The Character of the Soviet State

According to Marxism-Leninism, a state is essentially a machinery of force by which one social class rules over the rest of the people:

"The state is an organ of class rule....

A standing army and police are the chief instruments of state power".

(V.I. Lenin: "The State and Revolution", in: "Selected Works", Volume 7; London; 1946; p. 9, 11).

The Soviet state established in Russia by means of the revolution of November 1917, was officially described as a machinery of force in the hands of the working class, as "the dictatorship of the proletariat":

"The Soviets are the Russian form of the proletarian dictatorship".

(V.I. Lenin: "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky", in; "Selected Works", Volume 7; London; 1946; p. 145).

In 1961, however the leaders of the CPSU declared that the Soviet state was no longer a machinery of force by which the working class ruled over the rest of the people, was no longer the dictatorship of the proletariat, but had become an organ representing the interests of the "entire people":

"In our country, for the first time in history, a State has taken shape which is not a dictatorship of any one class, but an instrument of society as a whole, of the entire people...

The dictatorship of the proletariat is no longer necessary".

(N.S. Khrushchov: Report on the Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 22nd. Congress CPSU; London; 1961; p. 57, 58).

But, according to Marxism-Leninism, in a society which contains classes which antagonistic interests -- and, as has been demonstrated, the contemporary Soviet Union is such a society -- the state can only be the machinery of rule of the dominant social class, and any claim that, in such circumstances, the state represents the interests of the "entire people", must be dismissed as mere demagogy:

"We cannot speak of 'pure democracy' so long as different classes exist; we can only speak of class democracy".

(V.I. Lenin: "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky", in: "Selected Works", Volume 7; London; 1946; p. 129).

"The bourgeoisie finds it advantageous and necessary to conceal the bourgeois character of modern democracy from the people and to depict it as democracy in general, or as 'pure democracy'...

The bourgeoisie is obliged to be hypocritical and to describe the (bourgeois) democratic government as 'popular government', or democracy in general or pure democracy, when as a matter of fact it is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the exploiters over the mass of the toilers".

(V.I. Lenin: "Democracy' and Dictatorship", in: ibid.; p. 219, 220).

What class of Soviet society, therefore, has in reality its machinery of rule in the Soviet state?

It is admitted by the leaders of the CPSU that the state is no longer the machinery of rule of the working class, and it has been shown in the previous section that it cannot be the machinery of rule of the petty bourgeoisie.

Thus, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism the Soviet state can be the machinery of rule only of the new capitalist class.

According to Lenin, however, monopoly capitalism -- in which the economic life of society is dominated by a relatively small number of monopoly capitalists -- inevitably leads into state monopoly-capitalism, in which the state ceases to be the machinery of rule of the capitalist class as a whole and becomes that of the most powerful groups of monopoly capitalists, and in which the intervention of the state is extended into every facet of social life:

"In... state-monopoly capitalism the monstrous oppression of the mass of the toilers by the state -- which is becoming merged more and more with the all-powerful capitalist combines -- is becoming ever more monstrous".

(V.I. Lenin: Preface to the First Edition of "The State and Revolution", in: ibid.; p. 5).

"Imperialism --... the era of the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism -- has particularly witnessed an unprecedented strengthening of the 'state machine' and an unprecedented growth of its bureaucratic and military apparatus, in connection with the increase in repressive measures against the proletariat".

(V.I. Lenin: "The State and Revolution", in: ibid.; p. 32).

Clearly, in Marxist-Leninist terminology capitalism in the Soviet Union is state-monopoly capitalism, so that the state is the machinery of rule, not of the capitalist class as a whole, but of the most powerful monopoly capitalist groups.

This was, in fact, admitted by Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin when, announcing the restoration of the industrial Ministries which had been abolished under the Khrushchov regime, he described the change in character of the functions of the new Ministries as compared with the old. The new Ministries would "rely on" the trusts, firms and combines in their respective fields, and would "hand over" many operative functions to them; further, a main task of the new Ministries would be to "render practical assistance" to these trusts, firms and combines so as to improve their "cost accounting", i.e., their profits:

"It may seem, at first glance, that a mere return to the former Ministries is being suggested. To think so, however, means to disregard a number of new factors, and to make a mistake. The new Ministries will work in entirley different conditions, under which the functions of the administrative management of industry are combined with a considerably greater application of cost-accounting methods and economic incentives, and the economic rights and the initiative of enterprises are substantially extended.

Within industries a network of cost-accounting amalgamations is being set up and they will exercise direct management of their respective enterprises... The Ministries will rely in their work on the cost accounting amalgamations, handing over many operative functions to them... Emphasis will be placed... on rendering practical assistance to enterprises and amalgamations in the improvement of their work and in the consistent implementation of complete cost accounting".

(A.N. Kosygin: "On Improving Industrial Management, Perfecting Planning and Enhancing Economic Incentives in Industrial Production", in: "Izvestia" (News), September 28th., 1965, in; ME. Sharpe (Ed.): "Planning, Profit and Incentives in the USSR", Volume 2; New York; 1966; p. 37-8).

In the present-day Soviet Union, under the Brezhnev regime, the most powerful monopoly capitalist groups are those which dominate the Soviet state apparatus, are those of the dominant Russian nation involved in heavy industry.

Furthermore, the Soviet state, the state of Soviet monopoly capital, is not a "parliamentary democratic" type of state such as, according to Marxist-Leninist analysis, exists in Britain at the present time.

Within "parliamentary democracy" the legal right exists for the formation of a political party aiming to transform the whole structure of society; and the legal right exists for that party to hold public meetings and demonstrations, to publish journals and leaflets, to contest elections, and so on.

In the contemporary Soviet Union, such rights do not exist. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union -- which, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, represents, as has been shown, the political interests of Soviet monopoly capital -- is the sole legal political party and functions, as has been said, as "the leading and guiding force in Soviet society".

On the basis of Marxism-Leninism, therefore, the contemporary Soviet state -- despite its trappings of red flags -- is a fascist-type state of a new type, in which the contemporary Communist Party functions essentially as did the fascist parties in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Falangist Spain.

The fascist-type character of the contemporary Soviet state is reflected not only in its official sponsorship of that typically fascist divisive manoeuvre, racism (discussed in Section 20: Anti-Semitism), but also in the introduction of such monstrous forms of repression as the incarceration of "dissidents" in psychiatric hospitals. The voluminous evidence concerning this practice is accepted as valid by Amnesty International:

"On the basis of available documentary evidence, Amnesty International accepts as fact the general allegation that numerous Soviet citizens have been confined to psychiatric hospital as a direct result of their political or religious beliefs and with no medical justification".

(Amnesty International: "Prisoners of Conscience in the USSR: Their Treatment and Conditions"; London; 1975; p. 104).

On October 25th., 1975, "L'Humanite" (Humanity) organ of the French Communist Party, condemned the practice, and on January 4th., 1976, "Marxism Today" carried an article by John Gollan, former General Secretary of the British Communist Party, denouncing it in similar terms.

("Keesing's Contemorary Archives", Volume 22; 1976; p. 27553).

Soviet psychiatrists who have refused to co-operate in the above practice have themselves been imprisoned:

"Seven Soviet psychiatrists have rebelled against a demand by the State that they collaborate in the imprisonment of dissidents in their hospitals, according to Amnesty International. Two of the psychiatrists have already been imprisoned as a result.

Amnesty International said yesterday it had received documents smuggled from Moscow confirming the continued political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union and the persecution of Russians trying to expose that abuse...

One of these documents is an open letter, signed by 43 workers, alleging 14 occasions since January 1977 in which workers, complaining against their foremen and managers, have been sent to psychiatric hospitals".

("Russian Psychiatrists in Revolt", in: "The Guardian", March 7th., 1978; p. 7).

In Soviet corrective labour colonies and prison, conditions are similar to those, which existed in fascist states. Even the official Corrective Labour Code admits the use of starvation as a punishment for prisoners who do not "observe the demands of the regime":

"The everyday material maintenance of convicted persons who observe the demands to the regime is carried out within the physiologically necessary limits... Soviet corrective labour legislation to a certain extent utilises the daily material maintenance of prisoners as a means of gaining the goals established in Article 20 of the Fundamentals of Corrective Labour Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics".

("Ispravitelno Trudovoye Pravo" (Corrective Labour Code); Moscow; 1971; p. 323-4; in: Amnesty International: ibid.; p. 39).

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