‘The Soviet Problem’ in Post-Soviet Russian Marxism, or the Afterlife of the USSR

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Vladimir Tikhonov
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
The State ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Soviet Marxism ◽  
Class Stratification ◽  
Soviet Experience ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract The present article deals with different Marxist theories on the Soviet experience, which emerged in post-Soviet Russophone Marxist or neo-Marxist scholarship (concurrently with some reference to Marxist traditions in other former Eastern Bloc countries). The article demonstrates that these theories – if we leave the remaining ‘Marxist-Leninists’ of the classical Soviet type aside and focus on critical, post-Soviet Marxism – may be classified as either ‘fundamentally rejectionist’ or ‘Thermidorian’. The former, in line with the seminal criticisms of K. Kautsky and other early opponents of Lenin, reject the socialist nature of the October 1917 Revolution outright. The latter mostly define the Revolution as at least socialist-oriented, but further bifurcate into different varieties of the ‘state capitalism’ thesis with a number of theorists defining Stalinist societies as special varieties of post-revolutionary industrialism essentially different from orthodox capitalism. Most critical post-Soviet Marxists agree, however, that the main vector of Soviet-type regimes’ evolution indeed pointed towards increased class stratification. However, it should be remembered that Soviet-type bureaucracy was a class-in-the-making rather than a class-in-itself or a class-for-itself, and this point is further elaborated in the works of those theorists who prioritise the differences rather than similarities between Soviet-type industrialism and orthodox capitalism.

Russia in 2000-2004: Heading towards State Capitalism?

2004 ◽  
pp. 42-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Radygin
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Private Business ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
The Government

The paper deals with one of the characteristic trends of the 2000s, that is, the government's property expansion. It is accompanied by attempts to consolidate economic structures controlled by the state and state-owned stock packages and unitary enterprises under the aegis of holdings. Besides the government practices selective severe enforcement actions against a number of the largest private companies, strengthens its control over companies with mixed capital and establishes certain informal procedures of relationships between private business and the state. The author examines the YUKOS case and the business community's actual capacity to protect its interests. One can argue that in all likelihood the trend to the 'state capitalism' in its specific Russian variant has become clearer over 2003-2004.

Russian Protectionism: Problems of Institutional Heritage

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Times ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.

Парламент или Советы: российский выбор 1918 года

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Игорь А. Исаев
Keyword(s):  
Legal History ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Political Form ◽  
The Revolution

The article deals with one of the most important issues in the Soviet political and legal history. The choice of the political form that was established almost immediately after the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Revolution of 1917, meant a change in the direction of development of the state. Councils became an alternative to the parliamentary republic. The article analyzes the basic principles of both political systems and the reasons for such a choice. The author emphasizes transnational political direction of the so-called “direct action” which took place not only in Russia, but also in several European countries.

TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF THE SMOLENSK REGION (1917–1922)

2020 ◽  
pp. 165-175
Author(s):  
Konstantin Kupchenko ◽  
Nikolay Fedoskin
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Red Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
Party State ◽  
State Regional ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the results of the state policy implementation withing the formation and development of the Soviet judicial system on the example of Smolensk Governoral Court. The authors set the goal, based on the analysis of sources not introduced into a wide scientific circulation, primarily stored at the State Archive of the Smolensk Region to restore the history of the creation and operation of justice institutions in the Smolensk region in the 1918s–1923s. The source base of the study was composed of documents stored at Smolensk State Regional Archive, materials on the history of the judiciary, statistical materials of the period under the study, documents on the history of the party-state bodies of the Smolensk region. The article studies current office documentation of both the higher and regional state bodies (Workers 'and Peasants' Government, People's Commissariat of Justice, Smolensk Governoral Executive Committee) and local authorities (Smolensk Council of Working People's Deputies, Executive Committee of Smolensk Governoral Council of Workers, Peasants' and Red Army Deputies), as well as Smolensk Governoral Court. The authors analyze the Soviet experience in the formation and development of judicial bodies under specific historical conditions; they consider transformations in the judicial system of the Smolensk Governorate in the 1917s–1922s, as well as the formation of Smolensk Governoral Court. The article studies legal foundations of the Soviet judicial system formation, characterizes processes of creating a judicial apparatus in the first years of Soviet power and analyzes activities of Smolensk Governoral Court during its formation. The authors reveal the essence, degree of efficiency, concrete results, political and socio-economic consequences, positive and negative lessons from the Soviet judicial system existed in Russia. The authors assume that the development of new legislation system in the 1920s was caused by the need to reform legal sources as the main means of socialism building. The authors conclude that the transformation of the Soviet judicial system completed the transition from the principle of «revolutionary expediency» to the principle of «revolutionary legality».

Mobilized Yet Contained: Popular Women, Feminisms, and Organizing around Venezuela’s 2012 Organic Labor Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 0094582X2110130
Author(s):  
Rachel Elfenbein
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Gendered Division Of Labor ◽  
Women's Organizing ◽  
State Adoption ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
The Revolution

Venezuela’s state-led national-popular Bolivarian process opened up a new political field for feminism—an approach that was both institutional and popular, aiming to combine forces from above and from below and use state gender institutions to foment popular women’s organization. Yet this field was conflictual, containing contesting popular feminist projects with different implications for the gendered division of labor. Analysis of popular women’s organizing around Venezuela’s 2012 organic labor law shows that state adoption of feminism marked a gendered political opening for popularizing feminism while also presenting risks of state co-optation of popular women’s organizing. The state understood popular women’s organization and mobilization as central to the revolution, yet it generally attempted to limit their autonomy and organizing to challenge the gendered division of labor. El bolivarianismo nacional-popular liderado por el estado venezolano abrió un nuevo campo político para el feminismo: un enfoque que era tanto institucional como popular y cuyo objetivo era combinar fuerzas tanto de arriba como de abajo, así como utilizar las instituciones estatales de género para fomentar las organizaciones populares de mujeres. Sin embargo, este campo resultó conflictivo, y parte de su contenido impugnaba proyectos feministas populares con diferentes implicaciones para las divisiones de género en el trabajo. El análisis de la organización popular de las mujeres en torno a la ley orgánica del trabajo de Venezuela de 2012 muestra que la adopción estatal del feminismo marcó una apertura política de género con intenciones de popularizar el feminismo a la vez que presentaba el riesgo de que la organización popular de las mujeres fuera cooptada por el estado. El estado consideraba la organización y movilización popular de las mujeres como esenciales a la revolución. Sin embargo y hablando generalmente, se abocó a limitar su autonomía y organización cuando se trataba de desafiar las divisiones de género en el trabajo.

Financialization and state capitalism in Hungary after the Global Financial Crisis

2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942110032
Author(s):  
David Karas
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The State ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Political Risks ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Whereas the active role of the state in steering financialization is consensual in advanced economies, the financialization of emerging market economies is usually examined through the prism of dependency: this downplays the domestic political functions of financialization and the agency of the state. With the consolidation of state capitalist regimes in the semi-periphery after the Global Financial Crisis, different interpretations emerged – some linking state capitalism with de-financialization, others with coercive projects deepening it. Preferring a more granular and multi-dimensional approach, I analyse how different facets of financialization might represent political risks or opportunities for state capitalist projects: Based on the Hungarian example, I first explain how the constitution of a ‘financial vertical’ after 2010 inaugurated a new mode of statecraft. Second, I show how the financial vertical enabled rentier bargains between state and society after 2015 by deepening the financialization of social policy and housing in response to a looming crisis of competitiveness.

Soviet Specialist Baiting: The Case of N. A. Dobrosmyslov

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Competence ◽  
The State ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
High Salary ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Government ◽  
Continued Employment ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractFor many communists working in the Soviet state apparatus during the 1920s, the state's continued employment of so-called “bourgeois specialists” (spetsy) was an ideological affront and an obstacle to proletarian advancement. In their eyes, until the spetsy were removed and workers staffed the institutions of the state, the revolution would be neither secure nor its promises fulfilled. Based on archival research, this article traces rank-and-file communists' attempts to remove one such specialist, N. A. Dobrosmyslov, from his position in the Tax Department (Gosnalog) of the People's Commissariat of Finances (Narkomfin). Dobrosmyslov had been a long-time official in the tsarist tax bureaucracy and had also worked for the Provisional Government in 1917. Communist opposition to him took the form of a denunciation campaign that focused on his alleged anti-Sovietism, his professional competence, his arrogant manner, his high salary, and his attempt to obtain a large pension from the government. The documents related to the case reveal the atmosphere of suspicion and often open hostility that surrounded the spetsy. They provide evidence of the contrasting evaluations of the spetsy made by leading communist administrators and by the lower-level communists who worked closely with them. They also show how important the issue of material compensation was for this latter group. Finally, the case provides an example of how biography could be interpreted and manipulated to serve particular ends, especially in the context of political and personal denunciation.

Le armi dotte e la Rivoluzione francese: riformismo, elitismo e meritocrazia

2012 ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cuccoli
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
State Corporation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
École Polytechnique ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Revolution

The article focuses on the evolution of the military technical corps in France between the mid-Eighteenth century and the Restoration, and proposes for them the notion of "State corporation". This phase - an intermediate one between the corps de métier and the corps d'État - was attained first by the engineers and the artillery. These corps selected their officers by competitive examination, which functioned both as an intellectual filter and a social one. The distinction generated by this filter - nurtured by an elitist approach based on meritocracy was not overridden by the Revolution. On the contrary, it was further consecrated by the creation of the École polytechnique, which soon became controlled by the military technical corps. The "State corporation" model was then extended through the École polytechnique to the geographical engineers and the civil public services. The institutional conflicts among the technical corps during the National Constituent Assembly and those between them and the École polytechnique (1794-1799) are analyzed along these interpretative lines. While the former show their corporative resistance of geographical engineers in the name of equality, the latter bring out their corporative resistance to external education of candidates.

A true study of a benevolent state. S.N. Baburin. Moral State. Russian view on the values of constitutionalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Orlin Zagorov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Traditional Culture ◽  
The State ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
The Revolution

This article is the author's reflections on the problems of humanism, morality, and traditional culture in connection with the concept of a Moral State put forward by Professor S.N. Baburin. The role of the spirituality of the Slavic peoples and their contribution to the strengthening of European cultural identity is considered. The author argues the importance of the conclusion that the virtue of the state as its internal quality in itself turns the state into a guarantor of virtue as a universal value and the validity of the thesis that the values of both Orthodox Christianity and Slavic spirituality represent a solid foundation of a Moral State. The author sees in the Moral State a mechanism for the harmonious combination of the spirit of the revolution with the revolution of the spirit.

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