How Did The Soviet Union Influence The Theory Of Marxism

After the revolution and death of the Russian Czar in 1917, Vladimir Lenin overthrew the short-lived democratic government that followed the end of Nicholas II, replacing it with a Bolshevik communist regime. (Background essay) His teachings were inspired by Karl Marx who was a German philosopher that believed society goes through certain stages: Capitalism, socialism, and finally communism. Lenin would then go on to establish the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922 which slowly led to the rise of the USSR as one of the superpowers of the world. In today’s society, many mysteries about the Soviet Union lurk among the world and textbooks should emphasize three certain things to bring light to the subject of the Soviet Union. Textbooks should emphasize their cultural achievements, economy, and their leadership.

No man - no problem.”(Stalin) Stalin was a powerful communist leader of Soviet Union in the early years. One of Stalin’s aims was to control his people that they would be afraid even to think of opposing him. The Soviet dictator has not only exterminated, but also had potential enemies executed or been sent to labor camps. Stalin claimed his policies were based on Marxism-Leninism, but there can be no doubt

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as ‘a sudden, extreme, or complete change in the way people live, work, etc.’. Despite the difference between these definitions, they both have the same gist; a revolution is a movement that changes a nation, whether for better or worse. In the case of Russia, the revolution affected both the government and economy of the country. The government changed from a monarchy to a democracy to a dictatorship. The economy shifted from capitalism to communism.

Writings of Karl Marx had formed the theoretical basis for communism and the continual debate against capitalism. Marx understood capitalism to be a system in which the means of production are privately owned and profit is generated by the sale of the proletariat’s labour. He considered it to be an unfair exploitation of hard work with alienated social interactions and purpose. I agree with Marx that capitalism is indeed unfair and alienating, because it concentrates wealth within a small group of people by exploiting the surplus value of workers’ labour, and creates an alienated workforce. Hence, this essay will first discuss the relevance of Marx’s perception of capitalism as an alienating and unfair system for the contemporary world, before examining the potential of governments to influence the extent of alienation and unfairness that occurs.

Much of the failure economically comes from the failure of central planning. According to 1977 constitution of the USSR in the Soviet Union, socialism was to reign supreme and the economy was to be planned by the central Soviet government. “ The Soviet state is organized and functions on the principle of democratic centralism, namely the electiveness of all bodies of state authority from the lowest to the highest, their accountability to the people, and the obligation of lower bodies to observe the decisions of higher ones. Democratic centralism combines central leadership with local initiative and creative activity

However, for Lenin the working class was incapable of achieving socialism and then communism without leaders. The transition from capitalist society, developing towards a communist society, is impossible without a ‘political transition period’ ” (6). We can see these stages that occur after capitalism: socialism and communism in Zamyatins’ We when D-503 refers to the ancient world. However, Lenin makes the observation that it is impossible to refer to the ancient contemporary world when factors are still brought up in the present “rationale” period. For Lenin the jump from capitalism to communism was effortless because they were essentially the same thing with different labels leading to the next idea of never ending revolutions: “The replacement of bourgeoisie by the proletariat is impossible without a revolution” (5).

in Tabbi, 15). He considers postmodernism as the explosion of capital into global markets beyond the nation’s control (Tabbi 15). In his 1984 review, Pynchon also talks about capitalism as an institution concerned with maintaining power. He seems to agree with Orwell about socialism but he later states that when the nation is in danger, it needs good leadership. This political view is then linked to the gloomy state of contemporary Socialism and its acceptance of a Stalinist Regime, which splits the mind into double thinking.

Power is one of the most fundamental and yet problematic sociological concepts with several distinctive conceptualizations by different theorists, ranging from traditional to contemporary perspectives The cornerstone of Marxist notion of power is that power lies within the hands of the ruling class, the bourgeois who own the means of production and power is being used to control and exploit the working class, the proletariats. In contrast to Marxist idea, Bourdieu posited that the ownership over the means of production alone does not determine how power is positioned and reproduced in the society. Bourdieu further asserted that besides economic forces, cultural and symbolic systems are also important factors, which are necessary in maintaining

I began with a Hegelian notion of alienation, but have since developed a more materialist conception. I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is what mediates social relationships of production through commodities, including labour, that are bought and sold on the market. Connection between persons such as workers or between workers and capitalists is corrupted. The possibility that one may give up ownership of one 's own labour, one 's capacity to transform the world, is tantamount to being alienated from one 's own nature. This loss is a prime example of false consciousness, the scenario where the ideology of the ruling class is embodied willfully by a subordinate class.

Marxism is a socio-political ideology proposed by Karl Marx main ideology of Marxism is that the wealth has to be equally divided among the society for that Co-operative company instead of corporate company 's can be accepted that means the wealth collected or gained by the company is not targeted towards the owner of the company instead it is divided equally among all the co-operative. Marx explains history in terms of class struggles. Basically 'the haves and 'have not’s '. For Marx this class struggle is a natural process. Conflicts are usually resolved in the long run even if these conflict results in violence.