Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis

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Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis
Soviet Marxism (first edition).jpg
Cover of the first edition
Author Herbert Marcuse
Country United States
Language English
Published 1958
Media type Print

Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis is a 1958 book by Herbert Marcuse, a critique of the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Background[edit]

Much of the research was based on Marcuse's work for OSS and the State Department after 1945, and the classified intelligence report he wrote.[1]

Summary[edit]

Marcuse sees domination in the USSR as linked to the Soviet Bureaucracy and New Rationality of industrial societies.[2]

The individual is forced to submit to the machine process.

He also critiques the Soviet division between DiaMat and HistoMat. Unlike Marx, the Soviets see Historical Materialism as an application of Dialectical Materialism, rather than a single unity. He claims that the emphasis on the Dialectics of Nature, de-emphasizes history.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Marcuse, Herbert (1985). Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis. Columbia University Press. p. ix. ISBN 9780231083799. Retrieved 12 January 2015. 
  2. ^ Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism By Douglas Kellner. pp. 201–202. 
  3. ^ Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism By Douglas Kellner. pp. 212–215.