The Soviet Union Carrying Out the Undertaking of Theoretical Construction of Marxism

The efforts carried out by the Soviet Union on Marxist theory construction. The theoretical construction of Marxism was elevated to an important position during Stalin’s period and achieved remarkable results.

Firstly, attaching importance to the establishment and improvement of research institutions and theoretical journals. Lenin was directly involved in the establishment and development of the “Socialist Academy” during his lifetime and gathered some outstanding Marxist scholars around him such as V. Polkovsky, I.I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, A. Lunacharsky, N. Krupskaya, M. A. Reisner, S.A. Schelkunoff, and others in order to carry out theoretical research. Also, by Lenin’s initiative, the “Research Office of Marxist Theory, History and Practice” was established, and on this basis, the Museum of Marxism was established, which was transformed into the Marx and Engels Academy of Sciences in 1921.

In 1924, the Socialist Academy was renamed as the Communist Academy, and according to the resolution of the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Russia (B), Lenin Institute was established in 1923. The Communist Academy had approximately 100 full members and a number of corresponding members. After Lenin, Stalin continued to promote the construction of Marxist theory. In 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (B) decided to merge the “Marx-Engels Institute” (established in 1919) and the “Lenin Institute” (established in 1923) into the “Institute of Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute” in order to better coordinate combine the editing and publishing the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin and strengthen the comprehensive research of Marxism-Leninism. In tandem to these research related developments, the Central Committee of C.P.S.U. (B) also launched several new publications on Marxist study, such as Under the Banner of Marxism, Bulletin of Socialist Academy, Red Library, Journal of Marxist Academy of Sciences, and several others, which became important carriers of promoting Marxism-Leninism.

Secondly, strengthening the gathering, compilation and publication of the unpublished notes, notebooks and works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. As early as before the October Revolution, Russian Marxists did a lot of work in publishing the works of Marx and Engels. After the October Revolution, there occurred a favorable condition for the full text publication of Marxist works without abridgement, and the translation quality had greatly improved. After Lenin’s death, the publishing work of Marx, Engels and Lenin’s works entered a new stage.

Between 1931-1938, the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute directly under the Central Committee of C.P.S.U. (B) stepped up the publication of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels and the Collected Works of Marx and Engels, and published a large number of manuscripts of Marx and Engels, including the “Paris Manuscripts” written by Marx from April to August 1844 under the title “The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” in 1932 for the first time which attracted a world-wide attention.

Between 1932-1933, the “Institute” published the Critique of Gotha Program, German Ideology and Engels’ “Introduction to Marx’s Civil War in France (1891)”, which had a great influence. Between 1929-1930, the “Institute” published Lenin’s important philosophical legacy under the title of “Philosophical Notebooks” and carried out in-depth research from various aspects. In 1933, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Marx’s death, the Anthology (two Volumes) and many monographic anthologies of the founders of Marxism were published, which became a major event in the history of Marxist publishing undertaking in the Soviet Union.

The publication of The History of the All-Union Communist Party (B): Short Course in 1938 and the resolution made by the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. (Bolshevik) for the publication of the book further promoted the publication of the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Between 1939-1941, Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute published Marx’s “1857-1858 Economic Manuscripts” (Grundrisse) in German for the first time in a complete form, under the title of “Outline of A Critique of Political Economy”. And in 1941, a new edition of Dialectics of Nature was published, which also corrected the flaws of its 1925 edition.

In the first half of 1940s, the translation and publication of Marx and Engels’ works were basically stagnant due to the influence of World War situation. Shortly after the war, a new edition of Engels’ Anti-Dühring and The Origin of Family, Private Ownership and the State was published, and Engels’ Dialectics of Nature, 1941 edition, was reprinted. In 1947, the “Institute” published Vol. 29 of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels (including the letters of Engels between 1892-1895 and the letters missing in the previous Vol.s) and the Vol. 25 of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels which included Marx’s Das Kapital. Next, Marx’s “Chronicle of Events” and “Selected Correspondence of Marx and Engels” were published successively. In 1947, all Volumes of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels were available for readers.

In the 1950s, the “Institute” began to publish a new version of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels in 50 Volumes. The fourth edition of the 35 Volumes Complete Works of Lenin was also published between 1946 and 1950. These publications played a great role in the dissemination and research of Marxism.

Thirdly, carrying out a systematic study of Marxist theory and history. This kind of research had the following characteristics: First, it made a comprehensive study of the thoughts of Marx and Engels, and has made a certain progress in the research of the ideological source of Marxism, the life activities of Marx and Engels, their main works and theoretical viewpoints. Second, it highlighted the study of Marx’s works on political economy, especially his work Das Kapital. Third, it filled the gap caused by relatively insufficient research on Engels’ works. Fourth, it led the emergence of a group of influential experts in the history of Marxism, whose main representatives were D. Riyazanov and V. V. Adoratsky.

Riyazanov’s work titled Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1927) was the first comprehensive scientific biography of Marx and Engels in the Russian language; Riyazanov’s other work titled Introduction to the History of Marxism systematically expounded the author’s understanding of Marxism and its development history. The flaw of these two books was that they do not adequately discuss the theoretical and practical activities of Marx in their late ten years, and some aspects of Engels’ life was omitted, especially his book had underestimated the contribution of Engels to the development of scientific socialism. During the 1920s to 1930s, Adoratsky wrote biographies of Marx and Engels, as well as a large number of theoretical and historical works on Marxism, and he also made a more in-depth study of Lenin’s thought, especially how Lenin inherited and developed Marxist theory, and made many achievements. During the 1930s to 1940s, in the Soviet Union a new generation of Marxist researchers were cultivated grew up consequently, the study of Marxist theory and history entered a new period.