Abstract
A sequence of theoretical models is constructed as an extension to Leszek Nowak's theory of socialist society to explain important characteristics of the violent party purges in Soviet Stalinism. According to these models, purges are a regular and systemic feature of a socialist system during a certain phase of development (modelled as the ‘phase of social enslavement’). Contrary to traditional conceptions which interpret the purges essentially as resulting from the actions of an almost omnipotent, and partly irrational, despot, the models presented here provide an explanation which does not need to conceive Stalin as the “architect of terror” (Robert Conquest), i.e. as the long-term planner of the terror. However, the concepts presented here preserve the vital arguments of the traditional approach, thereby contradicting the ‘revisionist’ pattern of interpretation. In particular the models seek to provide a theoretical base for an explanation of the moderation of inner-party terror from 1938. This moderation is interpreted as resulting from a modification of the then existing ideology (and corresponding habits of the party's leadership); a modification which in itself had been stimulated by the disastrous effects of the ‘great purge’ in 1937/38. This modification can be theoretically conceived as a process of ‘ideological learning’. The historical fact that the post-war purges (i.e. the ‘Leningrad affair’ in 1949 and the ‘Mingrelian affair’ 1951/52) did not reach such an enormous extent as the purges of the late 1930s may thus be attributed to a process of ‘ideological learning’.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Andrle, Vladimir (1992), ‘Demons and Devil's Advocates: Problems in Historical Writing on the Stalin Era’, in: Nick Lampert and Gábor T. Rittersporn (eds.), Stalinism: Its Natur and Aftermath. Essays in Honour of Moshe Lewin (London: Macmillan), pp. 25–;47.
Apolte, Thomas (1992), Politische Ökonomie der Systemtransformation. Gruppeninteressen und Interessenkonflikte im Transformationsprozeß (Hamburg: Steuer-und Wirtschaftsverlag).
Arendt, Hannah (1958), Origins of Totalitarianism (Cleveland/New York: Meridian).
— (1986), Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft (München: Piper).
Bacon, Edwin T. (1994), The Gulag at War: Stalin's Forced Labour System in the Light of the Archives (London & Basingstoke: Macmillan).
Baczko, Bronislaw (1981), ‘La fabrication d'un charisme’, Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto/Revue européenne des sciences sociales 19, pp. 29–;44.
Benvenuti, Francesco (1995), ‘A Stalinist Victim of Stalinism: “Sergo” Ordzhonikidze’, in: Julian Cooper et al. (eds.), Soviet History, 1917–;53, (London: Macmillan), pp. 134–;157.
Berg, Ger P. van den (1984), Organisation und Arbeitsweise der sowjetischen Regierung (Baden-Baden: Nomos).
Bernholz, Peter/Breyer, Friedrich (1994), Grundlagen der Politischen Ökonomie, Bd. 2: Ökonomische Theorie der Politik (Tübingen: Mohr).
Brunner, Georg (1977), Politische Soziologie der UdSSR (2 Bde.) (Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft).
Brzezinski, Zbigniew K. (1956), The Permanent Purge. Politics in Soviet Totalitarianism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Chlevniuk, O.V. (1992), 1937-i: Stalin, NKVD i Sovetskoe Obščestvo (Moscow: Respublika, Distr. Russian Press Service Inc.).
Chruščëv, Nikita S. (1977), Chruschtschow erinnert sich, ed. Strobe Talbott, intr. Edward Crankshaw (Reinbek: Rowohlt).
Conquest, Robert (1970), Am Anfang starb Genosse Kirow. Säuberungen unter Stalin (Düsseldorf: Droste) [German edition of The Great Terror. Stalin's Purge of the Thirties].
— (1973), The Great Terror. Stalin's Purge of the Thirties (London: Macmillan).
— (1985), Inside Stalin's Secret Police. NKVD Politics, 1936–;39 (London: Macmillan).
— (1992), Der große Terror (München: Langen Müller) [German edition of The Great Terror. A Reassessment].
Čukovskaja, Lidija (1967), Ein leeres Haus (Zürich: Diogenes).
Domes, Jürgen (1980), Politische Soziologie der Volksrepublik China (Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft).
Dunajevskaja, Raja (1944), ‘A New Revision of Marxian Economics’, The American Economic Review 34, pp. 531–;537.
Ellman, Michael (1992), ‘On Sources: A Note’, Soviet Studies 44(5), pp. 913–;915.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1986), ‘New Perspectives on Stalinism’, Russian Review 45, pp. 357–;373.
— (1993), ‘The Impact of the Great Purges on Soviet Elites: A Case Study from Moscow and Leningrad Telephone Directories of the 1930s’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 225–;246.
— (1994), Stalin's Peasants. Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Friedrich, Carl J. and Brzezinski, Zbigniew K. (1956), Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Getty, J. Arch (1983a), ‘Party and Purge in Smolensk: 1933–;37’, Slavic Review 42(1), pp. 60–;79.
— (1983b), ‘Reply’, Slavic Review 42(1), pp. 92–;96.
— (1985), Origins of the Great Purges, The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933–;1938 (Cambridge/Mass.: University Press).
— (1993), ‘The Politics of Repression Revisited’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 40–;62.
Getty, J. Arch and Manning, Roberta T. (1993), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press).
Getty, J. Arch and Chase, William (1993), ‘Patterns of Repression Among the Soviet Elite in the Late 1930s: A Biographical Approach’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 225–;246.
Getty, J. Arch, Rittersporn, Gábor T. and Zemskov, Viktor N. (1993), ‘Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-war Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence’, The American Historical Review 98(4), pp. 1017–;1049.
Gill, Graeme (1990), The Origins of the Stalinist Political System (Cambridge: University Press).
Halfin, Igal and Hellbeck, Jochen (1996), ‘Rethinking the Stalinist Subject: Stephen Kotkin's ‘Magnetic Mountain’ and the State of Soviet Historical Studies’, Jahrbücher für die Geschichte Osteuropas 44(3), pp. 456–;463.
Heinrich, Karl (1956), ‘Wir streikten in Norilsk’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, pp. 357–;363.
Hellbeck, Jochen (1996), ‘Fashioning the Stalinist Soul: The Diary of Stepan Podlubnyi (1931–;1939)’, Jahrbücher für die Geschichte Osteuropas 44(3), pp. 344–;373.
—(ed.) (1996), Tagebuch aus Moskau 1931–;1939 (München: dtv).
Hodos, Georg Hermann (1988), Schauprozesse. Stalinistische Säuberungen in Osteuropa 1948–;1954 (Frankfurt/New York: Campus).
Hoffman, David L. (1993), ‘The Great Terror on the Local Level: Purges in Moscow’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds,), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 163–;167.
Hösch, Edgar/Grabmüller, Hans Jürgen (1981), Daten der sowjetischen Geschichte von 1917 bis zur Gegenwart (München: dtv).
Jakobson, Michael (1992), Origins of the Gulag: The Soviet Prison Camp System 1917–;1934 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press).
Kołakowski, Leszek (1979), Die Hauptströmungen des Marxismus. Entstehung, Entwicklung, Zerfall, Bd. 2 (München: Piper).
Kotkin, Stephen (1995), Magnetic Mountain, Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).
Kuromiya, Hiroaki (1993), ‘Stalinist Terror in the Donbas: A Note’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 215–;222.
Leipold, Helmut (1983), ‘Der Einfluß von Property Rights auf hierarchische und marktliche Transaktionen in sozialistischen Wirtschaftssystemen’, in: Alfred Schüller (Hg.), Property Rights und ökonomische Theorie (München: Vahlen), pp. 185–;217.
Leontiev, L.A. et al. (1944), ‘Teaching of Economics in the Soviet Union, (from the Russian Journal ‘Pod Znamenem Marksizma’)’, American Economic Journal 34, pp. 505–;530.
Lewin, Moshe (1995), Russia/USSR/Russia. The Drive and Drift of a Superstate (New York: New York).
Lieber, Hans-Joachim (1985), Ideologie. Eine historisch-systematische Einführung (Paderborn usw.: Schöningh).
Mählert, Ulrich (1996), ‘Schauprozesse und Parteisäuberungen in Osteuropa nach 1945’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B37–;38/96, pp. 38–;46.
Maier, Robert (1990), Die Stachanov-Bewegung 1935–;38. Der Stachanovismus als tragendes und verschärfendes Moment der Stalinisierung der sowjetischen Gesellschaft (Stuttgart: Steiner).
Materialy fevral'sko-martovskogo plenuma CK VKP(B) 1937 goda (1992–;1995), in: Voprosy historii 1992, no.s 2–;3, 4–;5, 6–;7, 8–;9, 10, 11–;12; 1993, no.s 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; 1994, no.s 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 12; 1995, no.s 2, 3, 4, 5–;6, 7, 8, 10, 11–;12.
Medvedev, Roy A. (1972), Let History Judge. The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism (New York: Knopf).
Melville, Ralph and Steffens, Thomas (1988), ‘Die Bevölkerung’, in: Gottfried Schramm (Hg.), Handbuch der Geschichte Rußlands Bd. 3 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann), pp. 1009–;1168.
Merl, Stephan (1990), Bauern unter Stalin. Die Formierung des sowjetischen Kolchossystems 1930–;1941 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot).
— (1995), ‘Das System der Zwangsarbeit und die Opferzahl im Stalinismus’, Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 46, pp. 277–;305.
Moore, Barrington (1978), Ungerechtigkeit. Die sozialen Ursachen von Unterordnung und Widerstand (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp).
Nove, Alec (1993), ‘Victims of Stalinism — How Many?’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 261–;274.
Nowak, Leszek (1980), The Structure of Idealization. Towards a Systematic Interpretation of the Marxian Idea of Science (Dordrecht: Reidel).
— (1987), ‘A Model of Socialist Society’, Studies in Soviet Thought 34, pp. 1–;55.
— (1988), ‘Man and People. The Problem of the Individual in Non-Marxian Historical Materialism’, Social Theory and Practice 13, pp. 1–;16.
— (1989), ‘On the (Idealizational) Structure of Economic Theories’, Erkenntnis 30, pp. 225–;246.
— (1991), Power and Civil Society. Toward a Dynamic Theory of Real Socialism (New York: Greenwood).
Opp, Karl-Dieter (1996), ‘Gesellschaftliche Krisen, Gelegenheitsstrukturen oder rationales Handeln? Ein kritischer Theorienvergleich von Erklärungen politischen Protests’, Zeitschrift für Soziologie 25(3), pp. 223–;242.
Passin, Herbert F. and van Briessen, Fritz (1956), ‘Der Streik von Norilsk’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, pp. 345–;356.
Pirker, Theo (ed.) (1963), Die Moskauer Schauprozesse 1936–;1938 (München: dtv).
Pohlmann, Friedrich (1990), ‘Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Ideologie und Terror im Nationalsozialismus’, in: von Hans Oswald (Hg.), Macht und Recht. Festschrift für Heinrich Popitz zum 65. Geburtstag (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag), pp. 155–;174.
Popper, Karl R. (1971), Das Elend des Historizismus (Tübingen: Mohr) (3. Auflage).
Reese, Roger R. (1993), ‘The Red Army and the Great Purges’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 198–;214.
Rittersporn, Gábor Tamás (1978a), ‘L'État en lutte contre lui-même. Tensions sociales et conflits politiques en U.R.S.S. 1936–;1938’, Libre (4), pp. 3–;38.
— (1978b), ‘Héros du travail et commandants de la production. La campagne stakhanoviste et les stratégies fractionelles en U.R.S.S. (1935–;1936)’, in: Le soldat du travail. Recherches (32/33), pp. 249–;274 (Paris).
— (1979a), ‘Société et Appareil d'État Sovietiques (1936–;1938). Contradictions et Interferences’, Annales 34, pp. 843–;861.
— (1979b), ‘Staline en 1938: Apogée du verbe et défaite politique. Éléments pour une étude du “stalinisme réel”’, Libre (6), pp. 99–;164 (Paris).
— (1984), ‘Rethinking Stalinism’, Russian History/Histoire Russe 11(4), pp. 343–;361.
— (1986), ‘Soviet Politics in the 1930s: Rehabilitating Society’, Studies in Comparative Communism 19(2), pp. 105–;128.
— (1988), Simplifications staliniennes et complications soviétiques. Tensions sociales et conflits politiques en U.R.S.S. (1933–;1953) (Paris: Editions des Archives Contemporaines).
— (1993), ‘The Omnipresent Conspiracy: On Soviet Imagery of Politics and Social Relations in the 1930s’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 99–;115.
Rosefielde, Steven (1996), ‘Stalinism in Post-Communist Perspective: New Evidence on Killings, Forced Labour, and Economic Growth in the 1930s’, Europe-Asia-Studies 48(6), pp. 959–;987.
Rosenfeldt, Niels E. (1978), Knowledge and Power. The Role of Stalin's Secret Chancellery in the Soviet System of Government (Kopenhagen).
— (1983), ‘Problems of Evidence’, Slavic Review 42, pp. 85–;91.
Scherer, John and Jakobson, Michael (1993), ‘The Collectivisation of Agriculture and the Soviet Prison Camp System’, Europe-Asia-Studies 45(3), pp. 533–;546.
Schlögel, Karl (1984), Der renitente Held. Arbeiterprotest in der Sowjetunion, 1953–;1983 (Hamburg: Junius).
Schramm, Gottfried (1983), ‘Industrialisierung im Eiltempo und Kollektivierung der Landwirtschaft unter Stalin (1928/29–;1941)’, in: idem (ed.), Handbuch der Geschichte Rußlands (Stuttgart: Hiersemann).
Schröder, Hans-Henning (1988), Industrialisierung und Parteibürokratie in der Sowjetunion: ein sozialgeschichtlicher Versuch über die Anfangsphase des Stalinismus (1928–;1934) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (=Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte; Bd. 41).
— (1991), ‘Stalinismus “von unten”? Zur Diskussion um die gesellschaftlichen Voraussetzungen politischer Herrschaft in der Phase der Vorkriegsfünfjahrpläne’, in: Dietrich Geyer (ed.), Die Umwertung der sowjetischen Geschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht), pp. 133–;166.
Scott, John F. (1944), Jenseits des Urals. Die Kraftquellen der Sowjetunion (Stockholm: Berman-Fischer).
Siegel, Achim (1992), Die Dynamik des Terrors im Stalinismus. Ein strukturtheoretischer Erklärungsversuch (Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus).
— (1993), ‘The Overrepression Cycle in the Soviet Union. An Operationalization of a Theoretical Model’, in: L. Nowak and M. Paprzycki (eds.), Social System, Rationality and Revolution (Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi), pp. 371–;396.
Siegelbaum, Lewis H. (1988), Stakhanovitism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–;1941 (Cambridge: University Press).
Šilde, Adolfs (1958), The Profits of Slavery. Baltic Forced Labourers under Stalin and Khrushchev (Stockholm).
Solženicyn, Aleksandr (1974a), Der Archipel Gulag (Bern: Scherz).
— (1974b), Der Archipel Gulag. Folgeband. Arbeit und Ausrottung, Seele und Stacheldraht (Bern: Scherz).
— (1976), Der Archipel Gulag. Schlußband. Die Katorga kommt wieder. In der Verbannung. Nach Stalin (Bern: Scherz).
Sperber, Manès (1987), Die Tyrannis und andere Essays aus der Zeit der Verachtung (München: dtv).
Stalin, Iosif Visarionovič (1973), Major Theoretical Writings 1905–;52 (London: Croom Helm).
— (1976), Werke (Dortmund: Roter Morgen).
Stalinskoe Politbiuro v 30-e gody: Sbornik dokumentov (1995), comp. by O.V. Chlevniuk, et al. (Moscow: AIRO-XX, Distr. Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici, Naples).
Stegmüller, Wolfgang (1983), Probleme und Resultate der Wissenschaftstheorie und Analytischen Philosophie, Bd. 1, Erklärung, Begründung, Kausalität (Berlin/Heidelberg/New York: Springer).
Thurston, Robert W. (1986a), ‘Fear and Belief in the USSR's ‘Great Terror’: Response to Arrest, 1935–;1939’, Slavic Review 45(2), pp. 213–;234.
— (1986b), ‘On Desk-Bound Parochialism, Commonsense Perspectives, and Lousy Evidence: A Reply to Robert Conquest’, Slavic Review 45(2), pp. 238–;244.
— (1993), ‘The Stakhanovite Movement: The Background to the Great Terror in the Factories’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 142–;162.
Tucker, Robert C. (1983), ‘Problems of Interpretation’, Slavic Review 42, pp. 80–;84.
— (1992), Stalin in Power. The Revolution from Above, 1928–;1941 (New York/London: Norton).
Voslensky, Michael S. (1987), Nomenklatura. Die herrschende Klasse der Sowjetunion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (München: Nymphenburger).
Wehner, Markus (1996), ‘Stalinistischer Terror. Genese und Praxis der kommunistischen Gewaltherrschaft in der Sowjetunion 1917–;53’ Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B37–;38/96, pp. 15–;28.
Wheatcroft, Stephen G. (1993), ‘More Light on the Scale of Repression and Excess Mortality in the Soviet Union in the 1930s’, in: J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds.), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: University Press), pp. 275–;290.
Zinov'ev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovič (1980), Ohne Illusionen. Interviews, Vorträge, Aufsätze (Zürich: Diogenes).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Siegel, A. Ideologic Learning Under Conditions of Social Enslavement: The Case of the Soviet Union in the 1930s AND 1940s. Studies in East European Thought 50, 19–58 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008609500102
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008609500102