Socioeconomic inequality and changes in Soviet ideology

Abstract

Today, surveying the history of Soviet society, one can, with the benefit of historical hindsight, single out two phases of development, which might be called revolutionary and stationary phases. When discussing the revolutionary phase in the history of a society it is useful to distinguish between the concepts of political and social revolution. Political revolution may be defined, following Alexis de Tocqueville, as an act of destruction directed aginst the whole ruling class. By the time of Lenin's death the political revolution in Russia was completed. The social revolution in the Soviet Union, however, lasted approximately until the end of the 1950s. Social revolution may be defined as a societal process in which a group with a strong ideological commitment comes to political power, deliberately mobilizes the population, and in a historically delimited period of time radically restructures a society. The social revolution in the Soviet Union was managed by the Stalinist regime a regime using systematic terror for the mobilization of all societal resources to accomplish industrialization and a property transfer by force. During Brezhnev's leadership, Soviet society has reached a new level of developmental maturity which I have called the stationary phase, wherein Soviet society faces new ideological problems which differ significantly from those of the past.