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vided on this matter; there have been many who took the above position
while others thought that these systems at least tried to implement or
apply Marxism, or parts of it (often under difficult conditions as in the
Soviet Union, China, or Cuba), for which they should be given some
credit. The currently popular argument - rapidly approaching the status
of conventional wisdom - that these systems had nothing whatsoever to
do with Marxism is, however, not tenable. While the gap between the–
ory and practice has always been deep, this has more to do with
the in–
tended and hoped Jor results
of particular policies and institutional trans–
formations derived from the
theory,
than with the distance between the
policies themselves and the theory. The issue was aptly summarized well
before the recent events, by three authors by no means unsympathetic to
Marxism - Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller, and Gyorgy Markus: " ... since
socialism does not exist except as the sum of its historically existing vari–
eties, nineteenth and early twentieth century socialist doctrines are at least
co-responsible for the 'real socialism' of today, even if we reassert ...
that the upshot is not socialism in any meaningful and acceptable sense of
the term."
Let me note a few matters which suggest that Marxist theory and
the communist practices had
something
to do with one another, that the
theory/practice divergence was far from total: Most communist leaders–
Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Castro as well as lesser figures - invested a great
deal of energy in the study and theoretical development of Marxism
(never mind the results) and gave many indications of being inspired and
motivated by it; they found these ideas eminently suitable for legitimating
their policies. The populations under their rule were compelled to famil–
iarize themselves with Marxism or large chunks of it, and a vital core of
Marxism, anticapitalism (or hostility to private enterprise), was institu–
tionalized in all these systems. The means of production were taken out
of private hands; central planning was established; antireligious
consciousness-raising campaigns were introduced, and institutional reli–
gion curtailed. The personal intolerance of Marx found institutionalized
expression in political intolerance, and Marx's hostility to pea ants be–
came official policy. The political systems inspired by Marxism also ab–
sorbed the collectivistic ethos which pervades Marxism and which had an
affinity with the authoritarian practices undertaken in its name. In brief,
as David Horowtiz put it recently, Marxist ideas and prescriptions exer–
cised a "gravitational pull" on these systems. The salvage operation re–
garding the responsibility of Marxist theory for Marxist-Leninist (Stalinist,
Maoist, and other) practices is also undertaken by focusing attention on
the most general, humanitarian aspects and messages of Marxism (that is,
the early Marx) the furthest removed from any application.
