The Evolution of Soviet State Ideology

A century of Soviet state ideology, from the formation of the party's philosophy in the 1890s to the dissolution of 1991: doctrine, political line, constitutional declarations, and the alternatives raised against them. Click a node to open its dictionary entry or the reference document.

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Philosophy & doctrine Political line Alternatives Constitutions & programmes construction declared complete the system's worldview codified 'communism in twenty years' the goal deferred against 'stagnation' a precedent for reform socialism Plekhanov coined 'dialectical materialism'; Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909) fixed Bolshevik philosophical orthodoxyThe party'sphilosophyformed(Plekhanov,Lenin)1890년대–1909 The RSFSR constitution, opening with the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People1918Constitution:a workers'statedeclared1918 Socialismin onecountry1924–1926 Permanentrevolution(Trotsky)1905 / 1924– The GreatBreak:revolutionfrom above1929–1933 'Socialismvictorious'(1936Constitution)1936 Stalin's 'Dialectical and Historical Materialism' became the standard text of party and university instructionDiamatcodified(the ShortCourse)1938 Thetwo-campsdoctrine(Zhdanov)1947–1950년대 Condemned the cult of personality while keeping the system's philosophical foundations intactDe-Stalinization(20thCongress)1956 Declared the dictatorship of the proletariat fulfilled and promised the material basis of communism within twenty yearsThird PartyProgramme:theall-people'sstate1961 'Socialismwith ahuman face'1968 The Brezhnev-era doctrine that shelved the promise of imminent communism and named the present a long stage of 'developed socialism'Developedsocialism1970년대 Wrote the all-people's state and developed socialism into the preamble, and the party's leading role into Article 61977Constitution:developedsocialismcodified1977 Perestroikaandglasnost1985–1991 Newpoliticalthinking1987–1991 The 1988amendmentsand theCongress ofPeople'sDeputies1988–1989 The last attempt to refound the state as a voluntary union of sovereign republics, wrecked by the coup two days before signingThe newuniontreaty: theunionrewrittenas acontract1991 BelovezhaAccords:the Uniondissolved1991 The political reform that led to contested elections and the deletion of Article 6: the doctrine of the party's leading role began to be dismantled in the institutionsThe 19thPartyConference:power fromparty tosoviets1988–1990 The ideological turn from class struggle to universal values, enacted in the INF Treaty, the Afghan withdrawal and MaltaThe NewThinking inpractice:the ColdWar ends1985–1989 As the neither-plan-nor-market muddle deepened the crisis, the 500 Days demanded the formal abandonment of the planned economyThemarket-transitiondebate andthe 500Days1987–1991
succession · split · merger influence antagonism suppression