Abstract

It is a peculiar paradox that the fall of "really existing socialism" in Europe evoked surprisingly few serious reflections on the historical fate of the communist Utopia. In my view insufficient advantage has been taken of the opportunity to survey the communist phenomenon as a whole, that is, from the perspective of the completed cycle of its history in "the first country of socialism." One may even say that interest in the ideological sources of the communist experiment in Russia has declined significantly. The predominant view explains the Russian Revolution and its tragic consequences in terms of the peculiarities of Russian history, Russian culture, and even the Russian mentality. An emphasis on the role played by the universal ideology of Marxist communism is very often regarded either simply as naivety or as a relic of the early period of the Cold War