The Soviet Union Versus Socialism is an essay written by the US anarchist and academic, Noam Chomsky. The essay was originally published in the 1986 spring/summer edition of Our Generation, an anarchist journal published in Montreal, Canada.
The essay outlines a criticism of the former Soviet Union and the propaganda from both the Soviet Union and the United States that served to define "socialism" in an allegedly historically inaccurate manner. This essay criticizes Leninism as manifested in the events during the leadership of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, but does not go into further historical developments under Joseph Stalin. Chomsky claims that Leninism "affords the 'radical intellectuals' the right to hold State power and to impose the harsh rule of the 'Red Bureaucracy'" and so he concludes,
Failure to understand the intense hostility to socialism on the part of the Leninist intelligentsia (with roots in Marx, no doubt), and corresponding misunderstanding of the Leninist model, has had a devastating impact on the struggle for a more decent society and a livable world in the West, and not only there. It is necessary to find a way to save the socialist ideal from its enemies in both of the world's major centres of power, from those who will always seek to be the State priests and social managers, destroying freedom in the name of liberation.
External links
- The Soviet Union Versus Socialism (full text)
 |
This article about an essay or essay collection is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
