History of Bulgaria. What's happened
From the point of view of apologetics, communism is a socio-economic formation based on the socialization of the means of production; it is a scientific and philosophical doctrine of the future classless society and the practice of putting this doctrine into practice.
From the point of view of criticism, communism is a utopian ideology of a totalitarian society based on the camp economy; this is one of the extreme forms of collectivism, which leads to the oppression and degradation of the social subject - the human person.
In social relations, the communist doctrine notes the superiority of the interests of the collective over the interests of the individual, on the absolute dominant, the subjugation of the human personality to the interests of the community. The alienation of the private interests of man in communism begins with the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, its espropriation.
The transfer of communist ideas into the sphere of politics, the adoption of communist doctrine - as a rule, leads to the totalitarian type of power established in the country. After the destruction of the political system of the USSR and the world system of socialism at the end of the 20th century, the communist state political practice was condemned in most countries of Europe, where communist political regimes used to exist.
Various forms of communism are conditionally piddled on:
Socio-political doctrines and philosophy (cm.: Marxism)
political ideology and doctrine (cm.:"scientific communism", "real socialism")
political movements, parties, state formations and interstate groupings (blocs) that identified themselves as “communist” (see CPSU, CPC, etc.)
History of communist ideas
Communism, as a practical doctrine and philosophy, manifested itself at least three times in the history of Europe (not to be confused with the modern concept of "Eurocommunism"). The first expression of communism, as is often thought [Source?], It is not Plato at all. Rather, it refers to medieval thought, probably the first modernization of Christian theology and politics: it is the philosophy of poverty (not to be confused with poverty) as a condition for righteousness in the world and the salvation of the community, as it was developed (and tried to be put into practice) in XIII-XIV centuries the radical wing of Franciscanism, equally opposed to mystical or monastic asceticism and the absolutization of private property.
The second expression - several centuries later - is egalitarian communism, the main component of the "bourgeois revolutions" of the 17th-18th centuries, in particular in England and France, of which Winstanley and Babeuf were great theorists: this time it is essentially a secular ideology, designed to build a society by realizing freedom and equality not through the negation of property, but by subordinating it to equality (or resolving the conflict between individual and collective property in an egalitarian way). This second form of communist thought is based on the representation of the proletariat as the embodiment of the true reality of the people, in spite of the "bourgeois" egoism that was taken up throughout the 19th century.
But then a third concept of communism arose, no less closely connected with the general history of European society: history is created in the context of working socialism, i.e. in connection with the representation of the economic contradictions of society and with the anthropology of labor - from Fourier to Marx and Engels. It will place - at the center of the problematic of the community - the struggle against the subordination of labor to industrial and financial capital, the latent conflict within the modern organization of production between two types of productivity or human "development of the productive forces": one - on the fragmentation of tasks, the second - on cooperation and the unification of physical and mental abilities.
Karl Marx severely criticized the utopian "crude and ill-conceived communism" of those who, like Cabet, simply extended the principle of private property to everyone ("common private property"). Crude communism, according to Marx, is the product of "worldwide envy". On the other hand, true communism is a positive abolition of the principle of private property, aims to put an end to the exploitation of man by man and the alienation of man, and to create real moral ties between individuals and between people and nature. Communist production is a cooperative activity and here, finally, there is no distinction between physical and mental labor. Many anarchists contemporary with Marx also defended communal property (Peter Kropotkin called his system "anarcho-communism"), but they feared the centralization that Marxist communism seemed to enforce, which could threaten personal freedom. In turn, anarcho-communism leans towards an individualistic worldview in matters of freedom. Communism is characterized by its key words "freedom", "equality" and "fraternity". Freedom under communism is inherent in the whole of society, as well as in each of its individual members. Therefore the principle of "freedom" cannot be conceived by the communists without the principle of "equality". Similarly, anarchists, following Bakunin, believe that "freedom for all is necessary for my freedom."
Communism as an ideology
Communism as a social idea gained popularity first in the countries of Western Europe (especially in France) in the middle of the 19th century in the circles of the intelligentsia and the declassed urban poor during the so-called "bourgeois revolutions". The idea of communism as a political movement was formulated by K. Marx and F. Engels in the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" in 1848 and in later works. In the predictive component of the Theory of Communism, communism is understood as such ideal condition"society of the future", when all people, members of society will put public interests above their own, understanding the decisive role of society in their lives. In this aspect, the communist doctrine is also a separate form of the utopian worldview. [Source?].
Classless state of society (see primitive communism, pre-class or pre-state social order)
The order of social organization of a society in which the society is the owner of all property. In reality, the state is the owner of all property. The state also plans and controls the economy under the structure of a one-party political government. (For example, the policy of "War Communism" during the Civil War 1918-1921)
Theoretical concept of a future classless society, without a state public organization (Marxism,"scientific communism"), based on the joint ownership of the means of production and can be seen as an offshoot of socialism. It comes from the principle:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
The political utopian doctrine and program of political parties and movements directly comes from this concept.
Communism as a political doctrine 
The Communist "Iconostasis": Leaders of World Communism Communism also refers to the various political movements fighting to establish, on the one hand, a classless and stateless society, and on the other hand, fighting against capitalist exploitation and against the economic alienation of the proletariat class.
There are a significant number of interpretations among communists, the two main ones being Marxism and anarchism. The first division in the communist movement occurred between Marxism and anarchism during the First International (1864-1876). Then the ideas of communism began to be inextricably linked with the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. At the time of the I, II, III International, the belief dominated that communism is a socio-economic formation that is replacing capitalism. The first phase of communism below is socialism. At the stage of social and economic maturity of socialist society, there is a gradual transition to communism. This theory of transitional "stages" later showed its inadequacy.
In the twentieth century, in particular after the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, Marxists (directly through the "Communist Manifesto" or indirectly - Marxism-Leninism) have more influence on the world political order than anarchists. Together with the establishment of the USSR and the so-called. The "socialist camp", and especially together with the victory of Stalinism, establishes the regime of state communism, which is contrary to the principles and task of communism (see Stalinism, state capitalism). Stalin's "Thermidor", which denies the principles of "permanent revolution" in favor of "socialism in a single country", is systematically criticized by revolutionary Marxists (Trotskyism). The class struggle plays a central role in Marxism. According to this theory, the establishment of communism corresponds to the end of any class struggle, and the class division of people disappears. This did not happen in the USSR, which is why the Soviet regime is called "communist" for ideological reasons (see Cold War).
Communism and terror
See also: red terror
In countries where the communists were in power, the method of terror was used. In Soviet Russia in 1918, the “Decree on Red Terror” was adopted, in which the path of terror was declared “direct necessity”. The Red Terror also spread to other Soviet republics. The continuation of the Red Terror in the USSR was the Stalinist repressions, as well as a number of artificially created famines that claimed the lives of millions of people.
The communist authorities of other countries also resorted to methods of terror. In particular, the communists of Hungary resorted to terror (in March-July 1919), the communist military junta of Ethiopia (1977-79), the Red Army repeatedly suppressed anti-communist uprisings (in particular, in 1956 - in Hungary, in 1968 - in Czechoslovakia).
According to rough estimates by the Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe, Geran Lindblad, the largest number of victims of communist rule falls on China (65 million) and the USSR (20 million).
Criticism of communism
http://website/uploads/posts/2011-01/1295077866_4РєРѕРјСѓРЅРѕ„Р°С?РёР·РјСѓ.jpeg Monument to "fighters for the freedom of Ukraine, victims of the communist-fascist terror of 1939-54." In Yaremche 
Monument to the "Victims of Communism" in Krakow, Poland Starting with the encyclical of Pope Benedict XV in 1920 Bonum Sana and a number of subsequent official documents issued by the heads of the Catholic Church, communism was condemned by the popes for atheism, the desire to destroy the social order in society and undermine the foundations of Christian civilization.
Condemnation in Legislative Acts of Post-Communist Countries
After the demise of the USSR, the post-communist countries of Western Europe condemned the communist regime at the official level. In the Czech Republic in 1993, the Law on the illegality of the communist regime and resistance against it was adopted, in which, in particular, the communist regime was called "criminal, illegitimate and unacceptable." A similar law was adopted in 1996 by the Slovak Parliament
Poland's 1997 constitution contains an article banning the existence of organizations that preach "totalitarian methods and practices of Nazism, fascism and communism", while communist crimes appear as a legislative term.
On May 12, 2005, the Saeima of Latvia adopted a "Declaration on the condemnation of the totalitarian communist occupation regime of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was carried out in Latvia. In the same year, the Saeima of Latvia adopted a special law prohibiting the public use of Soviet and fascist symbols. Latvia banned the hammer and sickle. Similar laws were adopted in January 2007 in Estonia, and in June 2008 in Lithuania
Condemnation in the speeches of heads of state
Equality between communism and Nazism was also voiced in an official statement by US President George W. Bush, who said the following:
President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko at the opening of the Memorial to the victims of the Holodomor in the Kharkiv region said:
Council of Europe resolution
In 2006, the Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was adopted, which unequivocally condemned the crimes of the communist totalitarian regimes. In particular, the resolution states:
The resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly also focuses on the fact that
In a number of European countries, including Ukraine, there are monuments and memorial complexes in memory of the victims of communist regimes, or their individual crimes. In total, activists count 1,213 monuments and commemorative plaques on the territory of the former USSR. Several such monuments exist on the territory of Russia.
At the same time, there are monuments to ideologists and leaders of communism on the territory of the former USSR. In particular, in Ukraine, as of 2009, there are more than 2,000 monuments to figures of the totalitarian period.
Communism as a religion
There is also a theory of perception of the phenomenon of communism as a kind of religion. According to the theory, when studying a person who grew up surrounded by communist ideology, many parallels were found between how this person perceives the very idea of \u200b\u200bcommunism and other people who are very strongly attached to, for example, Islam, Christianity, etc. All these people are united by the same aggressive attraction to people who do not agree with their idea, often these people lose the opportunity to analyze their global ideologies, do not tolerate any criticism from people who think differently, although this does not specifically touch them at all. The idea of communism for them turns into truth, is not subject to any doubts, you just need to believe in it and not ask any questions. Since communism does not tolerate the very thought of alien thinking, it creates a vacuum of faith in a person, filling it himself. Thus communism is transformed from a form of government into a religion. Particulars regarding this fact indicate that the communists (on the example of the USSR) actually had holy relics - the mummified body of V.I. Lenin, writings - works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, the sanctuary - Lenin's mausoleum, the shape of which was taken from the models of Mesopotamian temples, namely The room was also used as a tribune.
Political and ideological currents of the twentieth century
Marxism
Anarcho-communism
Leninism
Trotskyism
Stalinism
Maoism
Eurocommunism
Communism as politics
Interstate communist blocs
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) 1949-1991
Warsaw Pact Organization (OVD) 1955-1991
Attempts of political-state implementation in practice
See also: Real socialism
USSR
Cuba
PRC
North Korea
Cambodia
Vietnam
Ethiopia
Negative consequences of implementation in practice in the USSR
Civil War 1917-1921
Holodomor in Ukraine 1932-1933
Collectivization and dispossession
Consequences of Communist Party rule in China
What is Communism
Communism is a utopian philosophical idea about the ideal economic and social arrangement of the state, where equality and justice flourish. In practice, this idea turned out to be unviable and unrealizable due to many reasons.
What is Communism in simple words - briefly.
In simple words, communism is the idea of creating a society in which people will be provided with everything they need, regardless of their abilities. Ideally, under the communist system, there should not have been a poor and rich class, and all the resources of the country should be evenly distributed among all citizens equally. In this scheme, there is no private property as such, and all people work to create the common good. Naturally, this ideology belongs to the category of utopian ones due to the nature of man himself.
The essence of communism.
Before you begin to understand the essence of communism, you should understand the fact that the original idea and its practical implementation are completely different things. If the idea itself, in principle, can be called completely idealistic, then the way of its implementation cannot be called that. Thus, this expensive and large-scale social experiment in building an ideal society consisted in a complete reformation of power and strengthening the role of the state. The implementation of the plan included such items as:
- Abolition of private property;
- Cancellation of inheritance rights;
- Confiscation of property;
- Heavy progressive income tax;
- Creation of a single state bank;
- Government ownership of communications and transport;
- Government ownership of factories and agriculture;
- State labor control;
- Corporate farms (collective farms) and regional planning;
- State control of education.
As can be seen from this, far from complete list reforms, civil society was limited in many rights, and the state took control of almost all aspects of human life. From this we can conclude that despite the stated high ideals, the essence of communism was to turn citizens into a weak population under the control of the state.
Who invented communism. The origin of the theory of communism and basic principles.
Karl Marx, Prussian sociologist, philosopher, economist and journalist, is considered the father of communism. In collaboration with Friedrich Engels, Marx published several works, including the most famous under the title - "Communist" (1848). According to Marx, a utopian society will be achieved only when there is a single "civilless" and classless society. He even described three stages of action to achieve such a state.
- First, a revolution is needed to overthrow the existing regime and completely eradicate the old system.
- Secondly, the dictator must come to power and act as a single authority on all matters, including the private affairs of the public. The dictator would then be in charge of forcing everyone to follow the ideals of communism, as well as ensuring that property or property is not privately owned.
- The last stage would be the achievement of a utopian state (although this stage was never reached). As a result, the highest equality would be achieved, and everyone would willingly share their wealth and benefits with others in society.
According to Marx, in an ideal communist society, the banking system would be centralized, the government would control education and labor. All infrastructure facilities, agricultural facilities and industries will be state-owned. Private property rights and inheritance rights will be abolished and everyone will be taxed heavily on their profits.
The role of Lenin in building communism and war communism.
At a time when many countries of the world were shifting towards democracy, Russia was still a monarchy, where the tsar owned all the power. In addition, the First World War led to great economic losses for the country and people. Thus, the king, who continued to live in luxury, became a highly unpopular character among the common people.
All this tension and chaos led to the February Revolution on February 19, when the workers of the closed factory and the soldiers in revolt together raised slogans against the unjust regime. The revolution spread like wildfire and forced the king to abdicate. The rapidly formed Russian Provisional Government now replaced the monarch.
Taking advantage of the chaos prevailing in Russia, Vladimir Lenin, with the help of Leon Trotsky, formed a Bolshevik pro-communist "party". As the Russian Provisional Government continued to support the war effort during World War I, it also became unpopular with the masses. This sparked the Bolshevik Revolution, which helped Lenin overthrow the government and take over the Winter Palace. Between 1917 and 1920, Lenin initiated "war communism" to secure his political goals.
Extreme measures were used to establish communism in Russia, which marked the beginning of the civil war (1918-1922). After that, the USSR was created, which included Russia and 15 neighboring countries.
Communist leaders and their policies.
To establish communism in the USSR, the leaders did not shun absolutely no methods. The tools used by Lenin to achieve his goals included man-made famines, slave labor camps, and the execution of detractors during the Red Terror. The famines were provoked by forcing peasants to sell their crops without profit, which in turn affected agriculture. Slave labor camps were places to punish those who disagreed with Lenin's rule. Millions of people died in such camps. During the Red Terror, the voices of innocent civilians, prisoners of war of the White Army and supporters of tsarism were silenced by massacres. In fact, it was their own people.
After Lenin's death in 1924, his successor, Joseph Stalin, followed the policy set by Lenin, but also took a step forward by ensuring the execution of fellow communists who did not support him 100%. grew. After the end of World War II, the period of the Cold War began, when a democratic society with all its might resisted the spread of communism in the world. The arms race and energy prices greatly shook the imperfect planned economy of the USSR, which greatly affected the lives of the population.
Thus, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he adopted new principles to rejuvenate the Soviet economy and reduce tensions with the US. The Cold War ended and communist governments in Russia's border countries began to fail due to Gorbachev's softer policies. Finally, in 1991, during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the Soviet Union formally disintegrated into Russia and several independent countries. This is how the most significant era of communism in the world ended, not counting several modern countries living in a similar system.
results of communism.
It is quite difficult to talk about the results of communism if you approach it from the point of view of the perception of its citizens as a “scoop”. For some, these were the times of hell on earth, while others remember the scoop as something good and warm. Most likely, differences of opinion are mostly caused by various factors: class, political preferences, economic status, memories of youth and health, and the like. However, the bottom line is that we can only rely on the language of numbers. The communist regime was economically untenable. In addition, he brought millions of dead and repressed. In some ways, the building of communism can be called the most costly and bloody social experiment on earth, which should not be repeated again.
Categories: , // fromThe map shows the "countries of people's democracy" in Eastern Europe: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania and the GDR.
Communist regimes are advancing in Europe and Asia
Under pressure from the USSR, the influence of the communists in Eastern Europe increased. Countries of "people's democracy" emerged, in which at first a multi-party system and various types of property were allowed.
Gradually, the parties of communists and socialists began to unite and seize power. Then in 1947-1948. Following very similar schemes, "conspiracies" were uncovered in a number of countries, and opposition parties were crushed. Now communist regimes have been established in the countries. In our newspapers, we read about the victory of the Communists in the elections in Eastern Europe, as well as the offensive of the Chinese liberation army.
It was natural for me (and I felt satisfaction) that the peoples of the liberated countries "took the path of socialism" (this was a common newspaper stamp of that time). I was only surprised that these countries did not join the Soviet Union. After all, I remembered the words of Stalin:
“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us to strengthen and expand the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We swear to you, Comrade Lenin, that we will fulfill this commandment of yours with honor.
Now it seems to me that Stalin, not yet having an atomic bomb, was cautious, afraid to give the United States and England a pretext to carry out atomic bombings of Soviet cities. However, nothing prevented him, acting with extreme caution and observing the "legality" to consolidate the gains achieved.
In Eastern Europe, Stalin pursued just such a policy, consistently "fixing" the territorial acquisitions achieved during the war. Having liberated the Eastern European countries from German occupation, Soviet troops remained on the territory of these countries for a long time, introducing a regime of temporary military administration. This made it possible to suppress dissenting parties and bring pro-communist groups and parties to power, although outwardly this was presented as the result of the people's will.
The communist regimes after the Second World War were advancing all over the world. All the events in the Eastern European countries, as well as the victory of the communists in China, Korea and North Vietnam, were presented in the Soviet press as successful democratic transformations of countries that rejected capitalism and the exploitation of man by man and embarked on a socialist path of development.
I rejoiced at the successes of these countries, the victories of the communists, the expansion of the socialist camp, the camp of peace, which opposed the capitalist camp, the camp of warmongers.
In the previous sentence, I deliberately cited the terminology (the next stamps of Soviet propaganda) used at that time by Soviet propaganda.
But that's exactly what I thought then and thought in precisely such cliches. These words were hammered into me.
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The Second World War
Operation Marita also unfolded in Yugoslavia and Greece. After the German army conquered these countries in April 1941, Bulgaria, in accordance with previous agreements, was allowed to introduce its troops and administration into Greek Western Thrace and Yugoslav Vardar Macedonia. Bulgarian propaganda presented Boris as a unifying tsar, but the territorial acquisitions had dire consequences. After the rapid withdrawal of a significant contingent of German troops from there for military operations against the USSR, a powerful resistance movement unfolded in Yugoslavia and Greece, and the Bulgarian army had to fight the partisans.
After the attack on the USSR in June 1941, Hitler repeatedly demanded that Tsar Boris send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern Front. However, fearing the growth of pro-Russian sentiments, the tsar evaded this requirement and Bulgaria actually did not participate in the German war against the USSR. When in December 1941 Japan launched a war with the United States, Tsar Boris yielded to German demands out of a sense of solidarity, and on December 13, 1941, Bulgaria declared war on the United States and Great Britain. Tsar Boris put at the disposal of the Germans the economic resources of the country and introduced discriminatory measures against the small Jewish population of Bulgaria, including the eviction of Jews from large cities. However, he reckoned with public opinion opposed to the extradition of Jews to the Germans, and not a single Bulgarian Jew was deported.
When Germany began to suffer military defeats, Tsar Boris tried to break the alliance with Germany, but on August 28, 1943, after visiting Hitler's headquarters, he died suddenly. The Regency Council, consisting of Boris's brother Prince Kirill, Prime Minister Filov and General Nikola Mikhov, with the approval of the Germans, took control of the country, ruling on behalf of Boris's son Simeon, who was then 6 years old. Filov and the new Prime Minister Dobri Bozhilov began to clearly follow the pro-German course, pursuing a policy of "loyalty" towards Germany at any cost.
Soviet calls for help forced the Bulgarian communists to start sabotage and partisan struggle in the German rear, and gradually a resistance movement grew in Bulgaria. It was led by the communists, but also included representatives of other parties - the left wing of the agrarians, the socialists, the "Link", the Union of Officers and other opponents of the alliance with Germany. In 1942, these political groups, on the initiative of the Bulgarian communist leader Georgy Dimitrov, formed the Fatherland Front coalition. The victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad and its offensive to the west greatly contributed to the development of the resistance movement in Bulgaria. In 1943 the Bulgarian Workers' Party (BRP) created a united People's Liberation Insurgent Army. In September 1944, when the Red Army reached the borders of Bulgaria, approx. 30 thousand partisans.
The deteriorating military situation and the bombing of Sofia by the allies forced Bozhilov to resign, and on June 1, 1944, a cabinet was formed headed by Ivan Bagryanov, a representative of the right wing of the agrarians. The new government tried to appease the USSR and internal opposition, and also to reach a truce with the United States and Great Britain. On August 26, it announced the complete neutrality of Bulgaria and demanded the withdrawal of German troops from the country. Having met with an unfriendly attitude from the USSR and having not achieved positive results in the negotiations on a truce, Bagryanov's government resigned. The new government, composed of agrarians, democrats and representatives of other parties, and headed by agrarian Konstantin Muraviev, came to power on 2 September. In an effort to gain complete control over Bulgaria, the Soviet government on September 5 declared war on it. The Red Army occupied the country, on September 8-9, the Communists and their sympathizers carried out a coup d'état and formed the government of the Fatherland Front, headed by Kimon Georgiev, and on October 28, 1944, an armistice was signed in Moscow.
The communist movement in Bulgaria emerged in the 1880s. The first leader of this movement was Dimitar Blagoev (1856–1924), who became interested in Marxism as a student at St. Petersburg University. In 1883 he organized the first Marxist circle in Russia, and in 1885 he was expelled from Russia and returned to Bulgaria. In 1891 Blagoev and other socialists created the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. Differences between revolutionaries and reformists eventually led to a split in this party. In 1903, Blagoev and his supporters formed the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party, known as the "Tesnyakov Party" (i.e. "narrow socialists"), which became the most influential Marxist revolutionary party in the Balkans and a staunch ally of the Russian Bolsheviks. Always a reliable support of the left wing of the Second International, in 1919 it became a founding member of the Third (Communist) International and was named the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP).
After World War I, this party was led by Vasil Kolarov (1877–1950) and Georgy Dimitrov (1882–1949). In 1922–1924, Kolarov was the General Secretary of the Comintern, and after the unsuccessful rebellion of the Bulgarian Communists in September 1923, he, Dimitrov and other communist leaders left for the USSR, where they established a foreign bureau of the BKP. Thinned as a result of the rebellion and outlawed in 1924, the BKP went through a period of struggle between the foreign bureau and the so-called. "leftist sectarians" in Bulgaria itself; the number of its members decreased from 38,000 (1922) to 3,000. Bulgaria in order to purge the ranks of the BKP from left-wing sectarians and create a party of the “Bolshevik type”. Thus, when the Communists came to power in 1944, Dimitrov and Kolarov in Moscow and Kostov in Bulgaria became their recognized leaders. In September 1944 the party was renamed the Bulgarian Workers' Party (Communists) - BRP(k).
The Communists occupied the key positions of ministers of internal affairs and justice in the government of the Fatherland Front and ousted all their opponents from there. A "people's militia" was organized under the leadership of the Minister of the Interior, and the partisan leader Todor Zhivkov organized mass raids that ended in lawsuits; they were conducted by special "people's tribunals" over the highest officials of the wartime country (regents; members of the cabinets that existed before September 9, 1944; deputies of the wartime People's Assembly elected in 1940) and many others. According to official figures, in 1945 more than 2,800 people were executed and 7,000 people were imprisoned. Although the Bulgarian army remained at first under the leadership of Minister of War Damian Velchev, the BRP (k) introduced communists, former commanders of partisan detachments, into army units as political commissars. Key posts in the army were given to persons who served in the Red Army or fought in international brigades in Spain in 1936-1939 (about 400 Bulgarian communists and fighters who sympathized with them fought in these brigades). The Bulgarian army, subordinate to the Soviet command, participated in operations against the retreating German troops in Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria.
The hard line of the BRP(k) in the struggle for power destroyed the coalition of the Fatherland Front. The first sign of the conflict was the resignation of the leader of the BZNS G.M. Dimitrov, who emigrated to the United States. In 1945-1946, the split within the Fatherland Front deepened, and the leader of the BZNS, Nikola Petkov, led the "tolerant" opposition, which included socialists and representatives of other parties. Both the government and the opposition intended to abolish the monarchy and create a republic. After a referendum on September 15, 1946, Bulgaria was proclaimed a "People's Republic". In the October 27 elections to the Great People's Assembly, which was supposed to draw up a new constitution, the opposition scored approx. 30% of the vote and won 99 out of 465 seats. BRP(k) received 277 seats. The government, which was completely under its control, was formed by Georgy Dimitrov, who returned from the USSR in November 1945.
The communists of the Balkan countries decided to create a Balkan federation of communist countries in order to solve all the Balkan problems, including the Macedonian one, and Bulgaria and Yugoslavia studied ways to create a Bulgarian-Yugoslav core, to which other Balkan countries were to join. However, Bulgaria's urgent demand for parity with Yugoslavia, as well as the Yugoslav proposal for Bulgaria to join the Yugoslav Federation as the seventh member, led in 1944-1945 to the breakdown of the negotiation process. Negotiations resumed in August 1947. An agreement was signed on the beginning of the unification process - the creation of a customs union, the removal of border restrictions and the promotion of cultural ties between Bulgarian Macedonia and the Macedonian Republic within Yugoslavia.
The peace treaty, which entered into force on October 2, 1947, recognized the borders as of January 1, 1941, i.e. secured the accession of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, but rejected its claims to Greek and Yugoslav territories, as well as Greek claims to Bulgarian lands. According to the agreement, Bulgaria had to pay reparations in the amount of 45 million dollars in favor of Greece and 25 million dollars in favor of Yugoslavia.
After the elections and the signing of the peace treaty, Dimitrov found it possible to start liquidating the opposition. Opposition leader Nikola Petkov was arrested and on September 23, 1947, despite the protests of Western countries, was executed. Other opposition leaders were thrown into prison, and all parties, with the exception of a part of the BZNS that wished to cooperate with the communists, were dissolved or included in the BRP (k). After the liquidation of the opposition, the Great National Assembly on December 4, 1947 adopted the so-called. Dimitrov's constitution, and Bulgaria was reorganized along the Soviet lines.
The enmity that arose in 1948 between JV Stalin and JB Tito had far-reaching consequences. Dimitrov sided with Stalin, which led to the deterioration of Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations. The course towards the unification of Macedonia was suspended, and Bulgaria became one of the most energetic participants in the anti-Titian campaign conducted by Stalin. In Bulgaria itself, repressions against Macedonians and supporters of an alliance with Yugoslavia, Protestant and Catholic communities and schools, as well as everyone who had contacts with Western countries, intensified. Trials were organized against Protestant priests who were found guilty of spying for the United States and imprisoned; relations with the Vatican were severed, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was forced to remove Patriarchal Exarch Stefan from his post.
Dimitrov's death in 1949, at the height of the conflict between Stalin and Tito, provoked a crisis in the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP - that was how the BRP (k) became known from December 1948). A long-awaited conflict broke out between communist repatriates who returned after 1944 from the USSR and "local" communists. The main candidate to succeed Dimitrov was Traicho Kostov, but he opposed the Soviet policy of economic exploitation of the country, and Stalin suspected an actual or potential "nationalist bias" in this. Stalin supported the candidacy of Dimitrov's son-in-law, Vylko Chervenkov, who spent most of his life in the USSR. In 1949, Chervenkov organized a trial of Kostov and his supporters, accusing them of conspiring with Tito and American diplomats to stage a coup d'état. Kostov was executed, Chervenkov headed the BKP, and in February 1950, immediately after Kolarov's death, he also took the post of prime minister.
Chervenkov gained a reputation as the Bulgarian "little Stalin". Massive repressions against supporters of Kostov and Tito led to the expulsion of 92.5 thousand members from the party. A fierce propaganda campaign was launched to isolate Bulgaria from the "pernicious Western influence" and fight against the "enemy encirclement". The US and UK were portrayed as imperialist aggressors, setting Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey against Bulgaria; Yugoslavia was called a renegade of socialism; borders with these three neighboring countries were closed. In 1950, it was announced the need to deport 250 thousand Turks from Bulgaria, and in 1951–1952, approx. 160 thousand of them were resettled in Turkey. In order to strengthen the elements of Bulgarian nationalism in this campaign and enlist the support of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, in 1953 it was given the status of patriarchy, which it lost in the 14th century. during the capture of the country by the Ottoman Turks.
After Stalin's death in 1953, Chervenkov's position in Bulgaria began to weaken. A harbinger of change was his resignation from the post of head of the BKP in March 1954. Todor Zhivkov became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP. Chervenkov showed a complete inability to adapt to the de-Stalinization policy pursued in the USSR by N.S. Khrushchev, and in April 1956 he was removed from the post of chairman of the Council of Ministers of the NRB. The new regime tried to adapt to the changed situation in Moscow and to apply Khrushchev's ideas and policies to Bulgarian realities. Following similar processes in the USSR, the process of liberalization began. So, in 1956 Kostov was posthumously rehabilitated.
After a period of factional struggle and purges, Zhivkov, with the support of Khrushchev, won and in November 1962 became Chairman of the Council of Ministers and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP. After the fall of Khrushchev in 1964, Zhivkov's inner-party policy was reduced to maneuvering between the "revisionists", i.e. pro-Yugoslav elements, and "dogmatists", i.e. Stalinists and pro-Chinese elements. He tried to create a broad base for his support among the party cadres and the people, calling for moderation. However, Zhivkov's policy was not flawless. In foreign policy, Bulgaria copied the USSR. Bulgaria opposed democratic reforms in Czechoslovakia and in August 1968, together with the USSR, Hungary, Poland and the GDR, participated in the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into its territory.
In 1971, a new constitution was approved in a referendum. It legitimized the economic, political and ideological sovereignty of the communists. In the early 1970s, a campaign was launched against the rights of some national minorities, in particular Bulgarian-speaking Muslims (Pomaks), Gypsies and Turks. This campaign received ideological support at the Tenth Congress of the BCP (1971) in the form of the thesis of growing social homogeneity at the stage of "developed socialist society". In 1973–1974, the Pomaks were forced to change Muslim surnames to Bulgarian ones. The crackdown on the rights of ethnic Turks led to the gradual closure of Turkish schools and mosques; the number of publications in Turkish was systematically reduced, and atheistic propaganda was directed primarily against Islam. The call for Bulgarian nationalism, which was also fueled by demographic arguments (Bulgarian families had one or two children, while Turkish and Gypsy families had at least three or four), manifested itself in 1981, after the celebration of the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state. This campaign culminated in 1984-1985 when all Turks were forced to adopt Slavic-Bulgarian names and surnames.
After this campaign, which was accompanied by repressions, the communist regime fell into a period of deepening economic, political and moral crisis. The situation was aggravated by the international isolation of the country, as well as by the external debt, which in 1990 reached 10 billion dollars. The reforms initiated by the Soviet leader MS Gorbachev were not supported by T. Zhivkov.
Communism(from lat. commūnis - "general") - in Marxism, the organization of society, in which the economy is based on public ownership of the means of production.
After the 19th century, the term is often used to refer to the socio-economic formation predicted in the theoretical works of Marxists, based on public ownership of the means of production. Such a formation, according to the works of the founders of Marxism, assumed the presence of highly developed productive forces, the absence of division into social classes, the abolition of the state, a change in functions and the gradual death of money. According to the classics of Marxism, the principle “To each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” is realized in a communist society.
Various definitions of communism
Friedrich Engels in the draft program of the Union of Communists “Principles of Communism” (end of October 1847): “Communism is the doctrine of the conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.<…>Question 14: What should this new social order be like? Answer: First of all, the management of industry and all branches of production in general will be removed from the hands of separate, competing individuals. Instead, all branches of production will be under the jurisdiction of the whole society, that is, they will be conducted in the public interest, according to a public plan and with the participation of all members of society. Thus this new social order will destroy competition and put association in its place.<…>Private property is inseparable from individual conduct of industry and from competition. Consequently, private property must also be abolished, and its place will be taken by the common use of all the instruments of production and the distribution of products by common agreement, or the so-called community of property.
Karl Marx (1844): «<…>communism is the positive expression of the abolition of private property; at first it appears as general private property. "Communism as the positive abolition of private property - this self-alienation of man -<…>there is a real resolution of the contradiction between man and nature, man and man, a genuine resolution of the dispute between existence and essence, between objectification and self-affirmation, between freedom and necessity, between the individual and the race. He is the solution to the riddle of history, and he knows that he is the solution."
Dictionary Vl. Dalia(1881, spelling of the original): "Communism, the political doctrine of equality of fortune, community of possessions, and the rights of each to another's property."
Philosophical Dictionary(1911): “Communism is a doctrine that rejects private property in the name of the human good.
All evil in social and state relations stems from the unequal distribution of good.
To eliminate this evil, communism advises that property rights be reserved only for the state, and not for private individuals. The first to recommend the communist ideal was Plato (cf. his Politia).”
Handbook for sacred church ministers(1913): “Communism preaches the forced communion of property, denying all kinds of private property. By extending the principle of collectivism, i.e., community, not only to production and distribution, but also to the very use of produced products, or to their consumption, and subjecting all this to social control, communism thereby destroys individual freedom even in the details of everyday life.<…>The communism of property preached by communism leads to the overthrow of all justice and to the complete destruction of the well-being and order of the family and society.
Errico Malatesta in the book A Brief System of Anarchism in 10 Conversations (1917): “Communism is a form of social organization in which<…>people will unite and enter into a mutual agreement, with the goal of securing the greatest possible welfare for everyone. Based on the principle that land, mines and all natural forces, as well as accumulated wealth and everything created by the labor of past generations, belongs to everyone, people under the communist system will agree to work together to produce everything necessary for everyone.
V. I. Lenin(December 1919): "Communism is the highest stage in the development of socialism, when people work from the consciousness of the need to work for the common good."
Philosophical Dictionary. ed. I. T. Frolova (1987): communism is “a socio-economic formation, the features of which are determined by social ownership of the means of production, corresponding to highly developed social productive forces; the highest phase of the communist formation (complete communism), the ultimate goal of the communist movement.
Dictionary of foreign words(1988): “1) a socio-economic formation replacing capitalism, based on public ownership, on the means of production; 2) the second, highest phase of the communist social formation, the first phase of which is socialism.
Merriam-Webster English Dictionary(one of several meanings): "a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls the state-owned means of production." Since the 1990s, the term has also been used in this sense in the Russian-language literature of Russia and other countries of the former USSR.
sociological dictionary N. Abercrombie, S. Hill and B. S. Turner (2004): “Communism is understood not as a real practice, but as a certain doctrine. This concept denotes societies in which there is no private property, social classes and division of labor.
Etymology
In its modern form, the word was borrowed in the 40s of the 19th century from the French language, where communisme is derived from commun - “general, public”. The word was finally formed into a term after the publication of the Communist Manifesto (1848). Before that, the word “commune” was used, but it did not characterize the whole society, but a part of it, a group whose members used the common property and the common labor of all its members.
History of communist ideas
In the early stages of development, primitive communism, based on the community of property, was the only form of human society. As a result of the property and social stratification of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a class society, communism has moved from a real-life practice into the category of a cultural dream of a just society, a Golden Age, and the like.
At its inception, communist views were based on the demand for social equality based on the community of property. Some of the first formulations of communism in medieval Europe were attempts to modernize Christian theology and politics in the form of a philosophy of poverty (not to be confused with misery). In the XIII-XIV centuries, it was developed and tried to be put into practice by representatives of the radical wing of the Franciscans. They equally opposed mystical or monastic asceticism and the absolutization of private property. In poverty, they saw the conditions for justice in the world and the salvation of society. It was not so much about common property, but about the general rejection of property. At the same time, the ideology of communism was Christian-religious.
The slogans of the revolutionary struggle for the radical participants of the Hussite movement in the Czech Republic of the XV century. (Jan Hus), Peasants' War in Germany in the 16th century. (T. Müntzer) were calls to overthrow the power of things and money, to build a just society based on the equality of people, including with common property. These ideas may well be considered communist, although their basis was purely religious - everyone is equal before God and the possession or not possession of property should not violate this, equality in religious rites was required. A few centuries later, egalitarian communism appears - the main component of the "bourgeois revolutions" of the 17th-18th centuries, in particular in England in the 17th century. (J. Winstanley) and France at the end of the 18th century. (G. Babeuf). The secular ideology of communism emerges. The idea of creating a community is being developed in which the freedom and equality of people before each other is realized through the common communal ownership of property (or by resolving the conflict between individual and collective property in an egalitarian way). Ownership is no longer denied, but an attempt is made to subdue it for the benefit of the entire community.
The theoretical development of the first systematized ideas about the communist way of life was based on the ideology of humanism of the 16th-17th centuries. (T. More, T. Campanella) and the French Enlightenment of the 18th century. (Morelli, G. Mably). Early communist literature was characterized by the preaching of universal asceticism and leveling, which made it aimed at counteracting progress in the field of material production. The main problem of society was seen not in the economy, but in politics and morality.
The next concept of communism appeared in the context of working socialism - from C. Fourier to K. Marx and F. Engels. There is an awareness of the economic contradictions of society. Labor and its subordination to capital are placed at the center of the problems of society.
In the first half of the XIX century. the works of A. Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, R. Owen and a number of other utopian socialists appeared. In accordance with their ideas, in a just social order, ideas about labor as pleasure, the flowering of human abilities, the desire to provide for all his needs, central planning, and distribution in proportion to work should play an important role. Robert Owen not only developed a theoretical model of a socialist society, but also carried out a number of social experiments in practice to put such ideas into practice. In the early 1800s, in the factory village of New Lenark (Scotland), serving the paper mill, where Owen was the director, he carried out a number of successful measures for the technical reorganization of production and the provision of social guarantees to workers. In 1825, in the state of Indiana (USA), Owen founded the New Harmony labor commune, whose activities ended in failure.
The early utopian socialists saw the need to introduce into communist society a developed apparatus for suppressing the freedom of the individual in relation to those who, in one sense or another, show a desire to rise above the general level or take initiative that violates the order established from above, and therefore the communist state must necessarily be founded on the principles of totalitarianism, including autocracy (T. Campanella).
These and other utopian socialists enriched the concept of a just social order with ideas about labor as pleasure, the flowering of human abilities, the desire to provide for all his needs, central planning, distribution in proportion to work. At the same time, in a utopian society, the preservation of private property and property inequality was allowed. In Russia, the most prominent representatives of utopian socialism were A. I. Herzen and N. G. Chernyshevsky.
In the 40s of the 19th century, the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie came to the fore in the most developed countries of Europe (the uprisings of the Lyon weavers in 1831 and 1834, the rise of the English Chartist movement in the mid-30s and early 50s, the uprising of the weavers in Silesia in 1844).
During this period, the German thinkers K. Marx and F. Engels in the spring of 1847 joined the secret propaganda society "Union of Communists", organized by German emigrants whom Marx met in London. On behalf of the society, they compiled the famous “Manifesto of the Communist Party”, published on February 21, 1848. In it, they proclaimed the inevitability of the death of capitalism at the hands of the proletariat and gave a brief program for the transition from the capitalist social formation to the communist one:
The proletariat uses its political dominance to wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie step by step, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the sum of the productive forces as quickly as possible.
This can, of course, only come about at first by despotic interference with the right to property and bourgeois production relations, i.e., with the help of measures that seem economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outgrow themselves and are inevitable as a means for a revolution. throughout the production process.
The program itself contains 10 items:
These activities will, of course, be different in different countries.
However, in the most advanced countries, the following measures can be applied almost universally:
1. Expropriation of landed property and circulation of land rent to cover public expenditures.
2. High progressive tax.
3. Cancellation of the right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital and with an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of all transport in the hands of the state.
7. An increase in the number of state factories, tools of production, clearing for arable land and improving land according to the general plan.
8. The same obligation of labor for all, the establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Connecting agriculture with industry, promoting the gradual elimination of the difference between town and country.
10. Public and free education of all children. Elimination of factory labor of children in its modern form. The combination of education with material production, etc.
This is how Marxism was born. Karl Marx, however, severely criticized the utopian "crude and ill-conceived communism" of those who simply extended the principle of private property to everyone ("common private property"). Crude communism, according to Marx, is the product of "worldwide envy".
Many of Marx's contemporary anarchists also advocated public (communal) property (Peter Kropotkin called his system "anarcho-communism"), but they rejected the centralization promoted in Marxism because of the restrictions on individual freedom. In turn, anarcho-communism leans towards individualism in matters of freedom.
In 1864 the Marxist First International was created. Marxists founded social-democratic parties, in which both a radical, revolutionary trend and a moderate, reformist one emerged. The German Social Democrat E. Bernstein became the ideologist of the latter. In the Second International, created in 1889, until the early 1900s, the revolutionary point of view prevailed in the International. At the congresses, decisions were made about the impossibility of an alliance with the bourgeoisie, the inadmissibility of entering bourgeois governments, protests against militarism and war, etc. Later, however, the reformists began to play a more significant role in the International, which caused accusations from the radicals of opportunism.
In the first half of the 20th century, communist parties emerged from the most radical wing of social democracy. The Social Democrats have traditionally advocated the expansion of democracy and political freedoms, while the Communists, who came to power first in Russia in 1917 (the Bolsheviks), and then in a number of other countries, were opponents of democracy and political freedoms (despite the fact that formally declared their support) and supporters of state intervention in all spheres of society.
Therefore, already in 1918, Luxembourgianism arose, opposing, on the one hand, the pro-bourgeois policy of the revisionist Social Democracy, and, on the other, Bolshevism. Its founder was the German radical Social Democrat Rosa Luxembourg.
On March 4, 1919, at the initiative of the RCP(b) and personally its leader V. Lenin, the Communist International was created to develop and spread the ideas of revolutionary international socialism, as opposed to the reformist socialism of the Second International.
The views of a number of communist theorists who recognized the progressive significance of the October Revolution in Russia, but criticized its development, and some even rejected the socialist character of Bolshevism, seeing state capitalism in it, began to be called left communism. The left opposition in the RCP(b) and the CPSU(b) in the 1920s advocated intra-party democracy, against the "nepman, kulak and bureaucrat".
The “left opposition” in the USSR ceased to exist as a result of repressions, but the ideology of its leader L. Trotsky, who was expelled from the country, (Trotskyism) became quite popular abroad.
The communist ideology in the form in which it became dominant in the USSR in the 1920s was called "Marxism-Leninism".
The revelations of Stalinism at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the Soviet course towards economic development under the policy of "Peaceful Coexistence" displeased the leader of the Chinese Communists, Mao Zedong. He was supported by the leader of the Albanian Party of Labor Enver Hoxha. The policy of the Soviet leader N.S. Khrushchev was called revisionist. Many communist parties in Europe and Latin America, following the Sino-Soviet conflict, split into groups oriented toward the USSR, and the so-called. "anti-revisionist" groups oriented towards China and Albania. In the 1960s and 1970s, Maoism enjoyed considerable popularity among the left-wing intelligentsia in the West. The leader of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, maneuvering between the USSR and China, in 1955 proclaimed the Juche ideology, which is presented as a harmonious transformation of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism based on ancient Korean philosophical thought.
The policy and theoretical substantiation of the activities of a number of communist parties in Western Europe, which in the 1970s and 1980s criticized the leadership of the CPSU in the world communist movement, the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the lack of political freedoms in countries that adopted the Soviet model of socialism, was called "Eurocommunism".
"Scientific Communism"
The concept introduced in the USSR in the 1960s, which denoted “one of the three components of Marxism-Leninism, revealing the general laws, ways and forms of the class struggle of the proletariat, the socialist revolution, the construction of socialism and communism. The term "scientific communism" ("scientific socialism") is also used in a broad sense to refer to Marxism-Leninism as a whole.
Also the name of the subject in the universities of the USSR since 1963. It was compulsory for students of all universities along with the "History of the CPSU" and "Marxist-Leninist Philosophy" until June 1990.
Within the framework of scientific communism, the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat to achieve communism was argued, although the idea of communism as a society based on common property does not indicate the political structure of such a society.
The term "Scientific Communism" appeared at the end of the 19th century to distinguish Marxist communist ideas from others. The addition of "scientific" arose because K. Marx and F. Engels substantiated the need for changes in the social structure by changes in the methods of production. They emphasized the objective nature of the historical movement towards communism. GV Plekhanov wrote that scientific communism does not invent a new society; he studies the tendencies of the present in order to understand their development in the future.
Friedrich Engels predicted a number of main features of a communist society: anarchy in production is replaced by a systematic organization of production on a social scale, an accelerating development of productive forces begins, the division of labor disappears, the opposition between mental and physical labor disappears, labor turns from a heavy burden into a vital need - self-realization, class distinctions are destroyed and the state itself dies, instead of managing people, production processes will be controlled, the family will change radically, religion disappears, people become masters of nature, humanity becomes free. Engels foresaw unprecedented scientific, technical and social progress in the future. He predicts that in the new historical epoch "people, and with them all branches of their activity, will make such progress that they will eclipse everything that has been done so far."
Concepts formed using the term "communism"
primitive communism
According to Engels, the most ancient human societies of hunter-gatherers, which existed before the rise of classes, can be called "primitive communism." Primitive, or primitive, communism is characteristic of all peoples at the early stages of development (the so-called primitive communal system, which, according to archaeological periodization, coincides mainly with the Stone Age). Primitive communism is characterized by the same attitude of all members of society to the means of production, and, accordingly, the same way for all to receive a share of the social product. There is no private property, no classes, no state.
In such societies, the food obtained is distributed among the members of the society in accordance with the need for the survival of the society, that is, according to the needs of the members for individual survival. Things produced by each person for himself independently were in the public domain - public property. In the early stages, there was no individual marriage: group marriage was not just the main, but the only form of regulation of relations between the sexes. The development of labor tools led to the division of labor, which caused the emergence of individual property, the emergence of some property inequality between people.
Utopian communism
The classic expression of this kind of communism is Thomas More's Utopia (1516), which paints an idyllic picture of primitive communism as opposed to feudalism. By the 17th century, new, more developed versions of utopian communism were being formed, expressed in the views of Mellier, Morelli, Babeuf, Winstanley. Utopian communism reached its apogee in the 19th century in the concepts of Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen, Chernyshevsky.
war communism
The official name of economic practice in Russia during the Civil War on the territory of Soviet Russia in 1918-1921. Elements of war communism were introduced by most of the countries participating in World Wars 1 and 2. The main goal was to provide the population of industrial cities and the Army with weapons, food and other necessary resources in conditions when all the economic mechanisms and relations that existed before were destroyed by the war. The main measures of war communism were: the nationalization of banks and industry, the introduction of labor service, a food dictatorship based on food appropriations and the introduction of a ration system, and a monopoly on foreign trade. The decision to end war communism was made on March 21, 1921, when the NEP was introduced at the 10th Congress of the RCP(b).
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism is a conditional name for the policy of some communist parties in Western Europe (such as French, Italian, Spanish), which criticized the lack of political freedoms and the alienation of the party and authorities, in their opinion, that existed in countries that adopted the Soviet model of socialism. The transition to socialism, according to the supporters of Eurocommunism, should be carried out in a “democratic, multi-party, parliamentary” way. In its rejection of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Eurocommunism was close to social democracy (although the Eurocommunists did not identify themselves with them). Russian followers of Eurocommunism, or non-authoritarian communism, are often erroneously called Trotskyists, despite the authoritarianism of Trotsky himself and the absence of any trace of a preference for the Trotskyist branch of Marxism in the ideology of the non-authoritarian left.
Anarcho-communism
Socio-economic and political doctrine of the establishment of a stateless society based on the principles of decentralization, freedom, equality and mutual assistance. The ideological foundations of anarcho-communism were laid by the famous scientist and revolutionary Pyotr Alekseevich Kropotkin. The most famous milestones in the history of the anarcho-communist movement were the insurrectionary movement of Nestor Makhno during the Civil War in Russia, as well as the actions of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists during the Civil War in Spain of 1936-1939. In addition, it should be noted that anarcho-communism is the ideological basis of the anarcho-syndicalist International that exists to this day, founded in the winter of 1922-1923.
Forecast dates for the transition to a communist form of society
2009 May Day demonstration in Severodvinsk
V. I. Lenin in 1920 attributed the building of communism to the 30s - 40s of the XX century:
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU N. S. Khrushchev announced in October 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU that by 1980 the material base of communism would be created in the USSR - “The current generation of Soviet people will live under communism!”.
Complete communism as the highest phase of the communist formation
According to Marxism, the "communist socio-economic formation", or, briefly, "communism" consists of two phases: the lower - which in Marxism is called socialism and the higher - the so-called "complete communism". Under socialism, there is a state, and state power is stronger than under other formations, elements of bourgeois law and other remnants of the capitalist formation. Also, under socialism, there is personal property, there is small private production (household plots) and small private trade (markets). However, large private property under socialism is also absent. Since the means of production become common property, the word "communism" is already applicable to this phase.
According to Marx,
…In the highest phase of communist society, after the subordination of man to the division of labour, which enslaves man, has disappeared; when the opposition of mental and physical labor disappears along with it; when labor ceases to be only a means of life, and becomes itself the first need of life; when, along with the all-round development of individuals, the productive forces also grow and all sources of social wealth flow in full flow, only then will it be possible to completely overcome the narrow horizon of bourgeois law, and society will be able to write on its banner: "To each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
Anarcho-communists do not agree with the concept of two phases and believe that for the onset of full communism and the elimination of the state, a preliminary stage of strengthening the state is not needed.
Many authors have repeatedly noted that human needs are unlimited, therefore, with any, even the highest labor productivity, distribution mechanisms and restrictions are required, for example, money. To this the Marxists responded as follows:
The state will be able to die out completely when society implements the rule: “to each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” that is, when people are so accustomed to observing the basic rules of community life and when their labor is so productive that they will voluntarily work according to their abilities. The "narrow horizon of bourgeois right," which forces one to calculate, with Shylock's callousness, not to work an extra half hour against another, not to receive less pay than the other - this narrow horizon will then be crossed. The distribution of products will then not require society to normalize the amount of products received by each; everyone will be free to take "as needed."
From the bourgeois point of view, it is easy to declare such a social structure a “pure utopia” and scoff at the fact that the socialists promise everyone the right to receive from society, without any control over the work of an individual citizen, any number of truffles, cars, pianos, etc ...
... to "promise" that the highest phase of the development of communism would come, it never occurred to a single socialist, and the foreknowledge of the great socialists that it would come implies not the current productivity of labor and not the current layman who is capable "in vain" - sort of like Pomyalovsky's bursaks - spoil the warehouses of public wealth and demand the impossible.
In fantasy
The communists pave the way to the stars. Postal block USSR 1964
In the Soviet Union, communist motives in science fiction were of paramount importance from the very beginning of the genre in the country.
Our job is to turn Soviet science fiction into a weapon in the struggle for communism and for the spread of communist ideas throughout the world by increasing the artistic and ideological content of the works.
However, in the 1930s and 1950s it was mostly "short-range fiction" describing the transition to a communist society, but not the society itself.
I. A. Efremov vividly and positively described the humane communist society of the future in his famous novel "The Andromeda Nebula", which was based on the film of the same name. The development of this author's ideas about the people of the communist future is given in the story Heart of the Snake and the novel The Hour of the Bull.
A. Bogdanov (“Red Star”), the Strugatsky brothers (“World of Noon”), G. Martynov (“Gianea”, “Guest from the Abyss”), G. Altov (“Scorching Mind”), V Savchenko (“Beyond the Pass”), V. Nazarov (“Green Doors of the Earth”) V. Voinovich (“Moscow 2042”).
The description of the communist society in Western science fiction is presented in the TV series Star Trek. In addition, the communist society of the future was described by G. Wells (“People as Gods”, “The Time Machine”, W. Le Guin “The Dispossessed”, T. Sturgeon (“Artists of the Planet Xanadu”).