree. (Pg. 70-71) In fact, obviously false statements made by the Soviet government are not simply propaganda, but suggest "the intent of defiance." (Pg. 74) He admits that the totalitarian Soviet system perpetuates its "repressive economic and political features" (Pg. 154-155). But he also predicts a "growing productivity" which "will tend to 'overflow' into production for individual needs." (This latter prediction was seemingly falsified by the collapse of the Soviet economy in the late 1980s.) Marcuse criticizes the "strange" Soviet morality, where government exhortations "have the sound of secular sermons documenting the 'spirit of Protestant-capitalist ethics.'" (Pg. 226) The prohibitions of prostitution, adultery, and divorce, for example. He ends the book with a prediction that the potentialities for human development should grow in accord with the growing productivity of Soviet society, and tend "toward the relaxion of oppression." (Pg. 251) This optimistic view seems not to have been actualized, however. (It required the dismantling of traditional Soviet ideas under Gorbachev to move substantially in this direction.)
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First Sentence:
The dialectric-historical structure of Marxian theory implies that its concepts change with a change in the basic class relationships at which they aim-however, in such a way that the new content is obtained by unfolding the elements inherent in the original concept, thus preserving the theoretical consistency and even the identity of the concept. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sovetskom sotsialisticheskom obshchestve, puti perekhoda, interimperialist contradictions, kommunisticheskoi morali, total industrialization, capitalist stabilization, communist morality, international constellation, external contradictions, growing productivity, capitalist contradictions, immediate producers, imperialist camp, socialist competition, bourgeois ethics, capitalist environment, transition from socialism, socialist property, work morale, liberalizing trends Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Soviet Marxism, New York, Soviet Marxist, Soviet Union, International Publishers, Communist Party, Twentieth Congress, Problems of Philosophy, United States, Bolshevik Revolution, Current Soviet Policies, Problems of Economics, Selected Works, Second World War, Social Democratic, Marxist Dialectical Method, First World War, Leo Gruliow, Five-Year Plan, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Central European, Eastern European, Eduard Bernstein, Handbook of Marxism, Kommunisticheskoi Partii Sovetskogo Soiuza New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The dialectric-historical structure of Marxian theory implies that its concepts change with a change in the basic class relationships at which they aim-however, in such a way that the new content is obtained by unfolding the elements inherent in the original concept, thus preserving the theoretical consistency and even the identity of the concept. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sovetskom sotsialisticheskom obshchestve, puti perekhoda, interimperialist contradictions, kommunisticheskoi morali, total industrialization, capitalist stabilization, communist morality, international constellation, external contradictions, growing productivity, capitalist contradictions, immediate producers, imperialist camp, socialist competition, bourgeois ethics, capitalist environment, transition from socialism, socialist property, work morale, liberalizing trends Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Soviet Marxism, New York, Soviet Marxist, Soviet Union, International Publishers, Communist Party, Twentieth Congress, Problems of Philosophy, United States, Bolshevik Revolution, Current Soviet Policies, Problems of Economics, Selected Works, Second World War, Social Democratic, Marxist Dialectical Method, First World War, Leo Gruliow, Five-Year Plan, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Central European, Eastern European, Eduard Bernstein, Handbook of Marxism, Kommunisticheskoi Partii Sovetskogo Soiuza New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 27
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- Selected Works. by Vladimir Ilich Lenin on 5 pages
- Dialectics of Nature by Frederick Engels on page 138, page 142, and page 144
- The State and Revolution (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on page 66, page 103, and page 104
- Handbook of Marxism by Emile Burns on page 22, page 69, and page 142
- Dialectical and Historical Materialism by Joseph Stalin on page 143, and page 144
See all 27 books this book cites
- Marcuse: From the New Left to the Next Left by John Bokina on 17 pages
- Science, Politics and Social Practice: Essays on Marxism and Science, Philosophy of Culture and the Social Sciences In honor of Robert S. Cohen (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science) by K. Gavroglu on 10 pages
- Introduction to Critical Theory by David Held on 5 pages
- Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader by John Abromeit on 5 pages
- Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader by John Abromeit on 5 pages
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