Ideology and Soviet Politics

267 Pages·1988·26.078 MB·English

by  Stephen White, Alex Pravda (eds.)

STUDIES IN RUSSIA AND EAST EUROPE
formerly Studies in Russian and East European History
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Slavonic and East European Studies.
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Phyllis Auty and Richard Clogg (editors)
BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS WARTIME RESISTANCE IN
YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE
Elisabeth Barker
BRITISH POLICY IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE IN THE SECOND
WORLD WAR
Richard Clogg (editor)
THE MOVEMENT FOR GREEK INDEPENDENCE, 1770-1821:
A COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS
Olga Crisp
STUDIES IN THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY BEFORE 1914
John C. K. Daly
RUSSIAN SEAPOWER AND 'THE EASTERN QUESTION',
1827-41
Dennis Delatant and Harry Hanak (editors)
HISTORIANS AS NATION BUILDERS: CENTRAL AND
SOUTH-EAST EUROPE
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NIKOLA Y GOG UL: TEXT AND CONTEXT
D. G. Kirby (editor)
FINLAND ANDRUSS IA, 1808-1920: DOCUMENTS
Martin McCauley
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE SOVIET STATE, 1917-
1921: DOCUMENTS (editor)
KHRUSHCHEV AND KHRUSHCHEVISM (editor)
KHRUSHCHEV AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOVIET
AG RI CULTURE
COMMUNIST POWER IN EUROPE, 1944-1949 (editor)
MARXISM-LENINISM IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC: THE SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY (SED)
THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC SINCE 1945
THE SOVIET UNION UNDER GORBACHEV (editor)
Martin McCauley and Stephen Carter (editors)
LEADERSHIP AND SUCCESSION IN THE SOVIET UNION,
EASTERN EUROPE AND CHINA
Martin McCauley and Peter Waldron
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN RUSSIAN STATE, 1855-8
Evan Mawdsley
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BAL TIC FLEET
Laszlo Peter and Robert B. Pynsent
INTELLECTUALS AND THE FUTURE IN THE HABSBURG
MONARCHY 1890-1914
J. J. Tomiak (editor)
WESTERN PERSPECTIVES ON SOVIET EDUCATION IN THE
1980s
Stephen White and Alex Pravda (editors)
IDEOLOGY AND SOVIET POLITICS
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IDEOLOGY AND
SOVIET POLITICS
Edited by
Stephen White
Department ofP olitics and Institute ofS oviet and East European
Studies, University ofG lasgow
and
Alex Pravda
Royal Institute of International Affairs and Department of Politics,
University of Reading
M
in association with the
Palgrave Macmillan
MACMILLAN
PRESS
© Schoo1 of S1avonic and East European Studies, University of London, 1988
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-43449-9
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
ofthis publication may be made without written permission.
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First published 1988
Published by
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andLondon
Companies and representatives
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British Library Cata1oguing in Publication Data
Ideo1ogy and Soviet politics.-(Studies in
Russia and East Europe).
l. Ideology-History 2. Communism
Soviet Union-History-20th century
3. Soviet Union-Po1itics and government
-1917-1. White, Stephen, 1945-11. Pravda
III. Series
320.947 JN6581
ISBN 978-0-333-43910-4 ISBN 978-1-349-19335-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19335-6
Contents
List of the Contributors VI
Preface VII
Ideology and Soviet Politics
Stephen White
2 What is to Count as Ideology in Soviet Politics? 21
Michael Waller
3 Political Ideologies in the Soviet Union 43
Alfred G. Meyer
4 Ideology and System-Building: the Experience under 59
Lenin and Stalin
Graeme Gill
5 Developed Socialism and the New Programme of the 83
CPSU
Alfred B. Evans
6 Ideology and Soviet Economic Policy 114
David A. Dyker
7 Local Soviets and Popular Needs: Where the Official 136
Ideology Meets Everyday Life
Michael E. Urban
8 Soviet Ideology and Female Roles 159
Mary Buckley
9 Ideology and the National Question 180
Peter Duncan
I 0 The Long and Winding Road: Trajectories to Peace and 203
Socialism in Contemporary Soviet Ideology
Stephen Shenjield
11 Ideology and the Policy Process 225
Alex Pravda
Index
253
v
List of the Contributors
Mary Buckley, Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh.
Peter Duncan, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London.
David A. Dyker, School of European Studies, University of Sussex.
Alfred B. Evans, Department of Political Science, California State
University.
Graeme Gill, Department of Government, University of Sydney.
Alfred G. Meyer, Department of Political Science, University of
Michigan.
Alex Pravda, Department of Politics, University of Reading.
Stephen Shenfield, Centre for Russian and East European Studies,
University of Birmingham.
Michael E. Urban, Department of Political Science, Auburn University,
Alabama.
Michael Waller, Department of Government, University of Manche
ster.
Stephen White, Department of Politics, University of Glasgow.
VI
Preface
Ideology is defined in this volume as the official doctrine of Marxism
Leninism to which the Soviet leadership, party and state are all formally
committed. There has never been much doubt that ideology, defined in
this manner, is among the most important elements of political life in the
USSR. Far too often, however, the official ideology of Marxism
Leninism has been taken as a 'given' in discussions of this kind, and little
detailed attention has been given to the changes that have been taking
place in official doctrine over the years or to the changing functions that
the ideology has been called upon to perform. The last sustained
discussion of the role of ideology in Soviet politics, indeed, occurred
some twenty years ago, prompted by an article in Soviet Studies by one
of the contributors to this volume, Alfred Meyer, whose chapter serves
to link that earlier discussion with our own.
In the pages that follow, we have tried to do three things: first of all, to
review some more recent approaches to the study of ideology and Soviet
politics; secondly, to examine the changes that have taken place in the
official ideology from the Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev periods up to
Brezhnev's concept of'developed socialism' and the modification of that
doctrine by the current General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, par
ticularly in the new version of the Party Programme adopted by the 27th
Party Congress in 1986; and thirdly, to consider in some detail the
evolution and impact of official doctrine in a variety of major policy
areas. The extent to which the official ideology has been debated, and
even modified, over the years will, we believe, surprise many readers; it
should, we hope, at least make clear that the official ideology is not
simply a determinant of the Soviet political process, but rather a political
construct whose changing nature reflects the varying impact of groups,
institutions and individuals within the Soviet system over the years.
This volume was first conceived at a panel on political ideology and
communist politics which took place at the annual conference of the UK
Political Studies Association, and was prompted particularly by a paper
to that panel by Rachel Walker of the University of Southampton, on
ideology and politics in the USSR. A more sustained discussion took
place at a conference on ideology and Soviet politics which was held at
Vil
viii Preface
the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of
London, in May 1985, with the financial assistance of the Nuffield
Foundation and of the Ford Foundation sub-grant administered by the
British University Association ofSlavists and the National Association
of Soviet and East European Studies. Earlier versions of the papers
included in this volume were presented at the conference and discussed
extensively, together with a number of other papers whose inclusion in
this volume did not prove feasible, and all have been revised or rewritten
specially for this publication. We would like to record our thanks to
those, other than the present authors, who made a contribution to the
success of the conference either as paper-givers, discussants or in some
other capacity, particularly Ron Amann, Archie Brown, Michael
Gibson, Jeff Gleisner, Neil Harding, Ron Hill, Geoffrey Hosking, Mary
McAuley, Neil Malcolm, Robert Porter, Susan Saunders, Bob Service,
Alex Shtromas and Rachel Walker, whose important work on the
subject will be appearing elsewhere. We wish also to thank Professor
Michael Branch, Bob Service and the staff of the School of Slavonic and
East European Studies, University of London, for their efficient
administration of the conference and of the production of this volume.
We ourselves will be satisfied if the pages that follow help to revive dis
cussion of an aspect of Soviet politics which has been too long neglec
ted.
STEPHEN WHITE
ALEX PRAVDA
1 Ideology and Soviet
Politics
STEPHEN WHITE
There has been general agreement that the official ideology ofMarxism
Leninism plays a central role in Soviet politics. To at least some Western
scholars, the impo.rtance of the official ideology is such that we are
justified in regarding the Soviet political system as an 'ideology' or even
'utopia in power', with the official ideology functioning as a kind of
blueprint which determines, or at least prescribes, the course of that
society's development.1 To the Soviet authorities themselves, there is
equally no doubt that (in the words of the current Constitution) the
October Revolution has given rise to a 'new type of state', a 'basic
instrument for defending the gains of the revolution and for building
socialism and communism', which in turn is part of a world-wide
transition from capitalism to socialism.2 Yet, at least in Western
scholarly circles, the nature of the ideology itself has tended to be taken
as a 'given' in discussions of this kind.
Relatively little detailed consideration, for instance, has been given to
the complex changes that the official ideology has undergone over the
years, or to the social role that the ideology has performed over the same
period. Perhaps still more important, there has been hardly any
discussion of the detailed operation of the ideology in specific policy
areas, examining the interaction between theory and practice and the
complex negotiation of an operational version of the ideology in each
case. In this volume we seek to redress the balance, dealing first of all
with the evolution of the official ideology from the revolution to the
present day, and then secondly with the development of the ideology in a
series of important policy areas. This introductory chapter is intended to
set the other contributions in some kind of context by dealing in turn
with three distinct but related topics: first of all, with some of the more
notable contributions of earlier years to the study of ideology and Soviet
politics; secondly, with some of the main developments in the official
ideology over recent decades; and then, finally, with some of the debates
1