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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
On Marx's characteristic — although not wholly consistent—view, an ideology is a false theory (or, in his own words, a form of “false consciousness”) of a special kind, namely, one that serves to mask or “rationalize” the unpleasant realities of a given socioeconomic system. Lenin drastically expanded the sense of the term, making ideology equivalent to theory, whether rational or “rationalizing,” and to knowledge, whether adequate or inadequate. Leninists regard all knowledge as “superstructurally” determined by socioeconomic relationships, and thus, in “class society,” partisan to the interests of a given class.
1 In at least one place Marx himself suggested a broader sense of ‘ideology’; his preface to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) seems to equate ideologische Formen with gesellschaftliche Bewusstseinsformen. But this is not quite the same thing as equating ideology with theory.
2 Kelle, V. and Koval'zon, M., Formy obshchestvennovo soznaniya (Moscow, 1959), p. 29Google Scholar. For a review of other recent Soviet statements, see Fleischer, H., “The Limits of ‘Party-Mindedness’: A Selection of Texts,” Studies in Soviet Thought, 2, No. 2 (1962), 119–131CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Karel Kosik of Prague has drawn a distinction between “orators” — whose object is to persuade others to adopt a given philosophical position — and “philosophers” — who seek the truth. Contemporary Soviet philosophy is clearly dominated by “orators” in Kosik's sense.
4 Pravda, June 16, 1962, p. 1.
5 See Bocheński, J. M., “The Three Components of Communist Ideology,”Studies in Soviet Thought, 2, No. 1 (1962), 7–11.Google Scholar These distinctions, if I understand Professor Bocheński correctly, cut across the distinction between Marxism-Leninism as philosophy and Marxism-Leninism as ideology.
6 Voprosy filosofii, No. 2, 1961, 8. Italics added. Academician F. V. Konstantinov puts the point even more strongly: “Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev,” he writes, “has shown, by the example of his own intense and many-sided activity, how Marxist theory ought to be developed, enriched with new experience, and linked to practice…” (“Sotsiologiya i politika,” Voprosy filosofii, No. 11, 1962, 17).
7 For example, political and diplomatic successes are said to be achieved “under the leadership of the Leninist C[entral] C[ommittee] of the C[ommunist] P[arty of the] S[oviet] U[nion] and Comrade N. S. Khrushchev personally” (Voprosy filosofii, No. 2, 1961, 4).
8 In the words of O. I. Ivashchenko, President of the Economic Commission of the Soviet of Nationalities, “All Soviet citizens are filled to overflowing with a sense of profound gratitude to the C[entral] C[ommittee] of our Party, to the Soviet Government, and to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev personally, for [their? — his? — the Russian has no possessive pronoun: a convenient ambiguity] firmness and wise decision, which averted thermonuclear war, defended revolutionary Cuba, and preserved peace throughout the world” (Izvestiya, Dec. 12, 1962, p. 2).
9 Izvestiya, Dec. 13, 1962.
10 Voprosy fihsofii, No. 11, 1961, 3.
11 For details, see my “Soviet Philosophers at the Thirteenth International Philosophy Congress,” Journal of Philosophy, 60 (1963), 738–743CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Voprosy fihsofii, No. 7, 1963, 110, 114.
13 Osnovy marksistskoi fihsofii, Moscow, 1958, p. 301Google Scholar.
14 German translations, based on the published Polish (Zinoviev) and Czech (Kolman) versions, are included in Lobkowicz, N., Das Widerspruchsbrinzip in der neueren sowjetischen Philosophie (Dordrecht, Holland, 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. my review in the Journal of Philosophy, 59 (1962), 815–820CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 Soviet writers continue to use ‘idealist’ in Lenin's broad sense, equivalent to “nonmaterialist”; and ‘metaphysician’ in Engels' narrow sense, equivalent to “nondialectician.”
16 See Comey, David D., “A Positivist Among the Dialecticians,” Studies in Soviet Thought, 2, No. 3 (1962), 204–219Google Scholar.
17 For example, since 1930 there have been no Soviet editions of Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, Pascal, Berkeley, Hume, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Max Weber, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, William James, Santayana, Dewey, or Whitehead; and not a single reprinting of the works of Bakunin, Lavrov, Leontyev, Vladimir Solovyov, Shestov, or Berdyaev.
18 The policy of “peaceful coexistence,” although it represents a “revision” of Leninist doctrine, is an ideology and not just a program. It specifies the relations between socialist and nonsocialist states, or blocs of states, during the transitional period between a past characterized by the absolute dominance of warlike nonsocialist states and a future to be characterized by the absolute dominance of peaceable socialist states. It is thus a kind of “peaceful war,” intermediate between the earlier condition of interrupted war and the eventual condition of uninterrupted peace.
19 Cf. his “Marxist-Leninist Ideology and Soviet Policy,” Studies in Soviet Thought, 2, No. 4 (1962), 301–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Voprosy filosofii, No. 2, 1961, 8.
21 The Russian expression is “narodny (or obshchestvenny) kontrol'” — perhaps best translated as “public (or “social”) inspection and control,” since kontrol', like the French contrôle, refers primarily to “checking” or “verification” and only secondarily to “guidance” or “direction.”
22 In a speech to the Plenum (Plenary Session) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on November 19, 1962. Cf. Izvestiya, Nov. 20, 1962, p. 7.
23 It seems likely that many ex-secret-police agents will turn up among the masses of “volunteers”; some of them are already active in the People's Militia (druzhiny). It can hardly be accidental that the head of the State and Party Commission of Inspection and Control set up in 1962 is A. N. Shelepin, a former chief of the Soviet secret police.
24 Cf. Voprosy filosofii, No. 11, 1961, 12.
25 Izvestiya, Nov. 20, 1962, p. 7.
26 For details, see my note in Survey, No. 47 (1963), esp. 72–73.
27 Izvestiya, Dec. 4, 1962, p. 1.
