The History Of The Soviet Union Is Inconsistent With Marxism

1.0 Introduction

You can tell a history of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics in which events are inconsistent with Marx's theory of history.

2.0 Bolshevik Revolution

Marx, like Adam Smith and Walt Rostow, had a stages theory of history. Feudalism was succeeded by capitalism, and capitalism is to be succeeded by socialism. Socialism is to arise first in the most advanced capitalist countries. (The theory of history is not my favorite part of Marxist theory.) Russia, in 1917, was a semi-feudal country with peasants as the largest class. I guess China was the same, before Mao. A Marxist would not expect socialism to start successful in either country.

I have some caveats. Marx's 1881 letter to Vera Zasulich speculates on the possibility of socialism in Russia. I am aware that Lenin had an argument about how socialism can start with the weakest link in the age of imperialism. But he still expected his revolution to be supported by revolutions in advanced capitalist countries. And, for a moment he seemed to be right, what with the Spartacist revolution in Germany, the Bavarian Socialist Republic, and Hungary.

3.0 Socialism In One Country

Stalin came up with the idea of socialism in one country. That country was still quite backward, not an advanced capitalist country. Is the championing of the Soviet Union by communists in advanced capitlist countries what Marxists would wnat? The Soviet Union presented an alternative. But shouldn't their priority be building socialism at home? And their cause was weakened when the Soviet Union behaved like other great powers in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

4.0 Khrushchev's Secret Speech

Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his 'secret' speech of 25 February 1956. He came up with the concept of the cult of personality. What is that from a Marxist perspective? History is supposed to be determined, ultimately, by contradictions in material conditions. How can the mistakes of one leader be so important?

5.0 Gorbachev's Voluntarism

I do not understand the collapse of the Soviet Union. I think of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

As I understand it, Gorbachev and other members of the Politburo acquiesced in the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Poor performance pointed out the need for reforms. Nevertheless, I find it strange that political leaders can decide that the system they preside over has no legitimacy like that.

Steve Paxton provides an account of how the fall of the Soviet Union was a triumph for Marx's theory of history.