Table Of Content

Marxism Soviet A CRITICAL ANALYSIS By Herbert Marcuse 4" NEW YORK \tlf/ COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS The transliteration system used in this series is based on the Library of Congress system, with some modifications COPYRIGHT © 1958 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK First printing 1958 Fourth printing 1969 Published in Great Britain by Routledf^e Sc Kegan Paul Ltd. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 57-10943 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Acknowledgments THE FIRST PART of this work is the result of my studies as a Senior Fellow at the Russian Institute, Columbia Uni- versity, during the years 1952-53. The second part was prepared at the Russian Research Center, Harvard Uni- versity, in 1954-55, under a special grant from the Rocke- feller Foundation. I am much indebted to the Russian Re- search Center, and especially to its Director, William L. Langer, and Associate Director, Marshall D. Shulman, for their kindness in relinquishing to Columbia University Press their publication rights to the second part. I also wish to express my thanks to George L. Kline, Columbia University, who prepared some of the material used in the second part of this essay; to Alfred E. Senn, for his assistance with Russian references; and to Arkadii R. L. Gurland, who offered valuable help and comments. My friend, Barrington Moore, Jr., read the manuscript and helped me as usual with his incisive criticism. The index was prepared by Maud Hazeltine. HERBERT MARCUSE Brandeis University June, 1957 Contents Introduction 1 Part I: Political Tenets 1. The Marxian Concept of the Transition to Socialism 17 2. Soviet Marxism: The Basic Self-Interpretation 38 3. The New Rationality 78 4. Socialism in One Country? 93 5. The Dialectic of the Soviet State 101 — 6. Base and Superstructure Reality and Ideology 120 7. Dialectic and Its Vicissitudes 136 8. The Transition from Socialism to Communism 160 Part II: Ethical Tenets 9. Western and Soviet Ethics: Their Historical Relation 195 — 10. Soviet Ethics The Externalization of Values 210 11. The Principles of Communist Morality 231 12. Ethics and Productivity 248 13. The Trend of Communist Morality 258 Index 269 Soviet Marxism Introduction THIS STUDY attempts to evaluate some main trends of Soviet Marxism in terms of an "immanent critique," that is to say it starts from the theoretical premises of Soviet Marxism develops their ideological and sociological consequences and reexamines the premises in the light of these conse quences. The critique thus employs the conceptual instru ments of its object, namely, Marxism, in order to clarify the actual function of Marxism in Soviet society and its historical direction. This approach implies a twofold assumption: (1) That Soviet Marxism (i.e., Leninism, Stalinism, and post-Stalin trends) is not merely an ideology promul- gated by the Kremlin in order to rationalize and justify its policies but expresses in various forms the realities of Soviet developments. If this is the case, then the extreme poverty and even dishonesty of Soviet theory would not vitiate the basic importance of Soviet theory but would itself provide a cue for the factors which engendered the obvious theoretical deficiencies; (2) That identifiable objective trends and tendencies are operative in history which make up the inherent rationality of the historical process. Since this assumption is