Which countries have communist ideology? Political ideology of communism
Communist ideology
The communist movement is a constant opponent of social democratic politics and theory. Communism (from the Latin communis - common) as a political ideology arose in the middle of the 19th century. It became an alternative to both liberalism and conservatism. Its main difference from them is its radicalism. The communists declared their goal to be the destruction of all versions of the old social order based on inequality and the creation of a new order based on social equality. This is the anti-conservatism of communist ideology.
The founders of this ideology, K. Marx and F. Engels, formulated its basic principles in the work “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848), which became a guide to action for the radical part of the European labor movement of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The radicalism of this ideology and the corresponding political movement consisted of an orientation towards the implementation of a social revolution with the aim of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat (the poor class), using it to destroy private property, social inequality and build a classless society that ensures the free and comprehensive development of each individual.
In this respect, communism is opposed to liberalism, which asserts that individual freedom is based on private property. The old state, based on the dominance of some classes over others, according to communist ideology, must be replaced by public self-government. Democracy for communists means the subordination of the minority (entrepreneurs) to the majority (workers).
If you turn to the theoretical works of Soviet times on communist ideology, you can read there that this is the ideology of the advanced part of the population under socialism and the ideology of the overwhelming majority of the population under communism. The economic basis of communist ideology is a single communist property, which ensures the priority of public interests over personal and group ones.
and denial of exploitation and oppression of man by man in any form. The main features of communist ideology are: in relation to society and the individual - the prevalence of public interests over group and personal interests, the participation of each individual through his labor in strengthening society, the creation by society of maximum opportunities for all its members to satisfy material and spiritual needs; in personal relationships - cooperation, mutual respect, mutual assistance; in the relations of society and individuals with nature, full compensation for damage caused to nature and promotion of its development.
Communism- an ideology, the essence of which is a critique of capitalist relations from the standpoint of the denial of private property, from the standpoint of collectivism. The political ideas of communist ideology are based on boundless faith in the theory of progress, on the messianic interpretation of the role of the working class in society, on the utopian understanding of human nature, on the belief in the historical inevitability of the revolutionary replacement of capitalism with socialism.
Its main principles: the destruction of private property and the transition to state property, centralized planning, the priority of collective and state interests over the interests of the individual, the leading role of the working class and the Communist Party in society.
So, V.I. Lenin, developing the revolutionary tradition of Marxism, taking in this teaching its most aggressive features, developed a doctrine about the stages of the socialist revolution, about the destruction of the “bourgeois state machine”, the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, a party of a “new type” leading society to the “heights of communism”. Subsequently, Lenin's fundamentalism served as the basis for the emergence of the Stalinist regime, whose theorists, having put forward the idea of intensifying the class struggle as socialist construction progressed, created an ideological basis for ensuring social transformations (socialization of production, industrialization of the national economy, collectivization of the countryside, etc.) by means of terror and genocide of civilians.
History of the 20th century Along with the general humanistic content of the slogans of the communists, it also revealed the organic defects of this ideology, which ultimately prevented its implementation in the modern world. Thus, for the industrial stage of the development of society, the negative attitude of the communists towards the economic inequality of individuals, towards competition and the principles of unequal remuneration for work, due to differences in abilities, education and other characteristics of individuals, turned out to be unacceptable. Wanting to correct the “injustice” of society, the communists tried to replace them with mechanisms of non-labor income distribution, political regulation of economic processes, and recognized the need for the conscious establishment by the state of principles and norms of social equality. Therefore, in the ideology of communism, the state has always been elevated above the individual, conscious management - over the evolutionary course of development of society, politics - over the economy.
In the second half of the 20th century. Various modifications of communist ideology appeared, differing from classical communism. These include “Eurocommunism”, which arose in industrial European countries. It was based on the denial of traditional communist values and criticism of the experience of the USSR and former socialist countries where communism was the official state ideology.
Adherents of this ideology occupied key positions in a number of the largest communist parties in Europe (French, Italian, Spanish). They denied the need to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist revolution, promoted the reformist (parliamentary) path of transition to socialism (“the ingrowth of socialism into capitalism”), political and ideological pluralism, and a mixed (public-private) economy. This contributed to the convergence of their positions with the positions of the socialists and even the creation of a “union of left forces” during election campaigns (for example, the Communist and Socialist parties of France in 1981). Until the collapse of the USSR, the CPSU waged an active ideological struggle against this trend.
The collapse of the socialist system and the departure of the CPSU from the historical scene aggravated the problem of modernizing the communist doctrine. In some countries, communist parties ceased to exist (they changed their names or were dissolved), but where they survived, there is a noticeable tendency towards rapprochement with social democracy. At the same time, there are groups and parties that are conservative, that is, declaring their allegiance to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism.
The crisis of the communist movement and its ideologies in post-Soviet Russia occurred against the background of the rapid growth of communist parties and movements that developed their own versions of communist ideology and culture.
Throughout 1992, various newly formed organizations of communist orientation repeatedly made attempts to restore a single communist party, but they, as a rule, were not successful due to the claims of each organization to hegemony in the unification process.
The first such attempt was made by the All-Union Committee of Communists, headed by S. Skvortsov. In July 1992, this committee held the so-called “XXIX Congress of the CPSU”. However, the rest of the communist organizations in Russia did not recognize the decisions of this congress.
Another attempt was made by the Union of Communists, whose leaders, having gathered 46 (out of more than 400 members) of the “old” CPSU Central Committee, held the so-called in June 1992. "plenum of the CPSU Central Committee", which caused protest from other communist organizations. At the plenum, the “Organizing Committee of the CPSU Central Committee” was formed, which in October 1992 convened the so-called. "XX Party Conference of the CPSU", and on March 26-27, 1993 - "XXIX Congress of the CPSU". The congress approved the new name of the party - "Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union." The leader of the SKP-CPSU was the former secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, member of the State Emergency Committee Oleg Shenin. In May 1993, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation decided to join the UPC-CPSU as an associate member, and in April 1994 it decided to “consider itself an integral part of the Union of Communist Parties while maintaining organizational independence,
grammatical and statutory documents." After this, the plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU on July 9-10, 1994 accepted the Communist Party of the Russian Federation into its ranks.
Various communist organizations operated on the “political field” of new Russia. Let's name some
All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (ACPB). Among the communist organizations that were active in the 90s of the 20th century was the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union, created by supporters of Nina Andreeva after the dissolution of the CPSU on the basis of the Unity society and part of the Bolshevik Platform in the CPSU. The founding congress of the party took place on November 8, 1991.
In the spring of 1993, the All-Russian Communist Party of Belarus took part in the “re-creation” of the Soviet Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and in August of the same year it participated in the restoration of the Roskomsovet and the establishment of the Roskomsoyuz.
The program of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus adopted at the founding congress (November 8, 1991) declared the continuity of the party in relation to the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the form in which it existed until the mid-50s. The party declared its program goals: in the socio-economic field - the restoration of “the dominance of socialist property”, “the state monopoly of foreign trade”, “the social rights of workers guaranteed by the Constitution of 1977”, “updating the planned economic system at the modern scientific level”, “ stopping the forced de-collectivization of the countryside"; in the field of politics and ideology - “the restoration of the Soviet state, performing the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the organ of power of the working class.” The All-Union Communist Party of Belarus for a long time opposed the use of “parliamentary forms of struggle” and only at the beginning of 1994 it allowed the possibility of participation in elections to local government bodies.
The Russian Communist Workers' Party (RCWP) united orthodox communists, who until August 1991 were grouped around the Communist Initiative Movement, which aimed to create a Russian Communist Party within the CPSU on the basis of the United Front of Workers. In the Central Committee
The RCRP included V. Tyulkin, A. Sergeev, M. Popov, V. Anpilov, Yu. Terentyev, R. Kosolapoe and others.
In the Program Statement adopted by the founding congress of the RCWP (November 23-24, 1991), the goals of the RCWP were named “preservation and strengthening of a single state - the USSR”, “preservation and development of a single national economic complex created by the labor of people”, “ensuring the Soviet state of the socio-economic development of the country, free education, medical care, housing easily accessible to all." These goals, the document said, can be achieved “not by bourgeois-type parliaments, but by Workers’ Councils, with full power in both politics and economics.”
Under the leadership of the RCWP, the Labor Russia movement operated, uniting a wide range of adherents of orthodox communist views and headed by the head of the Moscow organization of the RCWP, V. Anpilov. In addition to members of the RCRP, who made up the majority of the TR activists, the movement also included representatives of the OFT, the Union of Communists, the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus, the Russian Komsomol and other communist organizations.
The Union of Communists was created in November 1991 on the basis of the left wing of the “Marxist Platform in the CPSU”. Its sole leader at first was Alexey Prigarin. In April 1992, at the First Congress of the Union of Communists, a decision was made to form the International Union of Communists, which, in addition to the Union of Communists, also included the Union of Communists of Ukraine and Latvia and the Communist Party of Workers of Transnistria. (The International NC, however, existed only on paper.) The Union of Communists advocated the creation of an economic federation between the republics of the former USSR, the development of an “emergency three-year plan for economic recovery,” the introduction of a state monopoly on foreign trade, etc.
The Union of Communists was the main initiator of the creation of the UPC-CPSU. Under his leadership, the “Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee” (June 13, 1992), the “XX Conference of the CPSU” (October 10, 1992), and the “XXIX Congress of the CPSU” (March 29-30, 1993) were prepared and held. The UK was the first to become a full member of the SKP-CPSU.
A. Prigarin was elected one of the deputy chairmen of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, and in addition to him, S. Stepanov, a member of the Central Committee of the SKP-CPSU, also joined the Political Executive Committee of the Council of the UPC-CPSU. Members of the Investigative Committee participated in the creation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (the decision on the withdrawal of activists of the Union of Communists from the Zyuganov Communist Party was made only at the Second Congress of the Investigative Committee in December 1993), as well as in the Roskomsovet, which was recreated in August 1993.
The program goals of the Union of Communists initially stated “socialist development of society”, “the leading role of public ownership of the main means of production using various forms of ownership in the service sector and small-scale production”, “regulated market relations”, “reasonable combination of planned principles of economic management and market", "the market for means of production and consumer goods in the absence of a market for labor and capital", "the revival of Soviet power", "the creation of a system of democracy based on elections on the territorial production principle", "the development of self-government".
The Russian Party of Communists (RPK) was the least orthodox of all the "left" communist parties included in the Roskomsovet. Its program, in particular, allows for the existence of “limited private property.” At the same time, real political practice makes the PKK indistinguishable from all other member parties of the RKS.
The 1st Congress of the RPK (December 5-6, 1992) decided to participate in the organizing committee for the restoration of the Communist Party of the RSFSR; party representatives participated both in the official 2nd Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and in the “parallel” one, held on the initiative of the RCWP. Some members of the PKK leadership led by K). Belov and B. Slavin in February 1993 moved to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Representatives of the PKK have repeatedly stated that they consider themselves “realist communists” and avoid “the extremist extremes of other communist groups.”
Union of Communist Parties (UKP-CPSU). The Organizing Committee of the "XXIX Congress of the CPSU" ("Organizing Committee of the CPSU Central Committee") was formed on June 13, 1992 at a meeting of 46 members of the "old" Central Committee
CPSU, convened on the initiative of the leaders of the Union of Communists (in particular, Konstantin Nikolaev, a member of the leadership of the IC, became the chairman of the OC, and the leader of the IC, Alexei Prigarin, became his deputy). On October 10, 1992, the Organizing Committee of the CPSU Central Committee held the "XX Party Conference of the CPSU", and on March 26-27, 1993 - the "XXIX Congress of the CPSU". At the congress, the “recreated” party received a new name: the Union of Communist Parties - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP-KPSS).
The first of the Russian communist parties to join the SKP-CPSU as full members were the Union of Communists, the Bolshevik Platform in the CPSU and the Lenin Platform of Richard Kosolapov (formed within the RCWP in December 1992, in February 1993 it transferred to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation). On May 15, 1993, at the plenum of the Party Council, the Union of Communists of Russia, the Union of Communists of Latvia, and the Communist Party of South Ossetia were officially accepted into the UCP-CPSU. Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, Communist Party of Estonia, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Communist Party of Tajikistan and Communist Party of Workers of Transnistria.
The RCRP, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Union of Communists of Ukraine joined the Union of Communist Parties as associate members. At the plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU on July 9-10, 1994, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Communist Party of Ukraine and the United Communist Party of Georgia were accepted as full members of the UPC-CPSU. At the plenum on December 12, 1994, the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and the Communist Party of Uzbekistan entered the UPC-CPSU as full members, and the Workers' Union of Armenia as an associate. At the plenum on March 25, 1995 - the RCRP and the Communist Party of Moldova as full members, the PKK - as an associate.
At the beginning of July 1995, the JCPCPSS Program was adopted. The program principles were declared: “refusal to compromise with anti-people ruling regimes”; "the leading role of state ownership"; unification of the opposition based on the recognition of “the need for accelerated mobilization development of the country”; "the desire to build a union state on the principle of "union of peoples - federation of territories"; "full support for the armed forces and
law enforcement agencies in their actions in the interests of the workers"; "development and strengthening of traditional national Soviet spiritual values." The Congress declared the impossibility of admitting representatives of social democratic organizations and cooperation with nationalist associations, which were considered as "an instrument of provocations of the special services," into the UCP-CPSU.
Roskomsoyuz. An association of "left" ("revolutionary") communist organizations in Russia, opposing themselves to the "opportunistic" Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
The prototype of Roskomsoyuz was the Russian Coordination and Advisory Council (Roskomsovet), created at a meeting of representatives of republican and regional communist parties operating in the territory of the former USSR that took place on August 8-9, 1992. His task was to hold a unification conference of communists of the former Union. Representatives of almost all Russian parties that formed “on the ruins” of the CPSU took part in the work of Roskomsovet - not only the Communist Parties, but also the Socialist Working People's Party. Gradually, the majority in the RKS was captured by representatives of the SPT, and Roskomsovet from the organizing committee for the re-creation of the CPSU turned into an initiative committee for the re-creation of the Communist Party of the RSFSR. After the “restoration” of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Roskomsovet ceased its activities.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) is the largest communist (and generally political) party in the Russian Federation.
The Political Statement adopted at the Second Party Congress (February 13-14, 1993) spoke of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's commitment to the "ideas of socialism and democracy." The Communist Party of the Russian Federation set its goals to “prevent the capitalization of the country” and “stop forced privatization.” At the same time, the statement contained such provisions, uncharacteristic for orthodox communists, as “formation of a planned market economy”, “social orientation of reforms”, “optimal combination of various forms of ownership”, “free transfer of land for perpetual possession and use by state, collective, farm and other farms", "conclusion of a new interstate agreement between the CIS countries".
All modern political ideologies, reflecting the conflicts of social existence, are in constant development. Ideologies acquire new historical forms, borrowing from each other value guidelines that better fulfill the role of mobilization, organization of certain social strata, and direct their social action. This is how liberalism becomes “more socialist”, and socialism becomes “more liberal”. Conservatism internalizes the values of liberalism. Modern ideologies seem to be retreating from a one-sided vision of the world and moving along the path of interpenetration and complementarity. However, this does not yet lead to the loss of their self-identity. Ideologies reflect both social interest and the search for more realistic and effective programs of social development. The competition of forces vying for power, as well as the competition of ideologies, is an element of power relations, it is the engine of political development, one of the guarantees of its democratic tendencies
Related information.
Communism, as an ideology, is a system of ideas, values and ideals that expresses the worldview of the working class and its vanguard - the Communist Party. Communist ideology equips communist parties and the international communist movement with a clear program for the revolutionary reorganization of the world.
The definition of communism can be reduced to the thesis of the “Communist Manifesto” of Marx and Engels, which emphasizes the socio-economic principle: “Communists can express their theory in one proposition: the abolition of private property.” Consequently, there is a similarity between capitalism and communism as a kind of “monopoly form of capitalism,” as Shafarevich puts it. But it is known that this “similarity” is false, taking into account other, non-economic aspects of communism.
Representatives of communism proposed considering communism as a natural result of the development of society, the operation of objective historical laws and the practical revolutionary activity of people, as a higher social formation, inevitably and naturally and historically necessarily coming after capitalism. An important essential characteristic of communism is the disappearance of the state and state power. The ideal of communist ideology is a society in which all members are socially equal and in which, therefore, there are no classes of workers and bourgeoisie, poor and rich.
A feature of the ideology of the Social Democrats is reformism, the justification of the possibility of an evolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism through peaceful means, without revolutionary explosions of society, through the gradual ingrowth of socialist relations into capitalist ones. They see the basis of economic democracy in public ownership, but within the framework of a mixed economy, advocating a policy of regulation and redistribution of income through effective mechanisms of a market economy.
The social democratic concept of political democracy is based on the principles of equality and freedom. It recognizes the existence of various forms of democracy, subject to such fundamental criteria of political democracy as free elections, political pluralism, the possibility of changing the government through peaceful parliamentary means, the guarantee of individual and minority rights, and the existence of an independent judiciary based on the rule of law. In the social sphere, these principles assumed the availability of education and spiritual values, etc.
The failures of the Soviet experiment in building communism in one particular country significantly undermined the foundations of Marxism-Leninism (the founders of communism and socialism K. Marx, F. Engels, V. Lenin (Ulyanov) and the international communist movement. In these conditions, a new version of Marxism arose - neo-Marxism - as a desire to improve Marxism based on taking into account new social and political realities. The main thing in most variants of neo-Marxism was the desire to dissociate itself from discredited attitudes towards revolutionary transformations (which was one of the key directions for changing and improving society and the state) and to form a theory of Marxism “with human face."
By the end of the twentieth century, many countries of socialism-communism could not withstand competition with developed capitalist powers in terms of economic efficiency, development of modern technologies, etc. Thus, the ideas of communism turned out to be weak: underestimation of socio-cultural factors in the development of social development; absolutization of the consciousness and activity of the working class and underestimation of the historical role of other categories of workers; underestimation of the potential of the evolutionary dynamics of capitalism; intolerance of dissent; interpretation of bourgeois democracy only as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, etc.
Characteristic Features of Communism
Communism as a single socio-economic formation is characterized by a number of common fundamental features inherent in both of its phases:
a fairly high level of development of productive forces and socialization of labor;
public ownership of the means of production;
the universality of labor and the absence of exploitation of man by man;
communist public self-government;
relations of cooperation and mutual assistance;
planned and proportional development in order to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of the working people as fully as possible;
unity, cohesion of society, the dominance of a single Marxist-Leninist worldview, etc.
Since the means of production become common property, the word “communism” is applicable here, if we do not forget that this is not complete communism.
Communist ideology- a system of ideas, values and ideals that expresses the worldview of the working class and its vanguard - the communist party. Communist ideology arms the international communist movement with a clear program for the revolutionary reorganization of the world.
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Essence
Unlike previous ideologies, the worldview of the proletariat is in no way reduced to the defense of narrow class interests. It reveals a broad panorama of history, determines the place of each class in the social struggle, reveals the objective laws of social development rooted in the method of production, and develops a materialist view of history. That is why the ideology of the proletariat is scientific in nature and acts as a means of social orientation of the masses.
The scientific nature of communist ideology is closely related to its revolutionary partisanship. In contrast to bourgeois ideology, which hides its exploitative character under the guise of objectivism, communist ideology openly proclaims its partisanship. This feature of it does not contradict scientific principles, but, on the contrary, presupposes a consistent and deep knowledge of the objective laws of the social process. The scientific ideology of the proletariat is opposed to bourgeois ideology. She is active and offensive. Consistently expressing the aspirations and aspirations of the broad masses of the people, communist ideology is a powerful weapon for the revolutionary transformation of the world, the establishment of the ideals of justice, freedom and equality, the brotherhood of people and nations.
Another feature of communist ideology is its creative nature. Its strength lies in constant development and enrichment with new experiences. As V.I. Lenin repeatedly emphasized, revolutionary theory is not a fossilized dogma, but a living, creative teaching that draws its strength from social practice. Communism can only be built on the basis of a scientific understanding of the past, a deep analysis of the present and prediction of the future.
Already with this, the role of ideology increases sharply and acquires qualitatively new features in comparison with capitalism. The cognitive role of communist ideology is growing unusually, and its functions such as integration, mobilization, and orientation are deepening and developing. This also applies to economic construction, which is carried out on a planned, conscious basis and where the determination of goals and the comparative significance of social values acquires exceptional importance. This applies equally to the political regulation of social development, where the leadership of the party, the creativity of the masses, and other subjective factors acquire unprecedented significance. These factors intensify as a socialist society moves towards communism.
Derived from the Latin word commūnis ("common") and meaning "ideal world", a model of society in which there is no social inequality, no private property and everyone has the right to the means of production that ensure the existence of society as a whole. The concept of communism also includes a gradual decrease in the role of the state with its subsequent withering away as unnecessary, as well as money, and the responsibility of each person to society under the slogan “from each according to his ability - to each according to his needs.” The definitions of the concept “” themselves, given in different sources, differ from each other, although they voice general ideas.
Basic ideas of communism
In 1848, Karl Marx formulated the basic tenets of communism - a sequence of steps and changes that would make possible the transition from a capitalist model of society to a communist one. He announced it in the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", published.
The main idea of the manifesto was the alienation of private land ownership and the collection of land use fees into the state treasury instead of private ones. In addition, according to Marx's ideas, a tax should have been introduced depending on the level of wealth of the payer, a state monopoly on the banking system - centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with 100% state capital, and the transfer of the entire transport system into the hands of the state (alienation of private property to transport lines).
Labor obligations in the form of labor detachments were introduced for everyone without exception, especially in the field of agriculture, the principle of transfer of inheritance was abolished and the property of emigrants was alienated in favor of the state. New state factories were to be built, creating, first of all, new means of production. It was planned to introduce centralized agriculture at the expense of the state and under its control. Particular importance was attached to the unification of agriculture with industry, the gradual merging of city and countryside, and the elimination of differences between them. In addition, general free upbringing and education of children and educational activities combined with the production process were to be introduced, and child labor in factories was to be abolished.
On the territory of Russia, these ideas were embodied in Marxist-Leninist philosophy, the ideology of the working class, which called for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the struggle of the proletariat to build a communist society. Marxism-Leninism was officially enshrined as the state ideology of the USSR in the 1977 constitution and existed in this form until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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