And Hitler in his
heyday boasted that the Nazi mode of government would
last at least a thousand years.
heyday boasted that the Nazi mode of government would
last at least a thousand years.
Soviet Union - 1952 - Soviet Civilization
39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? ECONOMIC AHD CULTURAL PROGRESS
all the Union Republics. Twelve out of sixteen of those
Republics now have their own Academies of Science.
Likewise extremely important are the Academy of
Medical Sciences and the Lenin Academy of Agricultural
Sciences.
A revolutionary advance since 1917 has been the car-
rying over of the methods of science into agriculture and
peasant life, ever the last refuge of traditional super-
naturalism. Throughout the Soviet Republic today, the
farmers, in their efforts to obtain a good harvest, no
longer resort to prayer, religious ritual and priests sprink-
ling the fields with holy water; they rely instead upon
tractors, combines and other machine techniques, as well
as on the general principles of scientific, collectivized
agriculture. Today the U. S. S. R. has hundreds of agri-
cultural institutes, experimental stations and experi-
mental farms. And most of the collectives carry on re-
search in their own small laboratories, with the aid and
advice of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Of course science is closely linked up with the eco-
nomic system of socialist planning, which has turned
the whole country into one vast laboratory where, be-
cause of the central controls, public ownership and all
but unlimited funds, there can be carried on scientific
experiments and undertakings of unparalleled scope.
The great hydroelectric-irrigation-afforestation projects
described in the last section are excellent examples of
what large-scale planning on a scientific basis can do.
And they have had the special attention of the Academy
of Sciences and its research facilities. Planning is, in fact,
an essential factor in all scientific method, since the scien-
tific solution of a problem always involves some definite
plan of action, whether fairly simple or quite complex.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Soviet science operates within the general -- and
limiting -- postulates and principles of Marxism. Yet the
record shows that within those limits broad and vigorous
scientific discussions have constantly taken place. For
example, in the famous genetics controversy centering
around Trofim Lysenko's theory, opposed to modern
Mendelism, that under certain circumstances living spe-
cies can inherit acquired characteristics, open discussions
raged in the Soviet Union for a decade. In 1948 the
Academy of Agricultural Sciences held a week-long con-
ference on the subject in which scientists on both sides
of the question gave their uncensored opinions. Pravda
printed every word of the debate, which later appeared
in a thick tome published in 500,000 copies.
A careful study of the controversy by Dr. Bernhard
J. Stern of Columbia University indicates that both
Lysenko and many non-Soviet scientists who answered
him were laboring under grave misunderstandings. In
his attack on American geneticists Lysenko unfortunate-
ly relied on articles in the 1947 edition of the Encyclo-
pedia Americana which were reprinted by the editors
without change from the 1917 edition. "They were there-
fore written," as Dr. Stern says, "about 1917 or 1918,
and reflect genetic doctrines of thirty years ago rather
than of today. 26 . . . However meritorious," concludes Dr.
Stern, "Lysenko's positive practical achievements are,*
his critical analysis of genetic theory represents an attack
upon positions long abandoned by the vanguard of
geneticists in this country and in England. . . . Thus it
becomes clear that the gap between Lysenko and genetic-
ists does not appear to be absolute, and may be further
? Some Western scientists believe that Lysenko may have succeeded
in introducing into Soviet agriculture, not the inheritance of acquired
characteristics, but directed mutations.
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? ECONOMIC ANJD CULTURAL PROGRESS
narrowed as reliable evidence becomes more readily avail-
able to both groups. "27
The outcome of the Soviet genetics debate was that
in July, 1948, the Agricultural Academy voted in favor
of Lysenko's position. A few weeks later the U. S. S. R.
Academy of Sciences also officially adopted the Lysenko
view and stated that his report, "which has been approved
by the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist
Party, lays down the party line in biology. "28 The
Academy of Sciences then put into effect a series of meas-
ures to ensure the acceptance of Lysenko's principles
throughout the country. The worst aspect of this situa-
tion was not that Soviet scientists may have taken over
the wrong theory, but that they and the Communist Party
set up an official line from which dissent would clearly
be dangerous. Soviet Marxism makes allowance for
changes in its formulations, and such changes do frequent-
ly occur; but the more fundamental ones must have
official Communist approval.
It is in the light of this fact that we must qualify the
otherwise excellent statements of Lenin and Stalin against
dogmatic attitudes. For instance, Lenin asserted in 1899:
"In no sense do we regard the Marxist theory as some-
thing complete and unassailable. On the contrary, we
are convinced that this theory is only the cornerstone of
that science which socialists must advance in all direc-
tions if they do not wish to fall behind life. "29
In 1950, in his comments on the extended Soviet
linguistics controversy, Stalin wrote: "Textualists and
Talmudists regard Marxism, the separate deductions and
formulas of Marxism, as a collection of dogmas which
'never' change, regardless of the changes in the condi-
tion of development of society. . . . But Marxism as a
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
science cannot stand still; it develops and perfects itself.
In the course of its development Marxism cannot but
be enriched by new experience, by new knowledge;
consequently, its separate formulas and deductions can-
not but change in the course of time, cannot but be re-
placed by new formulas and deductions corresponding
to the new historical tasks. Marxism does not recognize
any immutable deductions and formulas, applicable to
all epochs and periods. Marxism is an enemy of all dog-
matism. "30
The lamentable truth is that despite the undeniable
progress of Soviet culture since 1917, especially in the
tremendous increase of cultural facilities for the people,
it still is subject to Communist and governmental censor-
ship, whether science, literature or even music is con-
cerned. A comment on Soviet writing by Professor
Ernest J. Simmons, Columbia's well-known Russian ex-
pert, is to the point: "Since the whole manufacturing
process of the printed word -- paper, presses, publishing
houses, distribution -- is ultimately under government
control, the Party has an economic strangle-hold on the
output and content of literature. The propaganda line
that determines the broad direction of literary content
is usually initiated in the Politburo and announced by
the Central Committee in resolutions which have almost
the force of law. "31
Yet, as Professor Simmons acknowledges, in Soviet
Russia "much of high worth has been achieved in the
arts and sciences. " And he solves the seeming paradox
in this manner: "The proposition must be squarely
faced, with all its implications, that many Soviet creative
artists and thinkers may have come quite seriously and
honestly to accept as convictions what at first may have
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? BCOHOMIC AHD CULTURAL PROGRESS
been regarded by them as hostile controls of the Com-
munist government under which they live. Are we too
far removed from the kind of religious faith that turns
the ends achieved by instruments of control into fighting
convictions? Though art cannot serve propaganda, pro-
paganda can serve art by giving it a renewed meaning
and purpose, and a new virility. After all, the cathedrals
of Notre Dame and Chartres are in a real sense glorious
artistic monuments to Christian propaganda. . . .
"In the Middle Ages society was sure of the church;
it provided a definite pattern of life that took man hope-
fully from the cradle to the grave. Men did not wish to
escape the controls of the church; on the contrary, these
controls had become convictions, for they had come to be
accepted on faith. To a considerable extent the same
may be true in the Soviet Union with regard to the Party.
Life is officially represented as sure, and the future is
always presented in a hopeful light as all struggle toward
the great 'Age of Communism. ' Under such conditions,
for the creative spirit art and life become one. There
is no more desire to escape from a socialist art than there
was to escape from a Christian art in the Middle Ages. "82
Dr. Simmons' analysis rings true to me.
Although I think it is semantically incorrect to call
communism a religion, the Soviet Communists do sub-
scribe to and teach an integrated and inclusive way of
life, with definite implications for every field of human
endeavor, which fills the vacuum left by the decline of
religious supernaturalism. To this Marxist philosophy
they and scores of millions of Soviet citizens who are not
members of the Communist Party render supreme com-
mitment. This general viewpoint on man and the uni-
verse sets up as the ultimate ethical goal the welfare of
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? SOVIET CIVILTZATIOH
humanity upon this earth, and expounds a militant
message of human betterment. It advocates an advanced
morality at least in the sense of insisting that men should
subordinate their personal pleasures and desires to work-
ing together for the common good, and that all exploita-
tion of man by man should cease.
No matter how much one may disagree with or dis-
like the Soviet way of life, one must admit that the formu-
lation and teaching of the complex philosophy of Dia-
lectical Materialism is a genuine cultural achievement.
Unhappily Soviet philosophers have weakened their own
case by displaying a formidable ignorance of American
philosophy, especially in their continued misunderstand-
ing of the American school of Naturalism led by the late
John Dewey. They still rely on a rather shallow footnote
run by Lenin in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
condemning William James and his pragmatism. The
Dialectical Materialists have never taken the trouble to
discover how much Dewey differs from James and has
improved on him. Yet Dialectical Materialism, in spite
of its provincialism, its taint of being the official Soviet
philosophy and other weaknesses, takes its place today as
one of the outstanding philosophical systems of the twen-
tieth century.
According to Marxist theory, when the Soviet polit-
ical dictatorship fades away, the dictatorial controls over
Soviet culture will also disappear. This is a consumma-
tion most earnestly to be desired. For otherwise the art,
literature and science of the U. S. S. R. will in the long run
find themselves at a dead end, with originality, fresh
ideas and that questioning of authority and basic assump-
tions so necessary to progress all stifled in a dreary medi-
ocrity of official doctrine and prescribed taste.
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? CHAPTER VI CONTRASTS BETWEEN SOVIET
SOCIALISM AND FASCISM
1. Ten Fundamental Differences
As we come to the end of Part I of this book, a com-
parison between Soviet socialism and fascism will serve
both to summarize much that we have covered and to ex-
pose one of the most dangerous weapons in the arsenal of
anti-Soviet propaganda. For the claim that Soviet social-
ism and fascism are, after all, just the same is a provoca-
tive device that goes far in whipping up the passions of
war. This unscrupulous charge seeks to turn upon the
Soviet Union the justified hatred and fear which the
peoples of the world have felt, and still feel, toward the
Nazi and fascist regimes. The notion of a fundamental
identity between the Soviet regime and fascism is espe-
cially widespread in the United States, where the Hearst
press in particular makes a point of referring to the Soviet
system as "Red Fascism. "
In the decade prior to the outbreak of the Second
World War the appeasers of fascism, and other enemies
of cooperation between the U. S. S. R. and the Western
democracies, were continually branding Soviet Russia as
just another fascist nation. There was method in this
madness, for it became a major factor in preventing a
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
genuine peace front, while there was still time, against
the fascist aggression of the German, Italian and Japanese
Governments. The post-war revival of the fallacy of
equating Communist and fascist regimes can again have
catastrophic consequences for world peace, since it leads
to serious misunderstandings of Soviet policy.
The charge that Soviet socialism and fascism are
essentially the same falls quickly to the ground under
objective analysis. We can note at least ten fundamental
differences between the two systems. Soviet socialism as
compared with fascism stands, first, for evolution to full
political democracy instead of for permanent dictator-
ship; second, for racial democracy and equality instead
of racial discrimination and persecution; third, for equal-
ity of the sexes instead of the treatment of women as
inferiors; fourth, for the expansion of the trade unions
instead of their destruction; fifth, for an unceasing em-
phasis on the proletariat, the class struggle and the class-
less society instead of a glossing over of class conflict and
the continuation of a class system; sixth, for a planned
socialist economy operated for use and abundance instead
of a monopolistic capitalist economy run on behalf of
profits and aggression; seventh, for the development and
expansion of culture instead of its general retrogression
and debasement; eighth, for the intellectual formulation
and teaching of an inclusive, integrated and anti-super-
natural philosophy of life instead of a primitive pot-
pourri of tribal superstition, conceit and blood-thirsty
war-cries; ninth, for government by leaders with intel-
lect, social idealism and international vision instead of
leaders noted for their ignorance, egotism and savage
nationalism; and, tenth, for international peace and dis-
armament instead of war and an armaments race.
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
2. Attitudes towards Democracy
The most common misunderstanding concerning
the nature of Soviet socialism and fascism is that since
both have employed violence to attain power and have
established political dictatorships, they are therefore the
same. This is like saying that because police departments
and gangs of thugs in American cities are armed with rifles
and revolvers and use force to achieve certain objectives,
therefore their fundamental character and social effects
are substantially identical. Or, to take another example,
it is like stating that there is no real difference between
surgeons and murderers due to the fact that they both
resort to knives in the pursuit of their professions.
The central fallacy is of course to treat two forms of
government or two groups of men as equivalent, regard-
less of their ultimate ends, if they hold certain means in
common. Pushing this species of argument further, we
could assert that the American Government under Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Nazi Government
under Chancellor Adolf Hitler were of the same sort
because they both relied upon armies, navies and air
fleets to win a war. Or going far back into the past, we
could say that General George Washington and the
American armies of 1776 were fundamentally on the
same moral level as General Francisco Franco and the
Spanish fascist armies of 1936-38, for the reason that they
both used the violent means of revolution.
As I have reiterated throughout this book, the Soviet
Republic has always considered the dictatorship of the
proletariat as a transitional measure necessary for the
firm establishment of socialism in the U. S. S. R. and as a
governmental form to be superseded when the need for
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
it ceases. Authoritative Soviet leaders like Lenin and
Stalin, however severe their criticisms of capitalist de-
mocracy, have constantly made clear that they favor the
development of socialist democracy -- and there has been
much in Soviet life and culture that bears witness to their
sincerity -- in a most inclusive sense.
The fascist states, on the other hand, have made a
point of categorically denouncing democracy as such and
all its manifestations. They are against democracy on
principle and have continually pronounced it perma-
nently finished as a way of government and life. Musso-
lini's statement that democracy is "a putrid corpse" ac-
curately expresses the fascist attitude.
And Hitler in his
heyday boasted that the Nazi mode of government would
last at least a thousand years. In the fascist theory of a
ruling elite there is no provision for, or even suggestion
of, an ultimate transition to democracy. In practice and
theory, in past (Germany and Italy) and present (Spain),
fascism is undemocratic and anti-democratic all along
the line.
The Soviet Constitution shows how genuine and
wide-ranging are the democratic aims of the Soviet Re-
public. It makes plain that the socialist concept of de-
mocracy covers the significant categories of cultural, eco-
nomic, racial and sex democracy. Cultural democracy I
define as the right of all to a full and equal opportunity
to share in the cultural and educational, the artistic and
intellectual life of the nation. Economic democracy,
which means much more than the functioning of trade
unions, is the right of every normal adult to a useful job
at decent remuneration, to general economic security
and opportunity, to an equitable share in the material
goods of this life and to a proportionate voice in the con-
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM A^D FASCISM
duct of economic affairs. Racial and sex democracy I
define elsewhere in this book.
Soviet failure up to the present to implement fully
the constitutional guarantees of political democracy and
civil liberties, for reasons which I earlier discussed, is
by no means sufficient for equating Soviet socialism with
fascism. We can render no final judgment about polit-
ical democracy in the U. S. S. R. until at last and at least
the danger of foreign military aggression has died away
Catastrophic invasions during two world wars, with inter-
national tensions and an armed truce following each ot
them, have meant that the Soviet Republic has had to
live in a state of emergency during much of its history.
Undeniably the bitterly hostile environment surround-
ing the U. S. S. R. since its birth has created an atmosphere
of tension and crisis unfavorable to the full flowering of
democratic institutions. Meanwhile, let us reflect on a
statement by Joseph Stalin which it is difficult to imagine
a fascist leader ever making: "Leaders come and go, but
the people remain. Only the people are immortal. Every-
thing else is transient. "
In connection with the use of force and dictatorship
to attain Communist goals, it is often said that Russia
follows an immoral philosophy of letting the ends justify
the means. This represents shallow thinking. As a mat-
ter of fact, every individual and every nation lets some
ends justify some means. Police departments in all civil-
ized countries frequently employ the bad means of vio-
lence in order to maintain law and order. In the late war
the American and British Governments sanctioned the
evil means of destructive and frightful air raids upon the
densely populated industrial centers of Germany in order
to achieve the good end of winning the conflict with the
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Nazi aggressors. And the United States Air Force drop-
ped the atom bomb on Japan in order to hasten the sur-
render of that country. To make the Soviet Union, then,
the scapegoat for a means-end philosophy that allegedly
violates human decency and morality is a very one-sided
business.
The contrast between Soviet socialism and fascism
receives perhaps its most striking exemplification in the
diametrically opposed policies of the two systems toward
racial and national minorities. The fascist states have
invariably set up discrimination against and persecution
of racial and national minorities as an intrinsic part of
their program and philosophy. Of course the outstanding
example was the cruel and hideous treatment of the Jews
in Hitler's Germany and in the extensive territories oc-
cupied by the Nazis during World War II. It is reliably
estimated that the Nazis killed off more than 6,000,000
Jews in Europe during the war years through planned
starvation or exposure in concentration camps or direct
slaughter by means of gas chambers, mass shootings and
the like.
Nazi racist doctrines, as contrary to scientific truth
as to moral principle, went far beyond legitimate national
pride in the historical achievements of the German people
and glorified the pure "Aryan" Germans as the chosen
of the earth and a master race therefore rightfully entitled
to rule the globe. The foundation-stone of Nazi politics,
ethics and biology was a colossal arrogance unmatched
in history. It was not Jews alone who were held in con-
tempt. At the 1936 Olympic Games Nazi officials accused
America of bad sportsmanship for entering "fleet-footed
animals," that is, Negroes, in the races. The subject
Czechs, Poles, Belgians, Dutch, French, Yugoslavs and
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
other conquered peoples in Hitler's "New Order" were
looked down upon as degenerate and treated as serfs
under a regime of terror. And the Nazis regarded as
inferior not only their most powerful enemies like the
English, Russians and Americans, but also their allies
such as the Italians and Japanese. The concepts of the
brotherhood of man and the equality of peoples can have
no possible place in fascist philosophy.
As we have observed, these concepts are cardinal prin-
ciples in the Soviet philosophy. From 1917 down to the
present the Soviets have bent every effort to overcome
the deep-seated racial prejudice and discrimination in-
herited from the Tsarist regime and to establish full
equality among the numerous peoples and nationalities
of the U. S. S. R. In both theory and practice ethnic de-
mocracy has been a constant preoccupation of the regime.
It is written into the Constitution and the law of the land;
it is a basic precept in Soviet education; it is an ideal
that has been reiterated by recognized leaders such as
Lenin and Stalin. And the Soviets consider ethnic de-
mocracy desirable not only at home, but also in the world
at large.
In 1942 Premier Stalin officially stated that the war
aims of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition must include
"abolition of racial exclusiveness" and "equality of na-
tions. " In 1944 he went into the question in further
detail, saying: "Soviet patriotism does not disunite, but
on the contrary consolidates all nations and nationalities
in our country into one single fraternal family. In this
should be seen the basis of the indestructible and still
stronger friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union. "1
And in speaking of Germany in this same speech, Stalin
brought out the Soviet opposition to hatred or prejudice
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
on the grounds of nationality: "The Soviet people hate
the German invaders not because they are people of a
foreign nation, but because they have brought our people
and all freedom-loving peoples misery and suffering. It
is an old saying of our people: 'The wolf is not bad
because he is gray, but because he ate the sheep. ' "2
A prime reason for Soviet influence among the yellow
and brown peoples of the colonial and semi-colonial
areas in the East is precisely that these peoples, all the
way from Iran to China, realize that the Soviets both
preach and practice racial equality and are opposed to
the arrogant fascist attitude as well as to imperialistic
exploitation by any nation, white or non-white. All in
all we can assert that Soviet policies toward racial and
national groups, in both the domestic and international
fields, offer the greatest contrast to those of Nazism and
fascism.
Another sphere in which Soviet socialism and totali-
tarian fascism are at opposite poles is in the treatment
of women. The fascist position is that the female sex is
inherently inferior to the male. In Hitler's Germany
there was a decided intensification of the traditional
view that women are fit only for the well-known trinity of
"Kinder, Kuche, Kirche" (Children, Kitchen, Church).
Family life in the fascist countries has centered around
the needs and desires of the male partner and the breed-
ing of children to augment the fighting man-power of
the war-making state. The fascist dictators, while crying
out one day that their people were being suffocated for
lack of space or "Lebensraum," on the next were urging
all mothers to bear more and more children. At the same
time, under the Nazis, women were dismissed or barred
from all important governmental posts and were auto-
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
matically paid lower wages than men in the limited
types of job open to them.
In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, the principle
of full equality between the sexes is upheld. As we saw
in our discussion of the Soviet Constitution, the impor-
tant category of sex democracy is embodied in that docu-
ment. * The actualization of women's rights in the U. S.
S. R. is ensured by affording women equally with men the
right to work, fair remuneration, rest, recreation, social
insurance and education; and by government guarantees
for the welfare of mother and child, pregnancy leave
with pay, and ample maternity homes, nurseries and kin-
dergartens. The economic, legal, political and social
position of women is at opposite poles from the status
they have in any fascist country.
One of the first steps which the Nazi regime took to
crush democracy was to destroy the trade unions, root
and branch. This enabled the individual employer un-
der fascism to exploit the workers according to his own
free, profit-motivated will; and enabled the state, repre-
senting the dominant business groups as a whole, to go
ahead with its armament and aggression programs un-
hampered by organized opposition from the working
class. In place of the old trade unions the Nazis estab-
lished fake workers' organizations with control from the
top down and with democratic procedures as completely
absent as in the nation at large. Italian fascism had a
similar set-up.
Unlike the fascist states, the Soviet Union has from
its earliest days, as part of its emphasis on economic
democracy, placed unceasing reliance upon the trade
unions and encouraged their growth in membership and
? See p. 77
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
influence. A far larger proportion of wage and salary
earners are members of trade unions than in any other
country. In 1949, out of some 33,500,000 eligible for
membership (and this excludes agricultural workers,
except those on State farms), about 28,500,000 or more
than 85 percent belonged to one of the sixty-seven dif-
ferent unions. Membership in a trade union is of course
voluntary. While industries are publicly owned, the
trade unions carry on collective bargaining with the
managements of factories and other enterprises over
wages, hours and working conditions.
The official Soviet labor code enacted into legislation
is so comprehensive that it covers many matters that in
the United States and other nations are subject to collect-
ive bargaining between trade unions and management.
Contrary to the general impression abroad, strikes are
not illegal, but are expressly authorized by law as one
means of enforcing compliance with labor legislation.
However, very few strikes actually take place for the
reason that a workers' government is in power, that the
elimination of the private profit motive eliminates the
chief factor in management's resisting legitimate demands
on the part of labor, and that there is on the whole an
identity of interest between labor and management for
maintaining maximum, uninterrupted production. In
England under the Labor Government, whose main
political support lay in the trade union movement, a
similar tendency was observable for labor-management
problems to be settled before they spilled over into the
wasteful procedure of strikes.
In 1933 the Soviet Government, indicating its high
opinion of the trade unions, turned over to them the
entire administration of social insurance benefits, which
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AND FASCISM
so substantially supplement regular wage income. More-
over, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
itself drafts the annual government appropriation bill for
social insurance. Thus the trade unions as such play a
direct and important part in the functioning of the Gov-
ernment and in the carrying out of state services on be-
half of the public. The trade unions are also active in
various community enterprises such as the maintenance
of factory restaurants, cultural centers and recreational
facilities.
3. The Other Contrasts
The differing attitudes of Soviet socialism and fascism
towards trade unions tie in naturally with their contrast-
ing positions in regard to the proletariat and the class
struggle. Far from having any particular love for the
working class, the fascists continued to exploit it to the
utmost and keep it "in its place. " The Nazis insisted
on establishing the "leadership principle" in industry,
which meant in effect setting up each capitalist boss as
a little fuehrer in his own right. The fascists wanted to
forget the class struggle, and their "corporate state"
represented an attempt to reconcile divergent class inte-
rests on behalf of capitalism. They never pretended that
they were backing the proletariat or trying to eliminate
the bourgeoisie and create a classless society.
But Soviet socialism from the start has proclaimed
its primary reliance on the working class both in over-
throwing the old government and in instituting the new.
No slogan has been more honored in the Soviet Union
than Marx's "Workers of the world, unite! " Whether
one supports or condemns proletarian class struggle, it is
incontestable that the Soviet Communists have given
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
primary stress to that struggle as a means for the attain-
ment of socialist power and for the eventual achievement
of a completely classless commonwealth. Indeed Marxist
and Soviet theoreticians make so much of the class
struggle that they give it a central place in their highly
developed philosophy of history known as Historical
Materialism. There is nothing in fascism remotely cor-
responding to all this.
Still another fundamental difference between Soviet
socialism and fascism lies in the functioning and objec-
tives of their respective economic systems. In the fascist
countries, although there is a considerable increase in
state controls, the main means of production and distri-
bution remain in the hands of individual capitalists; and
the decisive economic power is wielded by a small group
of reactionary businessmen, in particular the armament
monopolists, working closely with the government. Eco-
nomic enterprise is run for profits and super-profits to
enrich the few at the expense of the people as a whole.
The partial planning of fascism has for its chief pur-
pose the accumulation of colossal armaments and the
waging of aggressive war. This means in effect planning
for poverty as well as for war, since the workers are ex-
pected and required to subordinate their entire existence
to the needs of the state for enhanced military resources.
Here General Goering's famous phrase "Cannon instead
of butter" well expressed the basic principle. In fact,
living standards and real wages in Germany, Italy and
Japan declined steadily under fascism. There can be
intense industrial activity and lack of unemployment in
fascist states due to the stimulus of armaments and war;
but such shots in the arm do not indicate any lasting
way out of underlying economic difficulties.
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AH. D FASCISM
In the Soviet Union social-economic planning is truly
nation-wide and has for its aim the achievement of secur-
ity and abundance for all the people. This planning is for
use, not profit; and it proceeds on the basis of the collect-
ive ownership and operation of the natural resources, the
agricultural lands, the industries and the means of dis-
tribution. There are no capitalists left. The great Five-
Year Plans were able spectacularly to increase production,
though unfortunately much of the industrial output had
to go into armaments and defense. But the successful
functioning of the economy does not depend on the stim-
ulus of armaments, the piling up of which naturally
holds back to one degree or another the standard of liv-
ing in terms of consumer goods.
The long and short of it is that in Soviet Russia there
exists a full-fledged socialist economy, while under fas-
cism the capitalist system continues--a capitalism which
is in its last stages of decay, desperation and imperialism
and which has eliminated all vestiges of democracy.
Those who declare that the Soviet and fascist states are
basically the same are essentially making the ridiculous
statement that there is no real difference between a social-
ist economic system and one which remains fundamen-
tally capitalist.
The retrogression of culture under book-burning, art-
killing, genius-banishing fascism offers a dramatic con-
trast to the general development of culture under Soviet
socialism. As one of the Nazi leaders put it: "When I
hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver. " Hitler's
anti-Semitic terror caused brilliant German intellectuals,
like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, to emigrate;
imprisoned others in concentration camps; and drove
still others to suicide. The Nazi police-state naturally
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
banned the work of Jewish writers and artists, even of
figures long dead like the composer Mendelssohn and
the poet Heine.
In the fascist states the whole of education from the
tenderest years to the more mature, from physical train-
ing to reading in the classics, is turned into a glorification
of military conquest and the attuning of mind and body
to the ferocities of war. And the appreciation of Nature
is transformed into a study of military strategy in the
open country.
? ECONOMIC AHD CULTURAL PROGRESS
all the Union Republics. Twelve out of sixteen of those
Republics now have their own Academies of Science.
Likewise extremely important are the Academy of
Medical Sciences and the Lenin Academy of Agricultural
Sciences.
A revolutionary advance since 1917 has been the car-
rying over of the methods of science into agriculture and
peasant life, ever the last refuge of traditional super-
naturalism. Throughout the Soviet Republic today, the
farmers, in their efforts to obtain a good harvest, no
longer resort to prayer, religious ritual and priests sprink-
ling the fields with holy water; they rely instead upon
tractors, combines and other machine techniques, as well
as on the general principles of scientific, collectivized
agriculture. Today the U. S. S. R. has hundreds of agri-
cultural institutes, experimental stations and experi-
mental farms. And most of the collectives carry on re-
search in their own small laboratories, with the aid and
advice of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Of course science is closely linked up with the eco-
nomic system of socialist planning, which has turned
the whole country into one vast laboratory where, be-
cause of the central controls, public ownership and all
but unlimited funds, there can be carried on scientific
experiments and undertakings of unparalleled scope.
The great hydroelectric-irrigation-afforestation projects
described in the last section are excellent examples of
what large-scale planning on a scientific basis can do.
And they have had the special attention of the Academy
of Sciences and its research facilities. Planning is, in fact,
an essential factor in all scientific method, since the scien-
tific solution of a problem always involves some definite
plan of action, whether fairly simple or quite complex.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Soviet science operates within the general -- and
limiting -- postulates and principles of Marxism. Yet the
record shows that within those limits broad and vigorous
scientific discussions have constantly taken place. For
example, in the famous genetics controversy centering
around Trofim Lysenko's theory, opposed to modern
Mendelism, that under certain circumstances living spe-
cies can inherit acquired characteristics, open discussions
raged in the Soviet Union for a decade. In 1948 the
Academy of Agricultural Sciences held a week-long con-
ference on the subject in which scientists on both sides
of the question gave their uncensored opinions. Pravda
printed every word of the debate, which later appeared
in a thick tome published in 500,000 copies.
A careful study of the controversy by Dr. Bernhard
J. Stern of Columbia University indicates that both
Lysenko and many non-Soviet scientists who answered
him were laboring under grave misunderstandings. In
his attack on American geneticists Lysenko unfortunate-
ly relied on articles in the 1947 edition of the Encyclo-
pedia Americana which were reprinted by the editors
without change from the 1917 edition. "They were there-
fore written," as Dr. Stern says, "about 1917 or 1918,
and reflect genetic doctrines of thirty years ago rather
than of today. 26 . . . However meritorious," concludes Dr.
Stern, "Lysenko's positive practical achievements are,*
his critical analysis of genetic theory represents an attack
upon positions long abandoned by the vanguard of
geneticists in this country and in England. . . . Thus it
becomes clear that the gap between Lysenko and genetic-
ists does not appear to be absolute, and may be further
? Some Western scientists believe that Lysenko may have succeeded
in introducing into Soviet agriculture, not the inheritance of acquired
characteristics, but directed mutations.
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? ECONOMIC ANJD CULTURAL PROGRESS
narrowed as reliable evidence becomes more readily avail-
able to both groups. "27
The outcome of the Soviet genetics debate was that
in July, 1948, the Agricultural Academy voted in favor
of Lysenko's position. A few weeks later the U. S. S. R.
Academy of Sciences also officially adopted the Lysenko
view and stated that his report, "which has been approved
by the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist
Party, lays down the party line in biology. "28 The
Academy of Sciences then put into effect a series of meas-
ures to ensure the acceptance of Lysenko's principles
throughout the country. The worst aspect of this situa-
tion was not that Soviet scientists may have taken over
the wrong theory, but that they and the Communist Party
set up an official line from which dissent would clearly
be dangerous. Soviet Marxism makes allowance for
changes in its formulations, and such changes do frequent-
ly occur; but the more fundamental ones must have
official Communist approval.
It is in the light of this fact that we must qualify the
otherwise excellent statements of Lenin and Stalin against
dogmatic attitudes. For instance, Lenin asserted in 1899:
"In no sense do we regard the Marxist theory as some-
thing complete and unassailable. On the contrary, we
are convinced that this theory is only the cornerstone of
that science which socialists must advance in all direc-
tions if they do not wish to fall behind life. "29
In 1950, in his comments on the extended Soviet
linguistics controversy, Stalin wrote: "Textualists and
Talmudists regard Marxism, the separate deductions and
formulas of Marxism, as a collection of dogmas which
'never' change, regardless of the changes in the condi-
tion of development of society. . . . But Marxism as a
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
science cannot stand still; it develops and perfects itself.
In the course of its development Marxism cannot but
be enriched by new experience, by new knowledge;
consequently, its separate formulas and deductions can-
not but change in the course of time, cannot but be re-
placed by new formulas and deductions corresponding
to the new historical tasks. Marxism does not recognize
any immutable deductions and formulas, applicable to
all epochs and periods. Marxism is an enemy of all dog-
matism. "30
The lamentable truth is that despite the undeniable
progress of Soviet culture since 1917, especially in the
tremendous increase of cultural facilities for the people,
it still is subject to Communist and governmental censor-
ship, whether science, literature or even music is con-
cerned. A comment on Soviet writing by Professor
Ernest J. Simmons, Columbia's well-known Russian ex-
pert, is to the point: "Since the whole manufacturing
process of the printed word -- paper, presses, publishing
houses, distribution -- is ultimately under government
control, the Party has an economic strangle-hold on the
output and content of literature. The propaganda line
that determines the broad direction of literary content
is usually initiated in the Politburo and announced by
the Central Committee in resolutions which have almost
the force of law. "31
Yet, as Professor Simmons acknowledges, in Soviet
Russia "much of high worth has been achieved in the
arts and sciences. " And he solves the seeming paradox
in this manner: "The proposition must be squarely
faced, with all its implications, that many Soviet creative
artists and thinkers may have come quite seriously and
honestly to accept as convictions what at first may have
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? BCOHOMIC AHD CULTURAL PROGRESS
been regarded by them as hostile controls of the Com-
munist government under which they live. Are we too
far removed from the kind of religious faith that turns
the ends achieved by instruments of control into fighting
convictions? Though art cannot serve propaganda, pro-
paganda can serve art by giving it a renewed meaning
and purpose, and a new virility. After all, the cathedrals
of Notre Dame and Chartres are in a real sense glorious
artistic monuments to Christian propaganda. . . .
"In the Middle Ages society was sure of the church;
it provided a definite pattern of life that took man hope-
fully from the cradle to the grave. Men did not wish to
escape the controls of the church; on the contrary, these
controls had become convictions, for they had come to be
accepted on faith. To a considerable extent the same
may be true in the Soviet Union with regard to the Party.
Life is officially represented as sure, and the future is
always presented in a hopeful light as all struggle toward
the great 'Age of Communism. ' Under such conditions,
for the creative spirit art and life become one. There
is no more desire to escape from a socialist art than there
was to escape from a Christian art in the Middle Ages. "82
Dr. Simmons' analysis rings true to me.
Although I think it is semantically incorrect to call
communism a religion, the Soviet Communists do sub-
scribe to and teach an integrated and inclusive way of
life, with definite implications for every field of human
endeavor, which fills the vacuum left by the decline of
religious supernaturalism. To this Marxist philosophy
they and scores of millions of Soviet citizens who are not
members of the Communist Party render supreme com-
mitment. This general viewpoint on man and the uni-
verse sets up as the ultimate ethical goal the welfare of
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? SOVIET CIVILTZATIOH
humanity upon this earth, and expounds a militant
message of human betterment. It advocates an advanced
morality at least in the sense of insisting that men should
subordinate their personal pleasures and desires to work-
ing together for the common good, and that all exploita-
tion of man by man should cease.
No matter how much one may disagree with or dis-
like the Soviet way of life, one must admit that the formu-
lation and teaching of the complex philosophy of Dia-
lectical Materialism is a genuine cultural achievement.
Unhappily Soviet philosophers have weakened their own
case by displaying a formidable ignorance of American
philosophy, especially in their continued misunderstand-
ing of the American school of Naturalism led by the late
John Dewey. They still rely on a rather shallow footnote
run by Lenin in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
condemning William James and his pragmatism. The
Dialectical Materialists have never taken the trouble to
discover how much Dewey differs from James and has
improved on him. Yet Dialectical Materialism, in spite
of its provincialism, its taint of being the official Soviet
philosophy and other weaknesses, takes its place today as
one of the outstanding philosophical systems of the twen-
tieth century.
According to Marxist theory, when the Soviet polit-
ical dictatorship fades away, the dictatorial controls over
Soviet culture will also disappear. This is a consumma-
tion most earnestly to be desired. For otherwise the art,
literature and science of the U. S. S. R. will in the long run
find themselves at a dead end, with originality, fresh
ideas and that questioning of authority and basic assump-
tions so necessary to progress all stifled in a dreary medi-
ocrity of official doctrine and prescribed taste.
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? CHAPTER VI CONTRASTS BETWEEN SOVIET
SOCIALISM AND FASCISM
1. Ten Fundamental Differences
As we come to the end of Part I of this book, a com-
parison between Soviet socialism and fascism will serve
both to summarize much that we have covered and to ex-
pose one of the most dangerous weapons in the arsenal of
anti-Soviet propaganda. For the claim that Soviet social-
ism and fascism are, after all, just the same is a provoca-
tive device that goes far in whipping up the passions of
war. This unscrupulous charge seeks to turn upon the
Soviet Union the justified hatred and fear which the
peoples of the world have felt, and still feel, toward the
Nazi and fascist regimes. The notion of a fundamental
identity between the Soviet regime and fascism is espe-
cially widespread in the United States, where the Hearst
press in particular makes a point of referring to the Soviet
system as "Red Fascism. "
In the decade prior to the outbreak of the Second
World War the appeasers of fascism, and other enemies
of cooperation between the U. S. S. R. and the Western
democracies, were continually branding Soviet Russia as
just another fascist nation. There was method in this
madness, for it became a major factor in preventing a
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
genuine peace front, while there was still time, against
the fascist aggression of the German, Italian and Japanese
Governments. The post-war revival of the fallacy of
equating Communist and fascist regimes can again have
catastrophic consequences for world peace, since it leads
to serious misunderstandings of Soviet policy.
The charge that Soviet socialism and fascism are
essentially the same falls quickly to the ground under
objective analysis. We can note at least ten fundamental
differences between the two systems. Soviet socialism as
compared with fascism stands, first, for evolution to full
political democracy instead of for permanent dictator-
ship; second, for racial democracy and equality instead
of racial discrimination and persecution; third, for equal-
ity of the sexes instead of the treatment of women as
inferiors; fourth, for the expansion of the trade unions
instead of their destruction; fifth, for an unceasing em-
phasis on the proletariat, the class struggle and the class-
less society instead of a glossing over of class conflict and
the continuation of a class system; sixth, for a planned
socialist economy operated for use and abundance instead
of a monopolistic capitalist economy run on behalf of
profits and aggression; seventh, for the development and
expansion of culture instead of its general retrogression
and debasement; eighth, for the intellectual formulation
and teaching of an inclusive, integrated and anti-super-
natural philosophy of life instead of a primitive pot-
pourri of tribal superstition, conceit and blood-thirsty
war-cries; ninth, for government by leaders with intel-
lect, social idealism and international vision instead of
leaders noted for their ignorance, egotism and savage
nationalism; and, tenth, for international peace and dis-
armament instead of war and an armaments race.
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
2. Attitudes towards Democracy
The most common misunderstanding concerning
the nature of Soviet socialism and fascism is that since
both have employed violence to attain power and have
established political dictatorships, they are therefore the
same. This is like saying that because police departments
and gangs of thugs in American cities are armed with rifles
and revolvers and use force to achieve certain objectives,
therefore their fundamental character and social effects
are substantially identical. Or, to take another example,
it is like stating that there is no real difference between
surgeons and murderers due to the fact that they both
resort to knives in the pursuit of their professions.
The central fallacy is of course to treat two forms of
government or two groups of men as equivalent, regard-
less of their ultimate ends, if they hold certain means in
common. Pushing this species of argument further, we
could assert that the American Government under Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Nazi Government
under Chancellor Adolf Hitler were of the same sort
because they both relied upon armies, navies and air
fleets to win a war. Or going far back into the past, we
could say that General George Washington and the
American armies of 1776 were fundamentally on the
same moral level as General Francisco Franco and the
Spanish fascist armies of 1936-38, for the reason that they
both used the violent means of revolution.
As I have reiterated throughout this book, the Soviet
Republic has always considered the dictatorship of the
proletariat as a transitional measure necessary for the
firm establishment of socialism in the U. S. S. R. and as a
governmental form to be superseded when the need for
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
it ceases. Authoritative Soviet leaders like Lenin and
Stalin, however severe their criticisms of capitalist de-
mocracy, have constantly made clear that they favor the
development of socialist democracy -- and there has been
much in Soviet life and culture that bears witness to their
sincerity -- in a most inclusive sense.
The fascist states, on the other hand, have made a
point of categorically denouncing democracy as such and
all its manifestations. They are against democracy on
principle and have continually pronounced it perma-
nently finished as a way of government and life. Musso-
lini's statement that democracy is "a putrid corpse" ac-
curately expresses the fascist attitude.
And Hitler in his
heyday boasted that the Nazi mode of government would
last at least a thousand years. In the fascist theory of a
ruling elite there is no provision for, or even suggestion
of, an ultimate transition to democracy. In practice and
theory, in past (Germany and Italy) and present (Spain),
fascism is undemocratic and anti-democratic all along
the line.
The Soviet Constitution shows how genuine and
wide-ranging are the democratic aims of the Soviet Re-
public. It makes plain that the socialist concept of de-
mocracy covers the significant categories of cultural, eco-
nomic, racial and sex democracy. Cultural democracy I
define as the right of all to a full and equal opportunity
to share in the cultural and educational, the artistic and
intellectual life of the nation. Economic democracy,
which means much more than the functioning of trade
unions, is the right of every normal adult to a useful job
at decent remuneration, to general economic security
and opportunity, to an equitable share in the material
goods of this life and to a proportionate voice in the con-
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM A^D FASCISM
duct of economic affairs. Racial and sex democracy I
define elsewhere in this book.
Soviet failure up to the present to implement fully
the constitutional guarantees of political democracy and
civil liberties, for reasons which I earlier discussed, is
by no means sufficient for equating Soviet socialism with
fascism. We can render no final judgment about polit-
ical democracy in the U. S. S. R. until at last and at least
the danger of foreign military aggression has died away
Catastrophic invasions during two world wars, with inter-
national tensions and an armed truce following each ot
them, have meant that the Soviet Republic has had to
live in a state of emergency during much of its history.
Undeniably the bitterly hostile environment surround-
ing the U. S. S. R. since its birth has created an atmosphere
of tension and crisis unfavorable to the full flowering of
democratic institutions. Meanwhile, let us reflect on a
statement by Joseph Stalin which it is difficult to imagine
a fascist leader ever making: "Leaders come and go, but
the people remain. Only the people are immortal. Every-
thing else is transient. "
In connection with the use of force and dictatorship
to attain Communist goals, it is often said that Russia
follows an immoral philosophy of letting the ends justify
the means. This represents shallow thinking. As a mat-
ter of fact, every individual and every nation lets some
ends justify some means. Police departments in all civil-
ized countries frequently employ the bad means of vio-
lence in order to maintain law and order. In the late war
the American and British Governments sanctioned the
evil means of destructive and frightful air raids upon the
densely populated industrial centers of Germany in order
to achieve the good end of winning the conflict with the
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Nazi aggressors. And the United States Air Force drop-
ped the atom bomb on Japan in order to hasten the sur-
render of that country. To make the Soviet Union, then,
the scapegoat for a means-end philosophy that allegedly
violates human decency and morality is a very one-sided
business.
The contrast between Soviet socialism and fascism
receives perhaps its most striking exemplification in the
diametrically opposed policies of the two systems toward
racial and national minorities. The fascist states have
invariably set up discrimination against and persecution
of racial and national minorities as an intrinsic part of
their program and philosophy. Of course the outstanding
example was the cruel and hideous treatment of the Jews
in Hitler's Germany and in the extensive territories oc-
cupied by the Nazis during World War II. It is reliably
estimated that the Nazis killed off more than 6,000,000
Jews in Europe during the war years through planned
starvation or exposure in concentration camps or direct
slaughter by means of gas chambers, mass shootings and
the like.
Nazi racist doctrines, as contrary to scientific truth
as to moral principle, went far beyond legitimate national
pride in the historical achievements of the German people
and glorified the pure "Aryan" Germans as the chosen
of the earth and a master race therefore rightfully entitled
to rule the globe. The foundation-stone of Nazi politics,
ethics and biology was a colossal arrogance unmatched
in history. It was not Jews alone who were held in con-
tempt. At the 1936 Olympic Games Nazi officials accused
America of bad sportsmanship for entering "fleet-footed
animals," that is, Negroes, in the races. The subject
Czechs, Poles, Belgians, Dutch, French, Yugoslavs and
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
other conquered peoples in Hitler's "New Order" were
looked down upon as degenerate and treated as serfs
under a regime of terror. And the Nazis regarded as
inferior not only their most powerful enemies like the
English, Russians and Americans, but also their allies
such as the Italians and Japanese. The concepts of the
brotherhood of man and the equality of peoples can have
no possible place in fascist philosophy.
As we have observed, these concepts are cardinal prin-
ciples in the Soviet philosophy. From 1917 down to the
present the Soviets have bent every effort to overcome
the deep-seated racial prejudice and discrimination in-
herited from the Tsarist regime and to establish full
equality among the numerous peoples and nationalities
of the U. S. S. R. In both theory and practice ethnic de-
mocracy has been a constant preoccupation of the regime.
It is written into the Constitution and the law of the land;
it is a basic precept in Soviet education; it is an ideal
that has been reiterated by recognized leaders such as
Lenin and Stalin. And the Soviets consider ethnic de-
mocracy desirable not only at home, but also in the world
at large.
In 1942 Premier Stalin officially stated that the war
aims of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition must include
"abolition of racial exclusiveness" and "equality of na-
tions. " In 1944 he went into the question in further
detail, saying: "Soviet patriotism does not disunite, but
on the contrary consolidates all nations and nationalities
in our country into one single fraternal family. In this
should be seen the basis of the indestructible and still
stronger friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union. "1
And in speaking of Germany in this same speech, Stalin
brought out the Soviet opposition to hatred or prejudice
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
on the grounds of nationality: "The Soviet people hate
the German invaders not because they are people of a
foreign nation, but because they have brought our people
and all freedom-loving peoples misery and suffering. It
is an old saying of our people: 'The wolf is not bad
because he is gray, but because he ate the sheep. ' "2
A prime reason for Soviet influence among the yellow
and brown peoples of the colonial and semi-colonial
areas in the East is precisely that these peoples, all the
way from Iran to China, realize that the Soviets both
preach and practice racial equality and are opposed to
the arrogant fascist attitude as well as to imperialistic
exploitation by any nation, white or non-white. All in
all we can assert that Soviet policies toward racial and
national groups, in both the domestic and international
fields, offer the greatest contrast to those of Nazism and
fascism.
Another sphere in which Soviet socialism and totali-
tarian fascism are at opposite poles is in the treatment
of women. The fascist position is that the female sex is
inherently inferior to the male. In Hitler's Germany
there was a decided intensification of the traditional
view that women are fit only for the well-known trinity of
"Kinder, Kuche, Kirche" (Children, Kitchen, Church).
Family life in the fascist countries has centered around
the needs and desires of the male partner and the breed-
ing of children to augment the fighting man-power of
the war-making state. The fascist dictators, while crying
out one day that their people were being suffocated for
lack of space or "Lebensraum," on the next were urging
all mothers to bear more and more children. At the same
time, under the Nazis, women were dismissed or barred
from all important governmental posts and were auto-
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AHD FASCISM
matically paid lower wages than men in the limited
types of job open to them.
In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, the principle
of full equality between the sexes is upheld. As we saw
in our discussion of the Soviet Constitution, the impor-
tant category of sex democracy is embodied in that docu-
ment. * The actualization of women's rights in the U. S.
S. R. is ensured by affording women equally with men the
right to work, fair remuneration, rest, recreation, social
insurance and education; and by government guarantees
for the welfare of mother and child, pregnancy leave
with pay, and ample maternity homes, nurseries and kin-
dergartens. The economic, legal, political and social
position of women is at opposite poles from the status
they have in any fascist country.
One of the first steps which the Nazi regime took to
crush democracy was to destroy the trade unions, root
and branch. This enabled the individual employer un-
der fascism to exploit the workers according to his own
free, profit-motivated will; and enabled the state, repre-
senting the dominant business groups as a whole, to go
ahead with its armament and aggression programs un-
hampered by organized opposition from the working
class. In place of the old trade unions the Nazis estab-
lished fake workers' organizations with control from the
top down and with democratic procedures as completely
absent as in the nation at large. Italian fascism had a
similar set-up.
Unlike the fascist states, the Soviet Union has from
its earliest days, as part of its emphasis on economic
democracy, placed unceasing reliance upon the trade
unions and encouraged their growth in membership and
? See p. 77
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
influence. A far larger proportion of wage and salary
earners are members of trade unions than in any other
country. In 1949, out of some 33,500,000 eligible for
membership (and this excludes agricultural workers,
except those on State farms), about 28,500,000 or more
than 85 percent belonged to one of the sixty-seven dif-
ferent unions. Membership in a trade union is of course
voluntary. While industries are publicly owned, the
trade unions carry on collective bargaining with the
managements of factories and other enterprises over
wages, hours and working conditions.
The official Soviet labor code enacted into legislation
is so comprehensive that it covers many matters that in
the United States and other nations are subject to collect-
ive bargaining between trade unions and management.
Contrary to the general impression abroad, strikes are
not illegal, but are expressly authorized by law as one
means of enforcing compliance with labor legislation.
However, very few strikes actually take place for the
reason that a workers' government is in power, that the
elimination of the private profit motive eliminates the
chief factor in management's resisting legitimate demands
on the part of labor, and that there is on the whole an
identity of interest between labor and management for
maintaining maximum, uninterrupted production. In
England under the Labor Government, whose main
political support lay in the trade union movement, a
similar tendency was observable for labor-management
problems to be settled before they spilled over into the
wasteful procedure of strikes.
In 1933 the Soviet Government, indicating its high
opinion of the trade unions, turned over to them the
entire administration of social insurance benefits, which
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AND FASCISM
so substantially supplement regular wage income. More-
over, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
itself drafts the annual government appropriation bill for
social insurance. Thus the trade unions as such play a
direct and important part in the functioning of the Gov-
ernment and in the carrying out of state services on be-
half of the public. The trade unions are also active in
various community enterprises such as the maintenance
of factory restaurants, cultural centers and recreational
facilities.
3. The Other Contrasts
The differing attitudes of Soviet socialism and fascism
towards trade unions tie in naturally with their contrast-
ing positions in regard to the proletariat and the class
struggle. Far from having any particular love for the
working class, the fascists continued to exploit it to the
utmost and keep it "in its place. " The Nazis insisted
on establishing the "leadership principle" in industry,
which meant in effect setting up each capitalist boss as
a little fuehrer in his own right. The fascists wanted to
forget the class struggle, and their "corporate state"
represented an attempt to reconcile divergent class inte-
rests on behalf of capitalism. They never pretended that
they were backing the proletariat or trying to eliminate
the bourgeoisie and create a classless society.
But Soviet socialism from the start has proclaimed
its primary reliance on the working class both in over-
throwing the old government and in instituting the new.
No slogan has been more honored in the Soviet Union
than Marx's "Workers of the world, unite! " Whether
one supports or condemns proletarian class struggle, it is
incontestable that the Soviet Communists have given
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
primary stress to that struggle as a means for the attain-
ment of socialist power and for the eventual achievement
of a completely classless commonwealth. Indeed Marxist
and Soviet theoreticians make so much of the class
struggle that they give it a central place in their highly
developed philosophy of history known as Historical
Materialism. There is nothing in fascism remotely cor-
responding to all this.
Still another fundamental difference between Soviet
socialism and fascism lies in the functioning and objec-
tives of their respective economic systems. In the fascist
countries, although there is a considerable increase in
state controls, the main means of production and distri-
bution remain in the hands of individual capitalists; and
the decisive economic power is wielded by a small group
of reactionary businessmen, in particular the armament
monopolists, working closely with the government. Eco-
nomic enterprise is run for profits and super-profits to
enrich the few at the expense of the people as a whole.
The partial planning of fascism has for its chief pur-
pose the accumulation of colossal armaments and the
waging of aggressive war. This means in effect planning
for poverty as well as for war, since the workers are ex-
pected and required to subordinate their entire existence
to the needs of the state for enhanced military resources.
Here General Goering's famous phrase "Cannon instead
of butter" well expressed the basic principle. In fact,
living standards and real wages in Germany, Italy and
Japan declined steadily under fascism. There can be
intense industrial activity and lack of unemployment in
fascist states due to the stimulus of armaments and war;
but such shots in the arm do not indicate any lasting
way out of underlying economic difficulties.
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? SOVIET SOCIALISM AH. D FASCISM
In the Soviet Union social-economic planning is truly
nation-wide and has for its aim the achievement of secur-
ity and abundance for all the people. This planning is for
use, not profit; and it proceeds on the basis of the collect-
ive ownership and operation of the natural resources, the
agricultural lands, the industries and the means of dis-
tribution. There are no capitalists left. The great Five-
Year Plans were able spectacularly to increase production,
though unfortunately much of the industrial output had
to go into armaments and defense. But the successful
functioning of the economy does not depend on the stim-
ulus of armaments, the piling up of which naturally
holds back to one degree or another the standard of liv-
ing in terms of consumer goods.
The long and short of it is that in Soviet Russia there
exists a full-fledged socialist economy, while under fas-
cism the capitalist system continues--a capitalism which
is in its last stages of decay, desperation and imperialism
and which has eliminated all vestiges of democracy.
Those who declare that the Soviet and fascist states are
basically the same are essentially making the ridiculous
statement that there is no real difference between a social-
ist economic system and one which remains fundamen-
tally capitalist.
The retrogression of culture under book-burning, art-
killing, genius-banishing fascism offers a dramatic con-
trast to the general development of culture under Soviet
socialism. As one of the Nazi leaders put it: "When I
hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver. " Hitler's
anti-Semitic terror caused brilliant German intellectuals,
like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, to emigrate;
imprisoned others in concentration camps; and drove
still others to suicide. The Nazi police-state naturally
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
banned the work of Jewish writers and artists, even of
figures long dead like the composer Mendelssohn and
the poet Heine.
In the fascist states the whole of education from the
tenderest years to the more mature, from physical train-
ing to reading in the classics, is turned into a glorification
of military conquest and the attuning of mind and body
to the ferocities of war. And the appreciation of Nature
is transformed into a study of military strategy in the
open country.
