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Soviet Political Mind: Stalinism and Post-Stalin Change
In his treatment of internal and foreign policies, the Soviet period and the Russian historical past, the political elite and the ordinary man, Robert C. Tucker focuses upon the thought patterns and ideological factors that, together, constituted the Soviet political mind. His concern is with the problem of change in the Soviet system and in Soviet policy. Affirming the reality and significance of post-Stalin change, he analyzes and explains this phenomenon within the broad framework of Russia's political development before and after 1917.In constructing this concept, he has evolved an interpretation of Stalinism as a special Soviet pattern whose dynamics were determined in part by the psychopathology of Stalin's personality. Thus, beyond its obvious contribution to the field of Soviet studies, this appraisal of the influence of personality factors on the political development of a country contributes significantly to the theory of dictatorship and authoritarianism.
- GenresHistory
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1971
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About the author
Robert C. Tucker
35 books25 followersA scholar of Marxism and the Soviet Union, Robert Tucker studied at Harvard University. While working on a doctorate in philosophy, he spent two years as a translator for the United States Embassy in Moscow, where he met his wife Evgeniya Pestretsova. His inability to gain an exit visa for her when he returned to the United States in 1946, which proved a key experience in stimulating his studies.
After completing his dissertation, Tucker worked for the RAND Corporation and taught at Indiana University. He wrote a number of books about Marxism and Stalinism, most notably a two-volume biography of Josef Stalin which adopted a psychological interpretation to explain how Stalin gained and used power.
After completing his dissertation, Tucker worked for the RAND Corporation and taught at Indiana University. He wrote a number of books about Marxism and Stalinism, most notably a two-volume biography of Josef Stalin which adopted a psychological interpretation to explain how Stalin gained and used power.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2009
Had to read this for my Russian studies class, a very nice piece of intellectual speculation on the methods and thoughts of sovietism and stalin's role in it
November 13, 2023
A collection of essays by Tucker on totalitarian movements but mostly on aspects of the Soviet Union.
There are three different types of revolutionary mass movements. The most complex are fascist since they appear to be nationalists but are really statist with the leader being the symbol of the state and they are Pharisee nationalists since they don't care about the nation. This movement is called by the name of the leader such as Hitlerism or Stalinism by Tucker or Fuhrerist in general. Tucker agrees with Arendt that such movements are supranational in character. The other two movements are are Communist which have a national aspect and Nationalist movements where national renewal is the main focus. Communist movements usually develop where stagnation and a National movement has failed to develop.
Stalin during the great purge eliminated all the old Bolsheviks who might rebel against his assuming total control of the party and who might have disagreed with his pact with Hitler. Bukharin during his trial confessed to his crimes but also did his best to flip the trial and put Stalin on trial for turning the party rule into a monarchy. Tucker argues that the blood purges were not just part of the system but were due to Stalin consolidating power. Which I think Solzhenitsyn shows that terror was always part of the USSR even if Stalin used it for his own ends. Stalin took any disagreement with himself as originating in some kind of capitalistic conspiracy because he was the embodiment of theoretical Marxist perfection. He labeled such people as enemy of the people and could not fathom that any criticism could stem from his own imperfections. The Hitler Stalin pact was Stalins idea and part of the reason he did the great purge was to show Hitler he had eradicated the opposition to this alliance.
Stalin believed conflict was necessary due to limited resources and markets. The collectivization of farms and forced industrialization helped Stalin assume totalitarian control of society. The idea that Russia would consciously move towards material plenty was antimarxist.
Stalin believed he did everything for the benefit of the working class. He did not see himself as the monster he was according to Khrushchev.
Through Russian history there was a concept of duel Russia. There was the centralized state that was seen as oppressive and foreign and then there was the land with the common people. Lenin was able to fuse Marxism with traditional antistate revolutionary populism while Stalin fused it with prostate Czarism. Stalin saw himself as the successor to Ivan the Terrible. Lenin only seized the top of the economy and nationalized it under the one party dictatorship. Stalin totalized control over all aspects of the economy.
Stalin forced Soviet psychology to embrace Pavlov in order to fix the problem of how unmotivated the people were after WW2 for going back to the prewar status quo. The people had been led to believe that things would be better and would go in a new direction after the war but Stalin wanted to keep the pressure on and retain total control. In order to do this he embraced transformism. Transformism arises in Soviet biology and it rejects that the primary force of change resides in the object itself and the environment only secondarily. Transformism does not see any autonomy in the object that needs to be respected in the developmental process as the environment is the only consequential factor in it's evolution. This implies that evolution can come under man's control as he transforms the environment and thus controls the evolutionary process. (ie playing god). After ww2 biological Lysenkoism was employed in the psychological sphere using Pavlov to reshape Soviet man so he would follow along Stalins "objective laws of science" for social progress. Tucker believed that the most powerful monopoly the state had in Soviet society was the one over the definition of words.
When Stalin died the entire monarchy that was built around his paranoid personality had to change. His successors tried to fix the monarchy that so oppressed them with the secret police. They apologized for how Stalin implemented change but they did not apologize for what he did and only reduced the police terror on themselves.
Lenin ruled through his authority in the party and got his way by threatening to resign. Stalin ruled over the party.
Stalin started the cold war in order to retain total control over society. He defined socialist countries by any country that was in the Soviet sphere regardless of whether it was actually socialist. Total control was required in order to maintain the illusion that Marxism was working. Police terror could not change peoples attitudes or fix food and economic problems but it could make the people who complained disappear.
After Stalin died détente started to take shape and competition through peaceful, economic and cultural means started to emerge.
There are three different types of revolutionary mass movements. The most complex are fascist since they appear to be nationalists but are really statist with the leader being the symbol of the state and they are Pharisee nationalists since they don't care about the nation. This movement is called by the name of the leader such as Hitlerism or Stalinism by Tucker or Fuhrerist in general. Tucker agrees with Arendt that such movements are supranational in character. The other two movements are are Communist which have a national aspect and Nationalist movements where national renewal is the main focus. Communist movements usually develop where stagnation and a National movement has failed to develop.
Stalin during the great purge eliminated all the old Bolsheviks who might rebel against his assuming total control of the party and who might have disagreed with his pact with Hitler. Bukharin during his trial confessed to his crimes but also did his best to flip the trial and put Stalin on trial for turning the party rule into a monarchy. Tucker argues that the blood purges were not just part of the system but were due to Stalin consolidating power. Which I think Solzhenitsyn shows that terror was always part of the USSR even if Stalin used it for his own ends. Stalin took any disagreement with himself as originating in some kind of capitalistic conspiracy because he was the embodiment of theoretical Marxist perfection. He labeled such people as enemy of the people and could not fathom that any criticism could stem from his own imperfections. The Hitler Stalin pact was Stalins idea and part of the reason he did the great purge was to show Hitler he had eradicated the opposition to this alliance.
Stalin believed conflict was necessary due to limited resources and markets. The collectivization of farms and forced industrialization helped Stalin assume totalitarian control of society. The idea that Russia would consciously move towards material plenty was antimarxist.
Stalin believed he did everything for the benefit of the working class. He did not see himself as the monster he was according to Khrushchev.
Through Russian history there was a concept of duel Russia. There was the centralized state that was seen as oppressive and foreign and then there was the land with the common people. Lenin was able to fuse Marxism with traditional antistate revolutionary populism while Stalin fused it with prostate Czarism. Stalin saw himself as the successor to Ivan the Terrible. Lenin only seized the top of the economy and nationalized it under the one party dictatorship. Stalin totalized control over all aspects of the economy.
Stalin forced Soviet psychology to embrace Pavlov in order to fix the problem of how unmotivated the people were after WW2 for going back to the prewar status quo. The people had been led to believe that things would be better and would go in a new direction after the war but Stalin wanted to keep the pressure on and retain total control. In order to do this he embraced transformism. Transformism arises in Soviet biology and it rejects that the primary force of change resides in the object itself and the environment only secondarily. Transformism does not see any autonomy in the object that needs to be respected in the developmental process as the environment is the only consequential factor in it's evolution. This implies that evolution can come under man's control as he transforms the environment and thus controls the evolutionary process. (ie playing god). After ww2 biological Lysenkoism was employed in the psychological sphere using Pavlov to reshape Soviet man so he would follow along Stalins "objective laws of science" for social progress. Tucker believed that the most powerful monopoly the state had in Soviet society was the one over the definition of words.
When Stalin died the entire monarchy that was built around his paranoid personality had to change. His successors tried to fix the monarchy that so oppressed them with the secret police. They apologized for how Stalin implemented change but they did not apologize for what he did and only reduced the police terror on themselves.
Lenin ruled through his authority in the party and got his way by threatening to resign. Stalin ruled over the party.
Stalin started the cold war in order to retain total control over society. He defined socialist countries by any country that was in the Soviet sphere regardless of whether it was actually socialist. Total control was required in order to maintain the illusion that Marxism was working. Police terror could not change peoples attitudes or fix food and economic problems but it could make the people who complained disappear.
After Stalin died détente started to take shape and competition through peaceful, economic and cultural means started to emerge.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews