THE KREMLIN STAYS THE COURSE

...Brezhnev's death presents a new opportunity to raise basic questions about the relationship between revolutionary Marxism and the Soviet Union...

...to make it work more efficiently, not dismantle it...

...There was a time when the Soviet Union stood as the symbol of hope for future human development...

...To be sure, changes will be made by Brezhnev's successors, and they may even include some welcome steps toward "liberalism...

...The Reagan Administration's arms policy poses a fundamental challenge to the Soviet Union's strategic posture, particularly in the Arctic, and strikes at the basic premises of political and military discourse between East and West...

...It is reasonable to ask, however, whether those changes will encompass a new commitment to the Soviet Union's revolutionary heritage...

...Brezhnev ruled by consensus, and an apparent deal has been struck to "stay the course...

...What has withered away, in short, has been the Soviet commitment to communism...

...Ronald Reagan, asserting the inherent moral superiority of capitalism, denounces the Soviets as practitioners of corrupt and menacing Marxism...

...The ministries remain all-powerful in the industrial sector, instituting reforms that reflect the corruption and infighting of the centralized bureaucracy...

...And there is every sign that these diversions will deepen into crises for the Kremlin...

...One such reform is already under way—the movement toward increased "privatization" of agriculture...

...The post-Brezhnev leadership confronts an enormous list of problems, including a declining rate of industrial growth, maldistribution of labor, energy inefficiency, lack of technological innovation, rising consumer expectations, restless national minorities, and persistent agricultural failure...

...The revolutionary origins of the Soviet Union are mentioned today only by those in the East or West who have an ideological axe to grind...

...But it does not constitute the kind of threat posed by the socialist opposition within the Soviet Union...

...The younger party leaders who will eventually come to power are university-educated and owe their status to their managerial and bureaucratic skills...

...threat, the interests of the Soviet military-industrial complex and the KGB will take precedence over all other considerations...

...Or must we reconcile ourselves to the reality that revolutionary Marxism and Soviet society will continue to go their separate ways...

...The Soviet power that came to full bloom under Brezhnev is concerned more with securing access to naval facilities antf raw materials than with promoting revolutionary change...

...Brezhnev's successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, are expected to maintain current policies...

...They are likely to be innovative, but not in the direction of democratic socialism...

...Some experts contend the power of the Soviet military now rivals that of the Communist Party...

...There is official support for development of private plots for urban and rural workers to increase food production...

...Sadly, Brezhnev and his successors long ago found it necessary to stifle such dialogue...

...The industrial sector is overconcen-trated and topheavy...

...This was the dominant theme of Brezhnev's last public statement, uttered at the sixty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Soviet revolution, and of Andropov's first public message...

...Clearly changes must come to Soviet society if it is to survive and prosper...

...The Soviet Union is a power to be reckoned with, but not as a force of the future...

...The socialist superstructure that was ultimately supposed to wither away became, instead, a conservative bureaucratic apparatus, geared more toward repression than toward innovation...

...Agricultural production remains captive to the vagaries of climate and inefficiency...

...Will the post-Brezhnev leadership come to accept the conclusion that Soviet problems at home and abroad can only be solved through the theory and practice of democratic socialism...

...In Soviet industry, likely reforms will have nothing to do with increased worker participation, decentralization, or democratic management...

...From the Left's vantage point, the abandonment of revolutionary Marxism has been disheartening...

...Afghanistan, Poland, and China continue to drain away time, energy, and resources that should be allocated to pressing concerns at home...

...Externally, Soviet ambitions face the most stubborn American resistance in two decades...

...But there is no real need for such justification, since there is no significant force exerting pressure from the Left...

...These principles, already subverted by the brutal practices of Soviet collectivization, will be further damaged by privatization within a statist framework...

...Internationally, the clash of the two superpowers has not been a global contest between competing ideologies, as Reagan suggests, but a conflict between the aspirations of two empires...

...Are any political forces on the Soviet horizon seeking a reawakening of the humanistic revolutionary spirit that guides Marxism...

...The importance of these various dissident elements should not be understated, but we must understand that the cause of human rights can have its Marxist as well as anti-Marxist form...

...The ministries represent entrenched elite power, and they are unlikely to mount reforms that threaten their control in any way...

...But these changes will be made to strengthen the centralized bureaucratic state, not weaken it...

...The latest Five-Year Plan shows every sign of falling short of its projected growth rate goals, though these are the lowest of any Five-Year Plan to date...

...The new peace movement is largely under the control of the Soviet state, and thus remains uncritical of present Soviet policy...

...Only one small group of dissidents, led by Roy Medvedev, calls for the reinstitutionaliza-tion of Marxist-Leninist principles, and it has been subjected to harassment, imprisonment, and confinement to psychiatric institutions by the KGB...

...Brezhnev, attempting to stake out his claim as Lenin's heir, characterized Soviet society as "mature socialism...

...The troubles in Poland and Afghanistan, China's efforts to forge an international anti-Soviet alliance, and Reagan's new Cold War policy provide the Kremlin with an opportunity to justify further delay in the transition to socialism...

...It is especially important to ask those questions now because it is universally recognized that the Soviet Union is a society in crisis...

...That torch has passed to other parts of the world...

...In their drive to fashion a modern, centralized, industrial economy, the Soviet leaders deliberately put aside the transformation of social relations...

...The Kremlin Stays the Course After Brezhnev, no deluge BY BEAU GROSSCUP One line of speculation was conspicuously absent from the thousands of words written about the future of the Soviet Union in the wake of Leonid Brezhnev's death: There was no discussion of the state of Soviet Marxism...

...The rest of the dissident movement— liberals, nationalists, feminists, and religious adherents—is troublesome to the Kremlin and will be watched carefully...

...In the face of the renewed U.S...

...If the problems facing the new leadership are to be dealt with successfully, they will demand innovative theory and policy...

...Ahostile American empire will do its part to keep the Soviets preoccupied with military security...

...There is no viable political force within the Communist Party, the Soviet state apparatus, or the society at large pushing Marxist-Leninist principles of socialism...

...There is no evidence of any recommitment to revolutionary socialism on the part of the Soviet leadership...

...Happily, others have found the strength to criticize the repressive, statist model of Soviet socialism, and to move beyond it in the search for a democratic socialism that promises a better life...

...But for serious analysts, the link between the Soviet state and revolution has virtually ceased to exist...

...Even more sadly, the Russians have become major collaborators in the process of human misery...

...If so, have they any chance of coming to power...

...But with each change in leadership, from Stalin Beau Grosscup teaches politics at Ithaca College in New York...

...Its strength rests in crude and brute repression, not in the potential of the human spirit...

...to Khrushchev, from Khrushchev to Brezhnev, new hopes of a revival of revolutionary fervor were quickly dashed as Kremlin leaders resumed the relentless pursuit of power for the sake of power, repressing human rights and dignity, expanding the Soviet Gulag in the name of the workers' state...

...The divorce of revolutionary Marxism from Soviet society was initiated long ago...

...In Western Europe, for example, the transition to socialism is, at least, a matter for discussion and debate...

...Discussions of the transition to socialism now seem irrelevant in the Soviet context...

...The Russians themselves have let the revolutionary flame go out...

...In the 1920s, Stalin began to give Russian national interests priority over those of international communism...

...Such liberalization undermines socialist principles of collective incentive and social living...

...They will be the first Soviet leaders who have no direct knowledge of revolutionary Russia...

...In 1965, a series of industrial reforms did attempt a measure of decentralization, but the stress now is on improved long-range planning with the aid of computer technology and the imposition of more discipline and control over all aspects of production...