Herbert Marcuse's "Soviet Marxism"
Stern, L.
But Is It Marxist? SOVIET MARXISM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS, by Herbert Marcuse Columbia University Press, New York 1958. 267 pp. $4.50 That a philosopher should commit this or that...
...246], was "led to a harmonistic interpretation of history, according to which the crossing to a new historical form is at the same time a progress to a higher historical form—a preposterous interpretation, because allthe victims of oppression and injustice are witness against it, asare all the vain sufferings and sacrifices of history...
...liberalization of this state will now bring about the disintegration of capitalist stabilization...
...de-Stalinization which stimulated the events in Poland and Hungary...
...KARL Max History written from the viewpoint of victorious politicians and generals always carries the onus of apology: apology for the present rulers who are the heirs of these victors...
...If such is the nature • (Cf., Hegel, Science of Logic, Book I, Part 3, chapter 2) . of the relation between Leninism and Stalinism, it certainly runs counter to the continuity alleged to exist by Mar cuse in the first part of his book...
...Or they could have presented themselves as the instruments of Historical Reason...
...Either the Marxian promise was betrayed or it was not...
...For him, during the period of primitive Stalinism the bureaucracy developed and the capitalist environment gave both subjective and objective justification to the repression: "The height of Stalinist terror coincided with the consolidation of the Hitler regime...
...Now, this fact cannot be denied, particularly since acceptance of Stalinist leadership by a large part of the proletariat is proof of this fact (something, incidentally, not mentioned by Marcuse...
...Had a philosopher thus accommodated himself, his pupils would have had to explain that what for him had the form of exoteric consciousness came from his inner essential consciousness...
...The weakness of the revolutionary potential makes necessary a "second respite" which utilizes the inter-imperialist contradictions as well as the contra dictions between the imperialist nations and their colonies for the purpose of ushering in a new state in the development of Soviet society...
...96) "The class struggle is...
...a stability which cannot be altered except by the "relaxation" of the Soviet camp's intransigent strategy...
...about the debate over E. Varga's controversial book, Changes in the Economy of Capitalism Resulting from the Second World War, we hear only the extent to which his theories were rejected or accepted...
...Dialectic itself is used for substantiating this claim...
...And the truth of this conception is to be, not a matter of faith, but a matter of scientific analysis and reason—of necessity" (p...
...Furthermore, it is responsible for the inner contradictions of Marcuse's exposition...
...Parenthetically, we may ask what happens to the proletariat under such conditions...
...218), or whether we accept Marcuse's opposing interpretation that, "The the end recedes, the means becomes everything...
...finally, because of its own ideological commitments since, without such a transition, "Soviet Marxism could not even claim to be Marxism...
...In the meantime, the "permanent revolution" continues to be directed from above...
...Since there is such a high degree of externalization of Soviet ethical values this permits only a low degree of internalization...
...Marcuse's thesis is as follows: socialist society was to be built coexistent with rather than subsequent to capitalist society (but he assures us that his uses of the term "socialist" does not imply that Soviet society actually is socialist, but simply assumes that such was the original intention...
...Pocket Books say that last month it received an order for 100 copies of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' from Central High School in Little Rock...
...In the same chapter Hegel gives the following example: "It is a more or a less which suffices to transgress the limit of levity, whereby something quite different, namely, crime, appears...
...202) Evidently, such an interpretation in which the struggle of Man is arrogated by history will find it difficult to recognize any revolutions...
...ist world...
...Publisher's Weekly, No...
...In context, Soviet Marxism may even be considered as a degree of consciousness (the lowest possible degree, to be sure) of a section of the proletariat, a proletariat held by raison d'etat of the Soviet state in a condition of rigor mortis, But even if we accept such an interpretation of Soviet Marxism, constant reference to its sources in Marx and Hegel will not elucidate its meaning...
...WE ARE NOT SUGGESTING that Marcuse is uncritical of the consequences of Stalinist policy...
...Whether the reader accepts the official argument of Soviet ethics that: "Final human fulfillment and gratification are not oriented on the 'inner self' or the hereafter, but on the `next stage' of the actual development of society...
...74) It could hardly have been better said...
...But, if Marcuse's appraisal of Soviet Marxism's development and its trend were to be realized and socialist or communist democracy were to be introduced not as an administrative measure but as a result of "pressure from below" (which, under the existing conditions, would amount to a revolu tion), then, such a society, being the fulfillment of Marxism's aspirations, might be indifferent to the hiatus between this promise and its fulfillment...
...p.154) But this critique is added a posteriori to the main argument and since the a posteriori does not become the a priori the whole study falls apart because of its own contradictions...
...Repression from above does not become internal...
...But what he does not realize is the possibility that this apparent accommodation has its innermost roots in an insufficiency or insufficient formulation of his principle...
...namely, the transition from socialism to communism...
...To be sure, "quantity shall not turn again into quality unless the economic benefits have themselves become political ones, that is to say, have led to the control of production by the 'immediate producers...
...As a result, we do not find in his study any social classes in pursuit of their purposes...
...No view per se is "good" or "bad," "justified" or "unjustified...
...149) Is there a break between Leninism and Stalinism, asks Marcuse, and then answers: "If the dialectical law of the turn from quantity into quality was ever applicable, it was in this transition from Leninism (after the October Revolution) to Stalinism...
...To translate such a social movement into political terms of power relations and influence is to make social reality incomprehensible...
...Progress is caused by the interdependence and interaction of these two sides upon each other...
...97) Marcuse thus sees a definitive shift in the subject of history...
...Where has Stalinist "guidance" not sabotaged the socialist revolution...
...and thus right passes into wrong, and virtue into vice...
...Yet it should be made clear that whatever weakness there is in Marcuse's study should not be laid only at his door...
...181) The post-Stalinist welfare state of tomorrow shall remain the direct heir of yesterday's Stalinist state...
...It was precisely not the "sincere subjective intentions" of the leaders and their followers that enacted this revolution, but rather the revolution was carried out by great masses of the population whose leaders were carried along by the movement because of their "sincere subjective intentions...
...4.50 That a philosopher should commit this or that inconsistency because of this or that accommodation is conceivable...
...At the same time, "As long as this international situation [of coexistence— L. S.] prevails, technological rationality tends to militate against the restrictive political rationality and to drive the latter toward the liberali zation of the established base...
...75) Whereas now, after achievement of competitive strength by the "Communist orbit," Marcuse believes that the repressive economic and political relations upon which the bureaucracy was founded contradict the more general interests of the Soviet state...
...The interpretation is the more preposterous because it denies the critical implications of the dialectic...
...He himself may realize this...
...Until, however, such a realization does take place, any attempt to present the betrayal of the promise as the means of its fulfillment only serves to justify the repressive reality...
...Consequently, the critic Walter Benjamin saw the duty of the historical materialist as "..die Geschichte gegen den Strich zu buersten"—to brush history against the grain...
...ACCORDING to Marcuse, ideological, technical-economic and political pressure all tend in the direction of relaxation of repression and toward the liberalization of the Soviet State...
...Granted that the "immanent critique" which "starts from the theoretical premises of Soviet Marxism, develops their ideological and sociological consequences, and reexamines the premises in the light of these consequences" (p...
...What "immediately appeared out of itself" was the bureaucracy...
...transubstantiated into an international political struggle...
...The development of the Soviet state promoted the transformation of "classical" capitalism into state capitalism in the West, thus coming closer and closer to the "general cartel" whose ultra-imperialist planning would replace capitalist anarchy...
...We suggest that because he cannot ascribe any revolutionary role to the proletariat, the notion of the proletariat has changed for Marcuse...
...Even the author's critique becomes absorbed in his appraisal of Soviet Marxism's historical situation...
...According to the author, "...during the Revolution, it became apparent to what degree Lenin had succeeded in basing his strategy on the actual class interests and aspirations of the workers and peasants...
...Or perhaps in Spain during the Civil War...
...But what permits us to assume that Stalinist policy had the least intention of developing any genuinely revolutionary movement...
...Therefore, liberalization of the Soviet state must be the inherent tendency once competitive strength has been attained...
...The Soviet leadership reacted in accordance with the underlying policy conception...
...Marxism's institutional determinism is preserved, and the working out of Man's problems is assigned to history where Reason and the "Cunning of Reason" has again become the moving force of history...
...The Hungarian people copied the October Revolution of 1917, including both its organizational units and its slogans, as exemplification of Marxian theory, that every revolution tends to imitate its predecessor...
...he himself shall take his destiny in his own hands and shall cease to be the object of forces transcending his powers...
...also, in order to break the deadlock in favor of the proletariat by spreading "Socialism by contagion" (p...
...Originality—even a certain beauty— cannot be denied in such a construction, but we would like to take some exceptions to it: Marcuse refers repeatedly to the failure of the proletariat to act as a revolutionary class...
...242)— whichever of these two conceptions one accepts the "end" justifies repressive reality, as Marcus concedes...
...Germany...
...SOVIET MARXISM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS, by Herbert Marcuse Columbia University Press, New York 1958...
...Stalin's ad hoc theories, says Marcuse, were but unclear reflections of the effective containment of the revolutionary force within the capital...
...L. STERN "GOOD OMEN...
...The class struggle becomes a fight for space and populations and the social issues become a function of political issues...
...Not so for Marcuse...
...For Marx, history was not "a person apart," using men for its purposes, but the struggle of men "pursuing their purposes...
...It was either connected with such a movement or it was at least convinced that the subject of history was to take its destiny into its own hands in the impending future...
...Thus the very success of Stalinist policy brings it to the impasse where it sustains stability in the imperialist orbit...
...But the reader should be reminded that Marx always took social classes and their leaders as his point of departure...
...The "united front" policy is but an expression of this fact...
...Did not Marcuse himself most eloquently criticize just such an interpretation...
...We learn nothing of deviations, faction struggles etc., nor do we hear about the "Left Opposition" or the "Right Opposition...
...It absorbs and adorns itself with the values of the goal, whose realization 'the movement' itself delays" (p...
...The cornerstone of Marxian theory is the revolutionary role of the proletariat...
...Once this promise of an immediate future is translated into a "transcendental" one and its subject, individual Man, is hypostatized into the abstraction "Mankind," this promise is betrayed...
...July, 1958...
...Man's dream of freedom becomes realized in this liberation...
...The limits of inner coherency are socio-historical insofar as the given historical period defines its highest possible degree and individual in as much as the consequences of the inquiry may run counter to its methodological premises...
...Its measure cannot but be the degree of inner coherency with which it answers the questions put to it by Man in search of orientation...
...the Soviet state having now integrated the "general cartel," liberalization of the former will disintegrate the latter...
...257...
...To quote Marcuse, "The forces and circumstances which led to the abuse and violation of the ideal appear as more objective than those of mere power politics—objective to such an extent that they may be easily represented as the working of Historical Reason...
...But, according to the author, beyond that it becomes effective through its own momentum...
...regardless of the sincere subjective intentions of the national leadership and their followers amongthe working classes and the intelligentsia...
...ACCORDING to Marcuse the relative stabilization of capitalism in the West is responsible for Lenin's theory of the vanguard...
...Hence, priority for heavy industry and repressive totalitarian centralization...
...Marx's first concern was not narrowly political, but certainly social and philosophical as well...
...1), can exlude any references to such deviations and faction struggles...
...173-174] If the reviewer may briefly go beyond the limits set, the reader should be reminded that the Hungarian events of 1956 can only be described in terms of social revolution...
...Once the future becomes "transcendental" and the role of the revolutionary class is subsumed in the power relations of the two conflicting forces —the camp of "imperialism" versus the Soviet states and the "external proletariat"—the historical perspective of Marxism becomes implicitly utopian...
...According to Marcuse, this transition is necessary because otherwise the Soviet State would be forced to sustain the stabilization of the advanced western countries...
...WHAT IS the relation between Leninism and Stalinism...
...Marxism has claimed to be the theory of the revolutionary working class movement...
...Either there is a continuity between Leninism and Stalinism or there is a break...
...Trotsky's name is mentioned twice en passant...
...HERBERT MARCUSE, author of several valuable studies such as Reason and Revolution and Eros and Civilization, an unsurpassed guidepost of dialectical criticism, here in his latest study, Soviet Marxism, using what he calls the method of "immanent critique" is compelled to take a path opposite from the one proposed above...
...ized...
...However, since at this point the author does not provide a direct quote in his reference to the turn from quantity, to quality, the reviewer has to remind the reader that, according to Hegel, "the new Something is indifferent to its predecessor . . . It has therefore appeared not out of the former, but, immediately, out of itself, that is, out of the internal specifying unity which has not yet entered into existence...
...the views of the philologist Mars- are mentioned only to be rejected, etc...
...We do not wish to discuss the merits of the determinist view of history...
...The consequence of Marcuse's procedure surely runs counter to its methodological premise of employing Marxism's conceptual instruments and leads us back to Hegelian metaphysics...
...160) Thus—like Goethe's MephistoStalin and the bureaucracy may well have said about themselves that they are "part of that power which always wills the bad, and always works the good...
...China during the 1920's...
...3, 1958...
...A case in point would be Marcuse's treatment of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956: It was...
...The impression of an unbroken line of development is further strengthened by the author's sweeping announcement that "There is theoretical continuity from the early Marxian notion of the Proletariat as the objectified truth of capitalist society to the Soviet Marxist concept of partinost (partisanship)" (p...
...197) This image of continuity which, for professional anti-Bolshevism or Stalinism, was the result of vested political interest becomes here a methodological premise which, as we shall see, will be qualified by Marcuse in the unfolding of his discussion...
...9), and "throughout all changes to which Soviet ethical theories have been subjected since the Bolshevik Revolution, they have been governed by one unifying principle, namely, the formulation and evaluation of ethical standards in accordance with the objectives of the Soviet state...
...the absurdity of Soviet Marxism," he writes, "has an objective ground: it reflects the absurdity of a historical situation in which the realization of the Marxian promises appeared—only to be delayed again—and in which the new productive forces are again used as instruments for productive repression...
...1) can get by with this...
...In Marcuse's book we look in vain for any social classes in pursuit of their purposes...
...p. 8) Since the proletariat of the advanced western countries failed to act as a revolutionary class, Stalinist industrialization had to take place in a hostile environment...
...In presenting and assembling the basic elements of Soviet Marxism, Marcuse gives the reader the impression that there has been one straight line of development from 1917 until our day...
...It is rather the demand made of the historian to see his subject from the viewpoint of the defeated...
...100...
...but it is rather doubtful that a study which "employs the conceptual instruments of . . . Marxism" (p...
...But notions of a broken-continuum or faithfulbetrayal tend more to obscure social reality than to enlighten it...
...Socialists, to be sure, would still defend the interests of the oppressed, the exploited, the mutilated, defeated and silenced, but the historical Marxist perspective would lose its meaning...
...and the sum of total of means is 'the movement' itself...
...As every reader of Marcuse's Reason and Revolution knows, the liberation of the proletarian according to Marx is not simply for his own sake, but for the sake of Man and Philosophy...
...This does not entail— as in liberal history books— parading the defeated alongside the victorious, or the muted truth together with the truth which has had its day...
...if the proletariat should prove to be incapable of assuming its role in history Marxian theory w' uld become obsolete...
...Then, from 1923 on, the decisions of the leadership have been increasingly dissociated from the class interests of the proletariat...
...International capitalist development brought about the Stalinist state...
...89) Marxism's promise was the liberation of Man for the impending future...
...Hegel, he wrote in Reason and Revolution [p...
...Marxian perspective is replaced by Hegelian interpretation...
...If, for instance, he suggests that the dialectic was not arbitrarily stopped by Soviet Marxism, but, since Russia is a post-capitalist state, the dialectic came to rest (as predicted by Marx and Hegel), Marcuse hastens to add, "What is involved is not so much a revision of dialectic as the claim of socialism for a nonsocialist society...
...The absence of the former and the lack of the latter perspective have caused Marxism's extreme poverty over the past thirty-five years...
Vol. 6 • January 1959 • No. 1
