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Soviet Marxism

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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.)