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Stalin's political philosophy and ideology
Soviet Union ideologies
Stalinism a continuation of leninism
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Recommended: Stalin's political philosophy and ideology
Trends of Contemporary Russian Thought (1)
ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the most recent period in the development of Russian thought (1960s-1990s). Proceeding from the cyclical patterns of Russian intellectual history, I propose to name it 'the third philosophical awakening.' I define the main tendency of this period as 'the struggle of thought against ideocracy.' I then suggest a classification of main trends in Russian thought of this period: (1) Dialectical materialism in its evolution from late Stalinism to neo-communist mysticism; (2) Neorationalism and Structuralism; (3) Neo-Slavophilism, or the Philosophy of National Spirit; (4) Personalism and Liberalism; (5) Religious Philosophy and Mysticism, both Christian Orthodox and Non-Traditional; (6) Culturology or the Philosophy of Culture; (7) Conceptualism or the Philosophy of Postmodernity.
"The Karamazovs are not scoundrels but philosophers, because all real Russian people are philosophers..."
Dmitry Karamazov, in Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karamazov
It is a property of the Russian people to indulge in philosophy. ...The fate of the philosopher in Russia is painful and tragic.
Nikolai Berdyaev. The Russian Idea
The fact that one can annihilate a philosophy . ... or that one can prove that a philosophy annihilates itself is of little consequence. If it's really philosophy, then, like the phoenix, it will always rise again from its own ashes.
Friedrich Schlegel. Athenaeum Fragments, trans. Peter Firchow, 103.
The last period of the Soviet ideocracy, approximately from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, can be characterized as a period of "philosophical awakening," to use the felicitous expression of the theologian Georgy Florovsky (1893 - 1979). "Such awakening is usually preceded by a more or less complicated historical fate, the abundant and long historical experience and ordeal, which now becomes the object of interpretation and discussion. Philosophical life begins as a new mode or a new stage of national existence... One can feel in the generation of that epoch some irresistible attraction to philosophy, a philosophical passion and thirst, a kind of magical gravitation toward philosophical themes and issues." (2) Florovsky refers here to the first "philosophical awakening" of Russia in the span of years from 1830s to 1840s: roughly, the generation of Chaadaev, early Westernizers and Slavophiles, such as Belinsky, Herzen, Bakunin, Khomiakov, the brothers Aksakov, and the brothers Kireevsky. (3)
Russia's second philosophical awakening occurred in the first two decades of the 20th century, following in the wake of the unsuccessful revolution of 1905 and disenchantment of the most refined part of intelligentsia with the low intellectual level of populism, Marxism and other socialist theories.
After the assassination of Alexander the Great in 1881 by Russian socialist revolutionaries, Alexander III ascended to the throne and began to develop a reactionary policy that would be used to suppress the power of anti-tsarist rivals (Kort 23). In the late 1800s, Tsar Alexander III was faced with growing insurrection from the populist peasants, who were demanding more freedoms and land under the Tsarist regime. However, he was unwilling to give up his traditional centralized authority for a more democratic system of ruling. Instead, he sought political guidance from his advisor, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, an Orthodox religious conservative and loyal member of the Russian autocracy. Pobedonostsev was quick to hound revolutionaries by means
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
In order to establish whether Lenin did, indeed lay the foundation for Stalinism, two questions need to be answered; what were Lenin’s plans for the future of Russia and what exactly gave rise to Stalinism? Official Soviet historians of the time at which Stalin was in power would have argued that each one answers the other. Similarly, Western historians saw Lenin as an important figure in the establishment of Stalin’s socialist state. This can be partly attributed to the prevailing current of pro-Stalin anti-Hitler sentiments amongst westerners until the outbreak of the cold war.
“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” Foreign Affairs, 1947, explains the difficulty of summarizing Soviet ideology. For more than 50 years, the Soviet concept held the Russian nations hypnotized, discontented, unhappy, and despondent confined to a very limited Czarist political order. Hence, the rebel support of a bloody Revolution, as a means to “social betterment” (Kennan, 567). Bolshevism was conceptualized as “ideological and moral, not geopolitical or strategic”. Hoover declares that… “five or six great social philosophies were struggling for ascendancy” (Leffler, The Specter of Communism, 20).
Enlightened absolutism is a form of absolute monarchy inspired by the Enlightenment. During the 18th century, the Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that spread across Europe and beyond. The thinkers of the Enlightenment, known as philosophes, introduced ideas from the advances in science to change the way that people thought about government and society. Philosophes wanted to replace superstition, tyranny, and injustice with reason, tolerance, and legal equality. Many rulers in Europe and Russia used certain ideals of enlightened absolutism to govern their people and state. Although rulers agreed to some aspects of the ideals they were not true believers of the reforms. To maintain their power, they convinced society that they were
A. Soviet History. Marxists.org. 2010. Web. The Web. The Web.
Martin, B. (2007). Treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). Psych Central. Retrieved on April 24, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/treatment-for-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd/0001204
We (1952) by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell both focus on post-revolution political thought, the rise of authoritarianism that had engulfed Europe in the early twentieth century and the organized, systematic removal of the individual. November, 1917, Bolshevik forces under the control of Lenin, seized control of Russia and gave birth what would be the eventual colossus of the Soviet Union. Led to believe they were leading the world into a new order a golden age in freedom, abandoning the medieval servitude of serfdom, they were force fed to the Russian proletariat. The belief was that the Russian people would be freed from their oppressive masters. However, this was seemingly all too idealistic as soon personal
The novels The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Kindred by Octavia Butler both contain examples of oppression created and/or worsened by the capitalist society in which they are set. In The Hunger Games, Collins creates a futuristic society of severe class inequality in which the children of the poor are killed for the political benefit and entertainment of the rich. Kindred is primarily set on a 19th century American slave plantation and examines the institution slavery in a fictional context. As Lois Tyson puts it, “getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities”-- this includes the Games from Collins’ novel, and the slave system described in Kindred (Tyson 52). Capitalism creates classism which encourages a culture of oppression in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Kindred by Octavia Butler, and real American society.
Indoor tanning is becoming a very popular “hobby”, but most people do not know, or do not care, about its dangerous side effects. Studies show that people who use tanning booths have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with skin cancer. If someone were to start tanning indoors before they turn 30 or 25, the risk of them getting Melanoma peaks, and if they start tanning before they turn 20 or 25, they are much more likely to get basal and squamous cancer.
Perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect body, perfect teeth, and even perfect health are all characteristics that are portrayed in our culture, as what you need to be, in order to be attractive. The popular magazines and TV programs show celebrities that are presented to the public as having all these physical qualities. Young adults and adolescents are influenced greatly by pop culture and everything that is “in-style” or popular. Having a golden tan, is a highly valued physical attribute, is not easy to obtain unless you live in a warm southern climate. For everyone else, tanning beds seem to be a great alternative if you want nice smooth even bronzed glowing skin, and do not live in an area where it is warm all year round. They are not good, quite the contrary. Since the average tanning bed user is unaware of the dangers, they run the risk of skin cancer, eye cancer, eye injuries, or muscle and bone injuries, simply because they do not know, or refuse to believe the inherent risks associated with using a tanning bed. One of the main health problems tanning beds can cause is skin cancer. My grandmother was recently diagnosed with skin cancer. She said her skin cancer resulted from excessive exposure to UV rays when she was younger. She now has to live with dark spots, wrinkles and some scars where the skin
With all of the UVB and UVA penetrating your skin every minute you spend in this bed, it can really do damage over a small period of time. Over the past three decades, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined (skincancer.org). The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an affiliate of the World Health Organization, includes ultraviolet (UV) tanning devices in its Group 1, a list of agents that are cancer-causing to humans (skincancer.org). These facts should pop a red flag in your mind, and should be used as minimal as possible. Always remember as person dies every 52 minutes from melanoma (another form of skin cancer) that tanning beds help cause
Russia culture is very different from any other culture that I have ever read about. This is a country that is dominated by males. Males actually run the county of Russia. The men are so dominated that every Russian women dream is to be married and have a family with these men. Russia is known for its poor society. In the book Sakharov he mentions how he moved from one place to another. He first was in Moscow’s larger apartments with his family. In this apartment there were six families. With thin the six families they had to share the kitchen and the bathroom. Then he states that he moved into a very old house and in this old house there was a leaking ceiling. With in this house there were still six families that shared everything. (Sakharov 24-25)
"Plekhanov and the Origins of Russian Marxism." Readings in Russian History. Ed. Sidney Harcave. Vol. 2. New York: Crowell, 1962. 80-90. Print.
Exploring the October revolution and the establishment of communism, Richard Pipes concludes that the origin of communism can be traced back to the distant past in Russia’s history. Pipes states that Russia had entered a period of crisis after the governments of the 19th century undertook a limited attempt at capitalisation, not trying to change the underlying patrimonial structures of Russian society. (Pipes, 1964)