and dialectical materialism as embraced by the Russian Marxist George Plekhanov and, thence, by Lenin-but in an interpretation of the ideology different from Plekhanov’s.
HELSINKI ACCORDS
In the Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin interpretation of Left Hegelianism, historical change, the motor of history as determined by the forces and processes within the given social and economic system, is law-bound and strictly predictable. As presented in historical materialism, the history of societies develops universally by stages-namely, from slavery, to feudalism, to capitalism, and finally to socialism, whose final stage is full-fledged communism.
Each stage, except the merged last two (socialism/communism), contains the seeds of its own destruction (or “contradictions”) as the dialectical process of socioeconomic development spirals upward to the next historical stage. For instance, capitalism’s antithesis is seen in the seeds of its own destruction together with the anticipation of the new synthesis of socialism/communism. Such seeds, said the Marxists, are capitalism’s impoverishment of a majority of the exploited population, overproduction, unemployment, class struggle, economic collapse, and, inevitably, revolution.
Progressive elements of the former, capitalist order are then continued in new form in the final, socialist/communist phase. This assumes the form of industrialization, mass production, a just sociopolitical order (under a workers’ dictatorship of the proletariat). In this formulation the Marxists developed the theory of base and superstructure. The base is the economic system; the superstructure are such facets of society as government, laws, religion, literature, and the arts. The superstructure both reflects and rationalizes the base.
Ultimately, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, state power, as described in the Marxist Critique of the Gotha Program, gradually withers away. The society is thence led into the final epoch of communism. In this final stage, a virtual millennium, there are no classes, no socioeconomic inequality, no oppression, no state, no law, no division of labor, but instead pure equality, com-munality, and universal happiness. Ironically, in contrast to Marx’s formulation, the ultimate phase in Hegel’s own interpretation of the dialectic in history was the Prussian state.
In Lenin’s construction of Marxism, Hegelian-ism was given an extreme left interpretation. This is seen, among other places, in Lenin’s “Philosophical Notebooks.” In this work Lenin gives his own interpretation of Hegel. He indicates here and in other writings that absolute knowledge of the inevitable historical process is attainable-at least by those equipped to find it scientifically. The leaders of the impending proletarian revolution, Lenin says in his 1903 work, What Is to Be Done?, become a select circle of intellectuals whose philosophy (derived from Marx and Hegel) equips them to assume exclusive Communist Party leadership of the given country. Lenin could imagine that such knowledge might allow a nation’s (namely, Russia’s) socioeconomic development to skip intermediate socioeconomic phases, or at least shorten them. In this way, the Russian Bolsheviks could lead the masses to the socialist/communist stage of development all but directly. This could be accomplished by reducing or suppressing the phase of bourgeois capitalism. (This Leninist interepreta-tion of the dialectic has been criticized by other Marxists as running counter to Hegel’s, and Marx’s, own explanations of the dialectic.)
Thus, in Lenin’s interpretation of Hegel and Marx, the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes the leader and teacher of society, the single indoc-trinator whose absolute power (based on the people) saves the masses from the abuses of the contradictions of capitalist society, whether in rural or urban society, while guiding society to the final, communist phase. See also: DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM; ENGELS, FRIEDRICH; LENIN, VLADIMIR ILICH; MARXISM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gregor, A. James. (1995). “A Survey of Marxism.” In The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Hon- derich. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hegel, Georg Wilhem Friedrich. (1967). The Philosophy of Right. Oxford: Clarendon. Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. (1962). Selected Works. 2 vols. Moscow: Foreign Languages Pub. House. Possony, Stefan T. (1966). Lenin: The Compulsive Revolutionary. London: Allen amp; Unwin. Tucker, Robert C. (1972). Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx, 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Weeks, Albert L. (1968). The First Bolshevik: A Political Biography of Peter Tkachev. New York: New York University Press.
Signed at the Finnish capital of Helsinki on August 1, 1975, the Helsinki Accords were accepted by
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thirty-five participating nations at the first Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The conference included all of the nations of Europe (excluding Albania), as well as the Soviet Union, the United States, and Canada. The Helsinki Accords had two noteworthy features. First, Article I formally recognized the post-World War II borders of Europe, which included an unwritten acknowledgement of the Soviet Union’s control over the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which the USSR had annexed in 1940. Second, Article VII stated that “the participating States recognize the universal significance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This passage, in theory, held the Soviet Union responsible for the maintenance and protection of basic human rights within its borders.
Although the Soviet government was never serious about conforming to the human rights parameters defined by the Helsinki Accords, the national leadership under General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev believed that its signing of the document would improve the Soviet Union’s diplomatic position with the United States and other Western countries. Specifically, the state wished to foster the perception that it was as an equal player in the policy of d? tente, in which both superpowers sought to relax Cold War tensions. What the regime did not anticipate, however, was that those outside the Soviet Union, as well as many of the USSR’s own citizens, would take the Accords seriously. Soon after the Soviet delegation returned from Finland, a number of human rights watchdog groups emerged to monitor the USSR’s compliance with the Accords.
Among those organizations that arose after the signing of the accords was Helsinki Watch, founded in 1978 by a collection of Soviet dissidents including the notable physicist Andrei D. Sakharov and other human rights activists living outside the USSR. Helsinki Watch quickly became the best-known and most outspoken critic of Soviet human rights policies. This collection of activists and intellectuals later merged with similar organizations to form an association known as Human Rights Watch. Many members of both Helsinki Watch and Human Rights Watch who were Soviet citizens endured state persecution, including trial, arrest, and internal exile (e.g., Sakharov was exiled to the city of Gorky) from 1977 to 1980. Until the emergence of Mikhail S. Gorbachev as Soviet general secretary in 1985, independent monitoring of Soviet compliance with the accords from within the USSR remained difficult, although the dissidents of Helsinki Watch were never completely silenced. After the introduction of openness (glasnost) and restructuring (perestroika) under Gorbachev in the late 1980s, however, these individuals’ efforts received much acclaim at home and abroad. The efforts of Helsinki Watch and its successor organizations served notice in an era of strict social control that the Soviet Union was accountable for its human rights obligations as specified by the Helsinki Accords. See also: BREZHNEV, LEONID ILICH; D?TENTE; DISSIDENT MOVEMENT; HUMAN RIGHTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Civnet: A Website of Civitas International. (2003). “The Helsinki Accords.” «http://www.civnet.org/ resources/document/historic/helsinki.htm» Luxmoore, Jonathan. (1990). Helsinki Agreement: Dialogue or Discussion? New York: State Mutual Book and Periodical Service. Nogee, Joseph and Donaldson, Robert, eds. (1992) Soviet Foreign Policy since World War II, 4th ed. New York: Macmillan. Sakharov, Andrei D. (1978). Alarm and Hope. New York: Knopf.
(1812-1870), dissident political thinker and writer, founder of Russian populism.
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born in Moscow, the illegitimate son of a Russian aristocrat and his German-born mistress. His family name, derived from the German herz (“heart”), was given to him by his father. In 1825 Herzen was deeply affected by the Decembrist revolt that fueled his rejection of the Russian status quo. His early commitments were developed in the companionship he formed with a young relative, Nikolai Ogarev. In 1828 on the Vorobyevy Hills, they took a solemn oath of personal and political loyalty to each other.
