The Soviet person in post-Soviet time. Reflections on the book by V. I. Tolstykh “We Were. The Soviet Person As He Is”

Abstract

The subject of this article is the evolution of Marxism in our country. Reflecting on the problems articulated by V. I. Tolstykh, the author discusses the professional convention as one of the mechanisms for transforming Marxist doctrine from the theory of revolutionary reform of society into the ideology, which justifies the totalitarian regime. This convention implies the right to misunderstanding and the right to ignorance. The first has two key tasks: 1) isolate the narration from profane interest, and 2) isolate the narration from “theoretical and political mistakes”. Misunderstanding as a latent component of social cognition and fundamental ignorance as limitation of the subject horizon of the theory of the “developed socialism” played a crucial role in metamorphoses of the Marxist thought in Russia. The following conclusions were made: either the philosopher confronts the world as a cognizing subject subordinated only to the interests of cognition, or he subordinates cognition to the interests of the world, primarily social. In the first case, the language must appropriately express what did not exist in mentality, language, and culture prior to it, while in the second case, the language is a means to safely glide over the surface of being, ensuring the faultlessly built theoretical scheme. In this case, philosophy, without explaining the world, gives the recipes for adaptation, survival, apology, and acceptance. The conflict of benefits and principles is resolved by aligning them, so that the theoretician formulates his position as sincerely ministering to the interests (of the party, doctrine, fundamental principles) of power. The author outlines two positions in defending the right to misunderstanding: the first suggest complication of language for preserving the authorial position; the second is the creation of theoretical schemes focused not on the real problems, but own logic. Misunderstanding as one of the strongholds of the thought is bounded up with ignorance. This allowed narrowing down the object horizon of science (theory), excluding the urgent problematic arbitrarily.