Did Communism Fail? The Soviets vs. the Communists!

There is a discord between the idea of Communism, as a political and economic doctrine, and the idea of Soviet governance system. The communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx is a gimmick, an ideological ploy, which had been used to disguise crave for their totalitarian control.

The idea of state governance through democratically elected councils, i.e. soviets, had been in stark contrast with the idea of rule by communist decrees long before the Bolsheviks took power and eventually tightened their grip on the nation.

As we know, soviets, before the October Revolution of 1917, were simply governmental councils. In the run up to the revolution and after the revolution had taken place, soviets became local councils, which originally were democratically elected by manual workers, with certain powers of local administration. After the revolution, the soviets made a primary democratic institution of a new “Soviet” Russia. The “soviet” political system, being part of a hierarchy of soviets, culminated in the Supreme Soviet as the highest ruling body of a truly democratic institution.

Certain revolutionaries envisioned the system of soviets as a nation-wide network of similar councils or assemblies, which were supposed to be interconnected into a socialistic governmental system of Russia. Socialism in Russia was supposed to be based upon the democratically elected councils, the soviets. It was meant to be a Soviet Socialism.

However, sufficient power enforcing capabilities turned out to be of a bunch of people, the Bolsheviks, who used financial and information support from abroad and employed methods, which were very different from true democracy, and their idea of socialism was different, too. They employed “soviet” and “socialist” rhetoric but pursued totalitarian goals. Communism is usually described as a form of socialism — a “higher and more advanced form”, according to its advocates, but in reality it was a ploy to confuse laypeople and engender wider support both inside and outside the country.

There was a covert power struggle between the members of the higher councils, the Soviets, and the members of the political hierarchy of the Communist Party, the Politburo being the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

As a result of that turf battle, where Stalin, in his later endeavor to limit the scope of political and economic influence of the CPSU apparatchiks, had taken the side of the Soviets, the hard-nosed Communist leaders eventually prevailed.

The Communist conspirators first got rid of Stalin (through poisoning him) and then did away with all of those functionaries who were closest to him and therefore could be personally most loyal to Stalin. After that, a short turf battle ensued within the Communist elite. Some of the former conspirators ended up arrested and executed. The CPSU made certain reforms in the government and finally cemented its position as unrivaled governing body in the country. The power that the old and distinguished Communist Party leaders enjoyed now was totalitarian in nature.

All power - political, administrative, ideological, as well as financial and economic - was now centered in the hands of the highest political functionaries, all of whom, from now on, in order to prove their allegiance to the regime, had to be members of the CPSU and proved to be loyal to the ideology of the Communist Party. The key element of that ideology were the “central leading role of the Communist Party” in the life of the country and “Communism” as the goal toward which the nation was supposed to be moving from now on.

The soviets were preserved as an element of the “soviet system”; but “socialism” (true soviet socialism) became no more than a myth and part of inevitably hypocritical state ideology, which was bound to be unraveled eventually. It took some time before it happened, though. In the meantime, the aging Communist leaders were enjoying unrivaled power. Needless to say that their “socialism” they had built as a way of life of the nation, as well as their “communism” as the political and economic doctrine that they claimed to be scientific and ultimately true, were certainly lacking, to say the least.

Thanks to the Communists, Russia have known no true soviet socialist power, no revolutionary socialism or communism of Karl Marks, whatsoever! What we have known was a totalitarianism of a homegrown cabal of political leadership of one and the only party. They called that party Communist but it was a misnomer and a lie, just like most of their rhetoric, which had nothing to do with the reality of their policies.

When that kind of “communism” had failed, we have found ourselves to be descendants of a political system we are still struggling to make sense of and give it a proper name.