Conclusions What conclusions, then, can be made? First, if we look back at the revolution from a cultural perspective we can see that it evolved according to the following pattern: the socialist revolution created the premise for the emergence of a type of culture which was able to overcome previous relations of alienation. We need to understand, of course, that this was not the only tendency of Soviet culture, but it was more than adequately manifested in its essence. And in this sense, ideal communism -the world of non-alienated relations - in Soviet society was created in the bosom of Soviet culture and especially in its heart and soul (Soviet art); and this is why even today apologists for the Yeltsin regime continue to strive after Soviet art forms. In such circumstances this was the condition for the appraisal of the laws of Soviet culture, which the majority of the working class accepted as a kind of prototype of communism - i.e. non-alienated social relations; a situation already then of real socialism, which was then murdered by bureaucratism.
Here it is important to bring to light another contradiction: the creation of this ideal communism in the realm of Soviet culture appeared not only in advance of, but in isolation of, any manifestation of real socialist relations in the material (economic) realm of life, which was still conditioned by a very backward form of capitalism. The success of the former was not in itself sufficient to overcome the deficiencies of the latter. Indeed, quite the opposite. We also have to be clear, however, that in terms of what has happened since 1991, we have not so much moved forwards to a new stage of capitalism, but instead we have gone backwards to an almost unique postmodern form of feudalism. Second, and following on from this, the liberating potential of culture is firmly connected with the liberating potential of socialist revolutionary politics. That is to say, it was the revolution which itself revealed the most essential laws of culture, which were fully embodied in the practice of social transformation and social creativity. Outside of this domain, the potential of culture is nearly always restricted to little more than an act of consumption. Third, the revolution engendered a new universalism in the form of Soviet culture, which overcame, in an organic way, not only national, but also state forms of culture, putting in its place a small niche of world, international culture. Up to this time world culture had consisted of a dialogue of different national and popular/folk cultures, but the new Soviet culture represented a new precedent of world culture based on a completely different set of foundational principles. That is to say, it emerged as a result of the historical and localised experience of different peoples, consciously desirous of creating a world of non-alienated relations. Fourth, and finally, the general humanistic ideal of a socially just and non-alienated society, which prior to the revolution existed purely as a kind of abstract desire, became not just die main component of Soviet culture (and here we are referring first and foremost to its socialist tendencies), but it also entered the mentality (the psychological and the spiritual culture) of the people. This is one of the main reasons why we can still say that even in today's Russia, while outwardly and perhaps intellectually the rhetoric of anti-communism prevails, inwardly (under their skin) there is still a great deal of residual commitment and belief in die values of social justice, mutual assistance and collectivism in ordinary people's approaches to the transition now taking place. This residue of communist cultural values is not sufficient in itself to defeat or block die transition currently under way, but it does at least help explain some of die deformations in that transition process and why the process of capitalisation has been far more problematical, as well as more vicious, in Russia than elsewhere. If, then, in October 1917 the Bolshevik revolution created culture as communism, we should assert tliat our future task is to create, in die words of Karl Liebknecht, 'communism as culture'. http://www.alternativy.ru/en/node/84 _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
