Soviet ideology: The necessity of Marxism

Abstract

Czechoslovakia was much the most significant act yet undertaken by the rather cautious post-Khrushchev leadership. It abruptly altered the climate of Eastern Europe and the perspectives of the world communist movement. Together with the concurrent and subsequent ideological hardening of the Soviet Union, it cast doubts on many optimistic expectations of Western observers of the Soviet political scene who, like this author,1 saw reasons to expect that the overall tendency of the Soviet system towards rationality and openness could be expected to continue.2