Аннотация:Abstract.
Like most Marxists, we want to get to grips with understanding the crisis afflicting socialism and the world communist movement. It cannot be simply reduced to food shortages and a loss of faith in the ruling parties (essentially the fault of the corrupt elite and the party-state apparatus) of the so-called socialist countries. The problem lies deeper. It is now increasingly obvious that the production relations, economic mechanism, the politics and ideology of Stalinist- Brezhnevite society left the key tasks of today - the mass introduction of the technology of the scientific and technical revolution, a civilised and comfortable standard of living and socio-political and cultural freedoms - unanswered. This is obvious. But the question is: does this mean in principle that socialism never had, and never will have a better answer than that 'civilised' part of humanity, which now seems to have such an unassailable lead on us? Indeed we have just posed the readers and ourselves not one, but several questions at once. One: What sort of society are we living in, and can we consider 'real socialism' a practical embodiment of Marxism, and on the basis of its crisis judge one section of humanity's road to socialism and communism to have failed? Two: Have Marxism and the socialist idea completely discredited themselves as a scientific and objective programme for the creation of a new society? Three: What prospects do the countries of 'real socialism' have of escaping from the crisis, and where do we go from here?
Full text is available at: http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5597/2495#.VkJ_OdLhDMw