Real socialism

The Real socialism (also real-socialism) is a political term, popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Soviet Union, in relation to the rapidly changing socioeconomic reality of the Eastern Bloc countries, faced with a slowing rate of growth and the need for economic reform. From the 1960s onward, countries such as Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, began to argue that their policies represented what is realistically feasible, even if they did not conform to the Marxist concept of socialism. With time, the phrase "real socialism" acquired other meanings, both negative and sarcastic, as the actual party claims of nomenclatory socialism began to be seen as distant and unreal, while the foreign debt skyrocketed. Over the years, and especially after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the term began to mean only one thing, i.e. the Soviet style socialism.^{[note 1]}

The role of the Sino-Soviet split

Another aspect of the term real socialism contained elements of the Sino-Soviet split and other "disagreements," which were actually ideological gulfs, between the USSR and its satellite states on one side, and the People's Republic of China and the followers of a more Maoist brand of communist ideology on the other. The Soviets wished to enforce the idea that their version of socialism was "real" and the Chinese and their followers were not, precisely because the Maoist-inspired communist movement, which had grown so rapidly worldwide as a "radical left" alternative to Soviet ideas, had consistently claimed that the Soviet Union was no longer socialist and had betrayed the Revolution. To counter this claim of Marxist revisionism, the Soviets defiantly claimed that their socialism was "real socialism," implying that other models of socialism were unrealistic.^[1]

Real socialism in Soviet popular culture

The term was also used in an ironical criticism. The "reality" of "real socialism" was used against it. In particular, the term became a target of numerous political jokes within the Soviet Union, the following being typical examples.^[1]

• "Do you know the boundary between real socialism and communism?" -- "The border passes along the Kremlin's wall" [hinting that only rulers of the Soviet Union live in the bright communist future promised by Karl Marx]
• "What is real socialism?" -- "This is when you can not get everything without money yet, but you can not buy anything for your money already [hinting at the long lines and frequent shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet stores]."
• Armenian Radio was asked: "Is it possible to build real socialism in Armenia?" Armenian Radio answers: "Yes, but better in Georgia".

See also

• state socialism
• state capitalism
• actually existing capitalism
• Marxism-Leninism
• Communist state

Footnotes

References

External links

• real socialism from A Dictionary of Sociology, 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press
• (Polish) SOCJALIZM REALNY, Encyklopedia Interia

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