BACK in the USSR: the Past Catches Up

12 March 1985 Marxism Today

The USSR is confronted with far more profound problems today than it was 25 years ago. The key is democratisation. But the prospects for this are uncertain. BACK IN THE USSR: The Past Catches Up Monty Johnstone A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO the try is now beginning.' This formulation of socialist countries were making an impact the issue, he claims, 'enjoys unconditional on the world with their impressive rates of support' from the Soviet public. To the economic and social progress. Extrapolat question whether this is not postponing ing from them the 22nd Congress of the the communist perspective, he says some Soviet Communist Party in 1961 adopted a what confusingly: 'The answer is a simple new programme which stated that by 1970 and unequivocal: of course not.'3 However the USSR would surpass the USA in his perspective now appears blurred and Joseph Stalin. production per head of population. By distant. Whilst Chernenko speaks in 1980 Soviet labour productivity would general terms about the importance of exceed that of the USA by roughly 100%, developing a 20-year economic-technical there would be 'an abundance of material programme for the USSR for 1986-2005 and cultural values for the whole popula and looks forward to 'ultimate' success in tion' and 'a communist society will in the 'peaceful economic competition' with main be built in the USSR.'1 capitalism, he does not give any dates for Since then, the socialist countries, in this, remarking that 'it is not desirable to most cases preserving full employment in overburden it (the re-edited programme) 4 contrast to the capitalist countries, have with details.' No self-critical analysis is continued on the whole to advance more made of the previous perspective unani this worsened image. They include the rapidly than the latter and to expand rather mously adopted by a party congress - as detention of dissidents in prisons and than cut their social services and educa the new draft will no doubt be at the next - psychiatric hospitals, the invasions of tion. However there has been a pro and for many years proclaimed by its Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, the Sino- nounced decline in rates of growth in the leaders past and present to be the 'bluep Soviet conflict, and martial law and the European socialist countries from 10% in rint of communism'. suppression of trade union freedoms in the 1950s to 7% in the 1960s, 5% in the Unfulfilled expectations and the con Poland, along with growing economic 1970s, down to a planned rate for 1981-85 trast between promise and performance in problems. These things were not created of around 3.5% annually. The share of the the USSR and other socialist countries by anti-communist propagandists, socialist countries in world industrial pro have led, internally, to growing signs of although they certainly play into their duction, which rose from 20% in 1950 to apathy, malaise and dissatisfaction, which hands. They are structural rather than 36% in 1960, has since then only risen to its have from time to time in different coun conjunctural and arise from an authorita present level of 40%. Soviet industrial tries assumed critical proportions. Exter rian and bureaucratic form of socialism, production has only risen since 1970 from nally, they have invalidated the conception whose roots lie in the Stalin period. 65% to 67% of the US level. Labour of the socialist countries exerting 'an ever- productivity in Soviet industry has since increasing influence on the struggles of the Stalinism 1976 been officially listed each year as peoples in the capitalist countries' and 'by The Russian Revolution of October 1917 'more than 55%' and in agriculture as the force of example. . . revolutionising blazed the trail that has led to the over 'about 20-25%' of the US level. The heady (their) thinking.'5 Paradoxically, after a throw of capitalism and the building of targets of the 60s have long since been decade of world capitalism's worst econo socialism in 15 countries. But the character consigned to oblivion. mic crisis for half a century, the attractive of that socialism has been deeply marked The Soviet Communist Party has now power of the socialist countries has dimi by the condition of backwardness in which indicated that the most important feature nished. Every socialist in Britain who is it had to be built first of all in the Soviet of its next congress, due in 1986, will be not completely isolated or blinkered Union and later in most of the other the adoption of a new edition of the party knows this from his or her own experience. socialist countries. This backwardness programme. Avoiding reference to the In the case of France statistical confirma contrasted strikingly with the high levels present programme's concluding words of tion has come in a survey which shows that of economic, social and cultural develop 24 years ago - 'The party solemnly proc in the last decade the proportion of the ment which Marx considered the prere laims: the present generation of Soviet population holding a negative opinion ab quisites for socialism and which he saw in people shall live in communism'2 - General out the functioning of the socialist system his time only in the advanced Western Secretary Chernenko now says that 'ex in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe capitalist countries. For the USSR the perience shows- that before tackling the has risen from 43% to 69%, whilst those conditions were particularly unfavourable. tasks directly connected with the building expressing a positive one has declined from Firstly, it was isolated and forced to carry of communism, it is necessary to pass 28 to 11%. Among young people the through an industrial and cultural revolu through a historically long stage of de negative view is even higher.6 tion with its own limited resources and veloped socialism, a stage which our coun A variety of factors have contributed to with enormous material shortages, condi- March 1985 Marxism Today 13

tions in which, as Marx and Engels wrote, execution, sometimes after confessions ex Partly it resulted from resistances at all want is generalised and 'all the old crap' is tracted by torture. levels in the party and state apparatus, restored.7 Secondly, until three years after which were checked but not eliminated the revolution it was forced to wage war The Khrushchov years with the ousting in 1957 of the 'anti-Party against counter-revolutionary forces and Stalin's death in 1953 opened up a new group' of Molotov, Kaganovich and invading armies from 14 capitalist states, period in the history of the Soviet Union Malenkov, who had sought to remove and after that to prepare itself for another and most other socialist countries. As Isaac Khrushchov as first secretary. invasion, which inflicted the most enor Deutscher, the most perceptive Marxist Although calling for democratic initia mous losses on it from 1941 to 1945. analyst of Soviet development, showed tive, Khrushchovite de-Stalinisation can Thirdly, under conditions of Tsarist abso not be seen as proper socialist democratisa- lutism, which existed until 1917, Russia tion, since the working people remained had only developed a 'primordial and Brezhnev. . .was even excluded from the decision-making pro gelatinous' civil society (Gramsci), in con awarded a prize for literature cess. (Nor indeed, as we shall see, was it a trast to Western countries where voluntary full de-Stalinisation.) From being effec organisations can play an autonomous role tively exercised by one man who could not and give expression to a diversity of demo already at that time, Stalinism had been be removed even by the Political Bureau or cratic and social aspirations. undermined by its very success in carrying Central Committee of the Party,9 central Despite everything the Soviet Union through a major industrial and cultural political power now came to be exercised performed the tremendous task of carrying revolution. The needs and aspirations of a collectively by the Political Bureau through its plans of socialist industrialisa great industrial state with an expanding answerable to the larger Central Commit tion, becoming the world's second indust planned economy, an increasingly edu tee. However the unanimity, which had rial power and driving back the invading cated population and an avowed commit been the hallmark of congresses of the armies. But the conditions under which ment to Marxism conflicted with despot Party, the Soviets and the trade unions ism, arbitrary mass terror and the 'primi this had to be undertaken favoured the 8 under Stalin, continued as before. This development of an extremely centralised tive magic' of Stalinist ideology . precluded the open debate which had political and economic state system with a Deutscher's prediction that this would characterised congresses in Lenin's time, high degree of bureaucratisation and mili set in motion a process of de-Stalinisation even when the young Soviet state's internal tarisation. Effective power at a national was amply borne out in the period from and external position had been extremely level came to be concentrated more and 1953 with the restoration of socialist legal precarious, and without which it is not more, after Lenin's death in 1924, in the ity, the dismantling of the apparatus of possible to speak of genuine democratisa- hands of Stalin, whose mass terror caused terror and the return of vast numbers of tion. Thus no dissenting voice was heard at the deaths of many millions of Soviet political prisoners from Stalin's labour the 20th Congress and the Party was not citizens, including a very high proportion camps. It also involved the replacement of informed until after the defeat of the of the communists who had built up the Stalin's one-man rule by a collective lead 'anti-Party group' that its members had Soviet state in its early years. Repressive ership, which showed itself more respon since 1953 been arguing against many of methods of a similar character were also sive to the needs of the people. A more the Party's new policies. realistic appraisal was publicly made of the Although in this period there was wider lag in Soviet industry and particularly involvement at most levels of the Party and agriculture in comparison with the West, state apparatus, the mass of the people steps were taken to stimulate more initia were never brought out of the passive tive from below, a much greater emphasis support role, which had been allotted to was placed on the production of consumer them under Stalin. They were given neith goods, and very important material con er the encouragement nor the opportunity cessions were made to the peasantry. Three years after Stalin's death, at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Party in 1 Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet 1956, Khrushchov was to reveal some of Union Moscow 1961 pp 61-64. Emphasis in ori the most shocking aspects of the last 20 ginal. 2 ibid p 128. By communism the programme years of Stalin's rule. However his ex understands a society of abundance implementing planation of what went wrong in terms of the principle 'From each according to his ability, to the cult of Stalin's personality diverted each according to his needs.' attention from the structure of power and 3 K Chernenko 'Assert Life's Truth and Social social relationships, of which the Stalin ism's Lofty Ideals', Information Bulletin Prague 22/1984 p 34. cult was only one expression. It also en 4 Pravda 26 April 1984. couraged the illusion that, with Stalin gone 5 36 Million Communists say. . . (Statement of used after the Second World War in the and collective leadership restored, the World's Communist Party, November I960*) p 4. whole problem belonged to the past. 6 Revolution Paris 23 November 1984 p 12. new socialist states of Eastern Europe 7 K Marx/F Engels Werke Berlin 1958 Vol 3 pp under the influence of Stalinist ideology The process of de-Stalinisation pro 34-35. and sometimes under the direction of ceeded fitfully and unevenly. This partly 8 I Deutscher Russia after Stalin London 1953. 'instructors' from the Soviet secret police. reflected the style and limitations of 9 Khrushchov, in the closed session of the 20th Dissent, real or suspected, was equated Khrushchov, who as party first secretary Congress, quoted another member of the Polit- bureau who said that when party leaders were with treason and links with hostile foreign from 1953 to 1964 was more responsible invited to see Stalin they did not know where they powers, and was dealt with by prison or than anyone else for pushing it through. would be sent to next, home or to jail. 14 March 1985 Marxism Today

rather than democratic, as opposed to the in conditions of boredom bureaucratic nudge, fudge and inertia of and frustration, alcoholism the Brezhnev period. However for half of his 15 months as General Secretary he was is recognised to have seriously ill and he died in February 1984 assumed alarming at the age of 69, having had time to see his proportions initial efforts rewarded by a limited im provement in economic performance in 1983. From 1977, when he added the post of His successor Chernenko, aged 73, a President of the USSR to that of General close associate of Brezhnev and apparently Secretary of the Party, more and more of a also a sick man, seems to represent a Brezhnev cult was built up, and along with stop-gap. He shows neither the originality an unrivalled number of medals he was of mind nor the dynamism needed to give even awarded a prize for literature. the kind of leadership required for tackling However collective leadership continued the deep-rooted problems now confront to be exercised by the Politbureau, in ing the Soviet model of socialism, some of which septuagenarians representing the whose characteristics we shall now ex- Leonid Brezhnev. major Soviet institutions were increasingly to predominate. In the absence of any really to exercise independent political provision for leadership reselection, Party control initiative. By the summer of 1964 political Brezhnev retained his leading positions The Soviet model of socialism involves a apathy was replacing the interest stimu right up to his death in 1982, even though great concentration of political and econo lated by the 20th and 22nd Congresses, during his last years his failing health made mic power in the hands of the leadership of partly encouraged by the contrast between his leadership increasingly nominal and a constitutionally unchallengeable and the spectacular targets proclaimed in the led him, even in interviews on Soviet irremovable Communist Party. Article 6 of new party programme mentioned earlier television, to read from a prepared script. the Soviet Constitution, adopted under and the big increases in food prices in In such a situation stability turned into Brezhnev in 1977, defines the Party as 'the 1962, followed by the bad grain harvest the immobility accompanied by an alarming leading and guiding force of Soviet society next year which necessitated the import growth of official corruption and nepotism and the nucleus of its political system, of (not for the last time) of a large amount of (particularly pronounced in the Caucasian all state organisations and public organisa grain from capitalist countries. republics), shielded from exposure by the tions.' This sanctions the exercise of party absence of any possibility of independent control not only over a highly centralised Brezhnev - stability becomes immobility investigative journalism into the miscon state apparatus, incorporating the great At a Central Committee meeting in Octo duct of senior state and party officials. In bulk of the economy and disposing of a ber 1964 Khrushchov was replaced as first conditions of boredom and frustration, strong military and police apparatus, but secretary by Brezhnev. It was officially alcoholism is recognised to have assumed also over all public organisations, such as announced that he had resigned because of alarming proportions with serious effects trade unions, youth and sports organisa his 'advanced age' (he was 70) and 'poor on both productivity and personal rela tions, the press and academic and cultural health'. Subsequently he was publicly tionships. institutions. criticised for 'subjectivism' and 'voluntar Such control is operated through the ism'. He was removed by a combination in Andropov against 'accumulated inertia' nomenklatura system, under which the party leadership of political hardliners Andropov, who succeeded to Brezhnev's appointments to all the key posts from worried at the possibility of further de- Party and state posts, lost no time in local to national level in party, state and Stalinisation and administrators con initiating measures against corruption, social organisations like trade unions can cerned at the unsettling effect of his unpre into which his earlier years as head of the only be filled by people whose 'candida dictability and continual reorganisations. KGB had given him considerable insight. tures are previously examined, recom Khrushchov's departure brought to a In addition he undertook a shake-up in the mended and approved' by the party com close the period of de-Stalinisation and of Party and state, securing the replacement mittee at the appropriate level." Within the rehabilitation of Stalin's victims. It of about a fifth of the regional party the party itself the system requires that ushered in the 18-year Brezhnev period of secretaries and a not inconsiderable num candidates for election or appointment to stabilisation, in which conservative forces ber of ministers on grounds of age, ineffi committees and positions regarded as im and habits increasingly asserted them ciency, corruption or opposition to re portant have first to be approved by mem selves. If under Khrushchov there had forms. He applied his acute intelligence to bers of higher committees. been a high turnover of party officials at all the problems of the economy, emphasising The party, with its 18'/2 million mem levels under Brezhnev exactly the opposite the need to 'overcome the accumulated bers, is in practice subordinated to a small was the case and officials were able to enjoy inertia' that he saw there.10 He was anxious Political Bureau, which meets at least once a secure privileged life. to study the experience of other socialist a week and reports every six months or so There was no return to the Stalinist countries like Hungary to find ways of to the very much larger Central Commit terror, but from 1966 repressive action was overhauling hidebound Soviet methods of tee. Party Congresses are held every five initiated against a developing dissident economic management. years and at none of them since 1927 has movement and new legislation was intro Andropov stood for a more dynamic there been any controversy or divided vote duced for this purpose. approach, authoritarian and technocratic on any major political issue. This does not March 1985 Marxism Today 15 of course mean that by some metaphysical Soviet system in 1918: 'if the working process unanimity reigns on all the enor people are dissatisfied with their party they mously complex problems of home and can elect other delegates, hand power to foreign policy. Very strong differences do another party and change the government naturally exist but the nominally highest without any revolution at all.'13 body of the Party - the Congress - does not hear of or decide on them. They are Elections debated in private by the Politbureau - The fact that for historical reasons the after consultation with relevant specialists Communist Party finds itself as the only -and, exceptionally, by the Central Com party functioning in the Soviet Union mittee. today should not in itself preclude the Such structures nullify in fact the sti possibility of elections being contested by pulation of Article 2 of the constitution other candidates, sponsored by different that 'all power in the USSR belongs to the groups of citizens, presenting alternative people', just as actual power relations 50 policies, although this might logically lead years ago made a mockery of the provision to other parties being formed. Stalin, of the 'Stalin Constitution' of 1936 that 'all discussing his new constitution with an power in the USSR belongs to the working American journalist in 1936, told him: people of town and country.' We must 'You think there will be no election con distinguish between real power and for tests. But there will be, and I foresee very 14 mal, legal power which may be fictitious. lively election campaigns.' Unfortunate Konstantin Chernenko. Claims that power is in the hands of 'the ly, however, from that day to this no such people', 'the working people' or 'the work contests have ever taken place. levels. The Soviet press cites figures of ing class' (the latter having been asserted in Unlike in some other socialist countries, millions of citizens involved as deputies the Soviet Union up to 1961 when a 'state where in some constituencies there are and 'activists' and taking part in nation of the whole people' was officially declared more candidates than seats15 (though it is wide discussions. But if quantitative in to have taken the place of the 'dictatorship not at present possible to stand on alterna dices were the measure of Soviet democra of the working class') need to be based on tive platforms), in all elections in the cy, we would have to accept that it was empirical evidence, not on constitutional USSR there is only one candidate. Whilst operating at a very high level in 1936, in or programmatic formulations ritualisti- initially there are a number of nominations the midst of Stalin's mass repressions, cally repeated. from public organisations and work collec when it was claimed that 51.1% of the It is contended that since the working tives, the invariable practice is for only one adult population took part in discussing people of the USSR showed their confi name to be selected from among them to go the draft of the 'Stalin Constitution'. dence in the Communist Party by follow on the ballot paper. Although this candi However it is necessary to probe behind ing its leadership in the October Revolu date is not necessarily a member of the superficial appearances and apply qualita tion, the civil war and the Second World Communist Party, it is the representatives tive criteria to ascertain the extent to which War, their power today is expressed in and of the appropriate committee of the Party participation is effective in deciding the through its position as the governing par who, at a closed meeting, will have the main lines of national and foreign policy, ty. This would, however, only be true if, de decisive say in determining the one name as opposed to taking part in approving and jure and de facto, the working people were to go before the electors, from whom they implementing policies worked out in their in a position, if they wanted, to change the thereby remove the possibility of choice. essentials at the top behind closed doors. government. Such a possibility does not An attempt in 1979 by a group of citizens In its controversy with Pravda in 1982, exist today in any of the socialist countries, in the Sverdlovsk District of Moscow a the Italian Communist Party leadership since in none of them are the working few years ago to put up the Marxist critic appositely asked: 'In what party meeting, people given the chance to choose between Roy Medvedev as a candidate was ruled in what trade union and production assem alternative parties and/or programmes.12 out of order. Under such circumstances bly, in what Soviet can the communist who This would appear to be excluded by the elections become a kind of plebiscite with a dissents and the citizens who object to predetermined result. general political questions (apart from dis- The Supreme Soviet, whose composi the bureaucratic nudge, tion is designed formally to reflect the 10 social composition of the country, meets Speech by Y Andropov Soviet News London 17 fudge and inertia of the August 1983. Brezhnev period only for a few days every year to approve 11 Partiynoe Stroitel'stvo Moscow 1971 p 283. the budget and give unanimous support to 12 Such a chance was given to the people of governmental policies, although in recent Nicaragua last year despite the extreme threat the provisions in almost all their constitutions years more deputies have been involved in country was under from US imperialism and the the work of its commissions concerned 'contras' which it backs, but Nicaragua's economic laying down the leading role of the Com system does not allow it (yet) to be classified as munist (or other Marxist-Leninist) Party with specific spheres of responsibility. socialist. in the state, even where (as in Bulgaria, 13 V I Lenin Collected Works Moscow/London 1964 Vol 26 p 498. Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Participation 14 Republic and Poland) there is more than The essential hallmark of socialist demo Interview between J Stalin and Roy Howard Moscow 1936 p 15. one legal party. It thereby becomes uncon cracy, as Marx and Lenin never tired of 15 This practice is being extended in Hungary stitutional to envisage what Lenin had emphasising, is its involvement of the despite the fact that, like the Soviet Union, there is described as the great advantage of the working people in running the state at all only one political party. 16 March 1985 Marxism Today

cussion on particular aspects of a practical Soviet economy ive earlier rates of progress in the produc or organisational nature) express their dis The economic advance of the Soviet Union tion of key industrial and agricultural approval, and how is this reported in continued at an impressively high rate up items targeted by the 22nd Party Congress, public?'16 till the 1960s. It could claim that, taking as well as comparing targets and attain The Soviet media exclude all informa 1913 as 100, its national income stood in ment. Although the statistics, all taken tion paternalistically deemed 'unsuitable' 1960 at 2,674, whereas that of the USA from Soviet publications, are obviously of for the general public, although there is a stood at 348 and of Britain at 204. From considerable relevance for an informed special restricted service of information this, and similar rates of growth in other Soviet participation in the revision of the and translations which makes it available socialist states, the conclusion was drawn Party programme now underway, no such to the trusted few. There has of late been that 'high growth rates are a law of comparison has ever appeared in the Soviet an increase in the number of letters and socialism'.17 The targets that were formu press. reports in the press pinpointing particular lated on this assumption have not been The type of highly centralised command local and workshop grievances. Yet a basic realised, as Tables A and B illustrate. economy, which was so successful in distrust for the working people is shown by These show the falling off of the impress securing the extensive development re- the fact that in recent years Soviet news papers and statistical handbooks have Table A USSR Industrial Production stopped publishing annual grain produc tion or infant mortality figures. In 1982 no Soviet papers published the Italian Com CPSU 1961 CPSU 1961 Estimate for Estimate for munist Party's reply to Pravda's attack on Product 1950 1960 1970 1970 1980 1980 1984 its policies, any more than they carried the Czechoslovak Communist Party's reply to Electric power (thousand the Warsaw Pact parties' letter of criticism million Kwh) 91.2 292.3 900-1000 741 2,700-3,000 1,294 1,493 in July 1968, although the Pravda article Steel (million tons) 27.3 65 195 116 250 148 154 and the 'Warsaw Letter' were published in full in the press of the parties criticised. In Oil (million tons) 37.9 148 390 349 690-710 603 613 1980, with the development of Solidarity Gas (million tons) 5.8 47 310-325 198 680-720 435 587 in Poland, the Soviet authorities resumed Coal (million tons) 261 513 685-700 624 1,180-1,200 716 712 the jamming of foreign broadcasts on a Mineral fertilisers, large scale. in conventional units (million tons) 5.5 13.9 77 55.4 125-135 104 n/a Already early in the Brezhnev period Synthetic resins & objective information about 'sensitive' plastics (thousand periods of Soviet history began to dry up. tons) 67.1 332t 5.300 1,673 19,000-21000 3,637 4,800 Access to archive material has become far Artificial synthetic more difficult. This has gone along with an fibres (thousand increased watering down of the criticisms tons) 24.2 211 1,350 623 3,100-3,300 1,176 1,400 of Stalin. Thus the 1982 edition of the Cement one-volume Encyclopaedia of the Soviet (million tons) 10.2 45.5 122 45.5 233-235 124 130 Union deletes all mention of the 'serious Textiles (thousand million violations of socialist legality and mass square metres) 3.4 6.6 13.6 8.9 20-22 10.7 11.8 repressions' under Stalin, quoted in the Leather footwear 1979 edition from a 1956 Central Commit (million pairs) 203 419 825 678 900-1,000 743 764 tee resolution. Whilst the number of'prisoners of con t As given at 1961 Congress. Subsequently revised to 312 thousand tons. science' held in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals - which Amnesty Table B USSR Agricultural Produce International has estimated at about Product CPSU 1961 CPSU1961 10,000 - is tiny compared with the millions (in Estimate Estimate Target herded into labour camps under Stalin, it million for for for is deeply disturbing that after nearly 70 tons) 1950 1960 1970 1970 1980 1980 1984 1990 years of Soviet power it should be felt Grain 81.2 134t 230 186.8 290-310 250-255 necessary to meet dissenting views with Sugar beet 20.8 S7.7 86 78.9 98-108 81.0 85.3 102-103 repression rather than reasoned argument. Meat (Slaughter Nor is it a justification to say that people weight) 4.9 8.7 25 12.3 30-32 15.1 16.7 20-20.5 are nowadays only put in prison after due Milk 35.3 61.7 135 83.0 170-180 92.7 97.6 104-106 process of law if the laws under which they Egg* are sentenced involve restriction or de (thousand million) 11.7 27.4 68 40.7 110-116 63.1 76.0 78-79 privation of fundamental liberties. Some are of a catch-all political character such as * Individual year's grain production not given. Average annual production for 1976-80: 205.0 million tons, Article 190 (1) added to the Criminal Code t As given at 1961 Congress. Subsequently revised to 125.5 million tons. of the RSFSR in 1966, under which many dissidents have been jailed for 'slandering Sources: USSR in Figures (Moscow)- various years; N.S. Khrushchov, Report on the Programme of the CPSU (October the Soviet state and social system.' 18, 1961); L J Brezhnev, The Soviet Food Programme (24 May, 1982); Pravda, 25 January 1985. March 1985 Marxism Today 17 quired in the period of industrialisation, date in that category - is appointed with has proved quite unsuited to the intensive the resolve, as well as sufficient health, development required for a more advanced strength and time ahead of him, to mobil consumer-oriented economy. There has ise wide popular support to carry through a for years been a need to combine the dynamic and sustained reform of the eco advantages of socialist economic planning nomy and overcome the deep-seated with far more flexibility, autonomy and bureaucratic forces that will try to block it. market-oriented enterprises, with demo If he (no 'she' has for over twenty years cratic control over decisions taken at both been on the Polibureau, from among factory, farm, regional and national levels. whose members general secretaries are Such radical economic reform, though chosen) is to succeed in this he will need to under discussion since the 1960s, has been accompany it with steps towards loosening blocked through concern as to where it paternalistic control over political, social might lead. What we are dealing with here and cultural life, and particularly over the is not only well-established economic media, access to information and foreign administrators with a strong vested in social involvement, which is a necessary contacts and travel. This would represent a terest in preserving the existing structures condition for reversing the decline in eco turn towards modernisation and efficiency and a distrust of innovation. It is also a nomic growth rates. On the other hand - no doubt with technocratic features - question of fear at top levels in the party they do not want to carry through reforms rather than socialist democratisation. But, and state of the pluralistic political con which are so radical as to allow indepen unless one resorts to hope rather than sequences of giving greater autonomy to dent popular initiatives which they cannot analysis, it is not possible to see what forces enterprises. It conjures up to them the control. Yet Soviet experience in recent in the Soviet Union today we could expect spectre of economic self-management years has been demonstrating again and to be in a position to take the initiative in organs like the workers' councils which again that you cannot have one without the carrying through genuine socialist demo constituted a pivotal part of the Czechoslo other. Limited reforms in the political and cratisation like that being undertaken by vak economic reform of 1968. This was economic spheres are periodically intro Dubcek and the Czechoslovak commun bitterly denounced as 'anti-socialist' by the duced with great fanfares, but then run out ists between January and August 1968, Soviet leaders, who ensured that it was of steam in the face of bureaucratic inertia. which was so tragically ended by predomi scrapped after the invasion. Resistance to Critical remarks made last year in a Central nantly Soviet military intervention. economic reform is undoubtedly rein Committee resolution calling for improve After the October Revolution of 1917 forced by conditions of international ten ments in the democratic functioning of the the Soviet Union became and remained for sion. To the extent that Western imperial Soviets were being made in the second half many decades the main revolutionary force ism pushes the USSR - against Soviet of the 1930s, and again in 1957 when in the world. Despite its important peace wishes and interests - into an accelerated similar decisions were taken. Criticisms of initiatives and assistance to peoples strug arms race, this increases arms-related pro overcentralisation and the need for a reor gling against imperialism18, the attractive duction at the expense of consumer indus ganisation of the economy to encourage power of its form of socialism has dimi tries and strengthens conservative atti initiative on a regional, local and enterprise nished, especially for the West where it is tudes and pressure groups committed to a level were voiced at the time of the econo seen as denying some of the essential highly centralised economy with priority mic reforms of 1957, 1965 and 1979, none freedoms won many years ago in bourgeois given to heavy industry. A relaxation of of which have brought the desired results. democratic countries. Today the socialist international tension would greatly im It is by no means sure that further limited forces in the West need to provide the prove the prospects for Soviet economic reforms of this type are likely to be more world with a more attractive conception of reform. successful - perhaps less so, having lost socialism, which draws on all that is best in credibility over time having all been 'tried a long democratic tradition and in more At the crossroads before'. recent democratic movements like femin The Soviet Union today stands at the In selecting Chernenko as Andropov's ism, and which is clearly distinguished crossroads. Its needs, and those of other successor, the party leadership has from the monolithic Soviet model. In this countries which have adopted the Soviet plumped for playing safe rather than for way we could also contribute to the de model, have for many years come in innovation. The disconcerting memory of velopment in the Soviet Union and other creasingly into conflict with deeply entren Khrushchov could not have been far from socialist countries of a process of renewal ched authoritarian power structures hold their minds, and will no doubt weigh with based on freedom which, in Marx's words, ing back its political, economic, social and them when the time comes - perhaps not 'consists in converting the state from an cultural development. A freer rein is so far ahead - to choose the next General organ superimposed upon society into one needed for genuinely independent initia Secretary. It does not seem very likely that completely subordinate to it.'19 • tive both inside and outside the existing this crucial office will once again be given structures, including for the development to a septuagenarian. But what is certain is 16 E Berlinguer After Poland London 1982 p 101. of an autonomous women's movement, that the greatest care will be taken by the 17 Resolution of 21st Congress of Communist without which - despite important adv Politbureau to exclude anyone who might Party of the Soviet Union Moscow 1961. ances - women will not achieve in practice turn out to have the makings of a Khrush 18 The vital sphere of Soviet foreign policy, which the equality which is officially proclaimed. chov, not to speak of a Dubcek. deserves extended treatment, falls outside the scope of this article. Soviet leaders face a dilemma. On the The best that realistically can be hoped 19 K Marx Critique of Gotha Programme in Marx/ one hand they recognise and proclaim the for is that a younger person - and Gor- Engels, Selected Works Moscow/London 1950 Vol need to stimulate political interest and bachov seems by far the most likely candi- 2p29.