What Was Soviet Ideology?: A Theoretical Inquiry

Because the Soviet Union loudly proclaimed to be an ideological state, its scholars have rarely scrutinized their ideology as a concept. Instead, they have treated it as a self-evident fact, and proceeded to deliberate the importance of the Marxist-Leninist creed in social life or political decision-making. In the context of the Cold War, such theoretical neglect was exacerbated by political investments that often outweighed—and deformed—intellectual priorities. This has left us today with a notion that is both worn out and opaque, over-used but under-thought. In What Was Soviet Ideology? Petre Petrov stakes a new theoretical ground beyond prevalent misconceptions, ready-made definitions, and popular stereotypes. Drawing on continental philosophy and critical theory, this book presents ideology as a dynamic form with its own inner dialectic. In this dialectic, the Soviet ideological regime, as it solidified during the Stalinist period, figures as an original moment, a sui generis phenomenon. Petrov argues that Soviet ideology should not be seen as a member of an existing species, but as a qualitative transformation of the species, ideology, and itself.