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Revolutionary Change in the Third World: Recent Soviet Assessments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier
Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

A reexamination of revolutionary processes in the developing countries indicates mounting doubts among Soviet academic specialists that radical third-world policies will redound to the U.S.S.R.'s advantage. The author investigates the following topics: the relationship of socialist orientation to socialism; shortcomings of the vanguard parties; correct foreign and domestic economic policies; the suitability of the Marxist model for Eastern societies; and the evolution of the non-aligned movement. The congruence between these academic discussions and fresh official formulations could give Western analysts and policy makers valuable insights into new Soviet proposals for reducing East-West tensions over events in the third world.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , April 1986 , pp. 415 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1986

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References

1 Pravda, October 16, 1985, p. 2.

2 “The Theory and Practice of the Non-Capitalist Way of Development,” International Affairs, No. 11 (November 1970), 13.

3 Kiva, A. V., Strany sotsialisticheskpi orientatsii [Countries of socialist orientation] (Moscow: Nauka, 1978), 28Google Scholar. All translations from Russian-language journals are by the author.

4 Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya osvobodivshikhsia stran. Nelkotorye voprosy teorii i praktiki [Socialist orientation in the developing countries: Some problems of theory and practice] (Moscow: Mysl', 1982).

5 See, for example, references in a collective review: Kommunist, No. 1 (January 1985), 115–25.

6 Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya … (fn. 4), 33–35.

7 Ibid.. 190, 91, 94–95.

8 Ibid., 36, 91.

9 Ibid., 36–37.

10 Ibid., 35–36. Another important collective volume, Vostok: rubezh 80-kh godov [The East The threshold of the 80s] (Moscow: Nauka, 1983), written by E. Primakov, G. Kim, G. Shirokov, N. A. Simoniya, V. Li, and other members of the Oriental Institute, furnishes a similar list of obstacles in its chapter on socialist orientation. But it does not define the relationship of these states to the U.S.S.R.

11 The text of Ponomarev's speech was reprinted in Kommunist, No. 16 (November 1980), 30–44.

12 In October 1980, for example, Boris Ponomarev enjoined scholars at the Oriental Institute to explore causes for the setbacks suffered by various radical regimes; see Aziya i Africa segodnia, No. 12 (December 1980), 2–5.

13 A. V. Kiva and P. M. Shastitko, “Istoricheskii opyt bol'shevizma i revoliutsionnaya demokratiya afro-aziatskikh stran” [The historical experience of bolshevism and the revolutionary democracy of Afro-Asian countries], Narody Azii i Afriki, No. 6 (November-December 1983), 11. See also V. Maksimenko, “Leninskaya kontseptsiya politicheskikh partii i osvobodivshiesia strany” [Lenin's concepts of political parties and the liberated countries], Aziya i Africa segodnia, No. 8 (August 1983), 2–5.

14 Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya (fn. 4), 124. Or, according to Vostok: rubezh 80 godov, revolutionary goals outdistance the class content. (Fn. 10), 177–78.

15 “Problemy formirovaniya rabochego klassa osvobodivshikhsia stran” [Problems of class formation in the liberated countries], Rabochii klass i sovremennyi mir, No. 6 (November December 1983), 162–65.

16 In this connection, the collective volume on socialist orientation notes that the Labor Party of the People's Republic of the Congo is riddled with tribal factionalism. Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya (fn. 4), 124–25.

17 Ibid., 134–37.

18 Vostok. rubezh 80 godov (fn. 10), 192–93.

19 A. Butenko, “Nekotorye teoreticheskie problemy perekhoda k sotsializmu stran s ne-razvitoi ekonomikoi” [Some theoretical problems of the transition to socialism by countries with underdeveloped economies], Narody Azii i Afrify, No. 5 (September-October 1982), 70–79, is probably the most forthright statement about the various problems posed by backward social conditions to radical transformation. For an even more outspoken article (by a Hungarian expert), see Talas, Barna, “Specific Prerequisites for the Transition to Socialism in the Socio-economically Underdeveloped Countries,” Development and Peace (Budapest) 4 (Autumn 1983), 208–20Google Scholar.

20 Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya (fn. 4), 125.

21 Li, Sotsial'naya revoliutsiya i vlast' v stranakh Vostoka [Social revolution and power in the countries of the East] (Moscow: Nauka, 1984). Li presents an even clearer argument in “The Formation and Evolution of Bureaucracy in Developing Countries of the East,” Development and Peace 3 (Autumn 1982), 32–45.

22 Ulianovsky, “O natsional'noi i revoliutsionnoi demokratii: puti evoliutsii” [On national and revolutionary democracy: paths of evolution], Narody Azii i Afrify, No. 2 (March-April 1984), 9–18. It is instructive to compare these 1984 arguments with those Ulianovsky expressed in 1971: “The important thing is not so much the fact that the national democracy is still a non-Marxist trend, as [is] its actual fight against imperialism, against capitalism as a social system, and the revolutionary democrats' constuctive effort to build a new society.” World Marxist Review, No. 9 (September 1971), 125.

23 Sotsialisticheskaya orientatsiya (fn. 4), 35–36; Vostok: rubezh 80 godov (fn. 10), 195–96,

24 Zarubezhnye kpntsepuii ekpnomicheskpgo mzvitiya stran Afrity [Foreign concepts of economic development of African countries] (Moscow: Nauka, 1980), 153.

25 Slavnyi, Nemarksistskaya politekpnomiya o problemakh otstalosti i zavisimosti v razvivayushchemsia mire [Non-Marxist political economy on the problems of backwardness and dependence in the developing world] (Moscow: Nauka, 1982), 195. The book's “original” contents were subject to favorable commentaries in Narody Azii i Afrikj, No. 6 (November-December 1984), 141–66.

26 The shift in Soviet policy was undoubtedly related to the change in the LDCs' behavior: beginning with the IV UNCTAD in May 1976, they stopped differentiating between the capitalist West and the socialist East, presenting the same set of demands on all the advanced states.

27 “Evaluation of the world trade and economic situation and consideration of issues, policies and appropriate measures to facilitate structural changes in the international economy,” UNCTAD, TD/249 (April 19, 1979), point 22.

28 Manzhulo, “Shestaya sessiya Yunktad: tseli i zadachi” [The sixth session of UNCTAD: its goals and tasks], Vneshniaya torgovlia, No. 4 (April 1983), 15–20.

29 Obminsky, E., “Proponents and Opponents of Restructuring International Economic Relations,” International Affairs, No. 7 (July 1984), 81–88Google Scholar; “Bor'ba za mezhdunarodnyi eko-nomicheskii poriadok: itogi desiatiletiya” [Struggle for the international economic order: results of a decade], Mirovaya ekpnomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [hereafter cited as MEMO], No. 7 (July 1984), 101–16; I. Karpov, “Razvivayushchiesia strany i demokratizatsiya mezhdunarodnykh ekonomicheskikh otnoshenii” [The developing countries and democratization of international economic relations], Vneshniaya torgovlia, No. II (November 1984), 46–50.

30 L. Abalkin, “Leninskaya teoriya imperializma v svete sovremennoi real'nosti” [Lenin's theory of imperialism in the light of current-day realities], MEMO, No. 5 (May 1985), 61–73. For a conservative reiteration of the old verities, see the editorial in Kommunist, No. 8 (May 1984), 3–13.

31 For a good example of the present disposition not to absolutize socialist institutions, see the round-table discussion on the future of capitalism in the LDCs, MEMO, No. 1 (January 1985), 81–94.

32 Vostofk: rubezh 80 godov (fn. 10), 194–95. The fact that Soviet writers have not charged that independent Angola was being exploited by the international oil cartel operating in Cabinda indicates acceptance of the benefits accruing to a socialist-oriented state from participating in a capitalist international enterprise. Moreover, the U.S.S.R. is not averse to doing business with the multinationals in the radical states. The biggest Soviet aid project in Angola—the Cuanza river development—is a trilateral venture in which Portuguese capital participates.

33 E. Primakov, “Strany sotsialisticheskoi orientatsii: trudnyi no real'nyi put' perekhoda k sotsializmu” [States of socialist orientation: a difficult but workable path for transition to socialism], MEMO, No. 7 (July 1981), 16.

34 Sotsialisticheskpya orientatsiya (fn. 4), 178–79; Vostok: rubezh 80 godov (fn. 10), 177–79.

35 Ibid., 198.

36 Butenko (fn. 19), 76.

37 See Simoniya, N. A., Strany Vostoka: puti razvitiya [Countries of the East: paths of development] (Moscow: Nauka, 1975)Google Scholar.

38 Evgenii Rashkovsky, Vostokpvednaya problematika v kul'turno-istorichesl{oi kpntseptsii A. Dzh. Toinbi [Oriental problems in A. J. Toynbee's concepts of history and culture] (Moscow: Nauka, 1976).

39 See “Kruglyi stol: o sootnoshenii poniatii ‘tsivilizatsiya’ i ‘kul'tura’ ” [Round table: on the relationship between ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’]. Nova i noveishaya istoriya, No. 4 (July August 1983), 68–89.

40 Elianov, A. Ya. and Sheinis, V. L., eds., Razvivayushchiesia strany: ehpnomicheskji rost i sotsial'nyi progress (Mosow: Nauka, 1983)Google Scholar.

41 See the two lengthy reviews in MEMO, No. 3 (March 1985), 115–33. The volume was also included in a composite review of important publications in Kommunist, No. 1 (January 1985), 115–25.

42 Reisner, L. I. and Simoniya, N. A., eds., Evoliutsiya vostochnyfyi obshchestv: sintez tra-ditsionnykh i sovremennykh struktur (Moscow: Nauka, 1984)Google Scholar.

43 Kim, “Social Development and Ideological Struggle in the Developing Countries,” International Affairs, No. 4 (April 1980), 65–75; Primakov, “Islam i protsessy obshchestven-nogo razvitiya zarubezhnogo Vostoka” [Islam and the processes of social development in Eastern countries abroad], Voprosy filosofii, No. 8 (August 1980), 60–71.

44 Proceedings reproduced in Aziya i Africa segodnia, No. 7 (July 1983), 33–41.

45 Agaev, “O poniatii i sushchnosti ‘islamskoi revoliutsii’ ” [On the concept and essence of “Islamic Revolution”], Aziya i Africa segodnia, No. 5 (May 1984), 27–31. See also Agaev's review of L. P. Polonskaya and A. Kh. Vafa, eds., Vostok: ideii i ideologiya [The East: ideas and ideology] (Moscow: Nauka, 1982), for similar arguments about the sui generis nature of Islam, in Rabochii klass i sovremennyi mir, No. 6 (November-December 1983), 177–80.

46 Reisner, “‘Tsivilizatsiya’ i ‘formatsiya’ v obshchestvakh Vostoka i Zapada” [“Civilization” and “formation” in Western and Eastern societies], Aziya i Africa segodnia, No. 6 (June 1984), 22–25.

47 Simoniya, “Natsional'no-gosudarstvennaya konsolidatsiya i politicheskaya differentsiatsiya razvivayushchikhsia stran” [National-state consolidation and the political differentiation among developing countries], MEMO, No. 1 (January 1983), 84–96.

48 Alimov, “Dvizhenie neprisoedineniya na vazhnom rubezhe” [The non-aligned movement at a significant juncture], Kommunist, No. 7 (May 1983), 99–110.

49 Brutents, “Dvizhenie neprisoedineniya v sovremennom mire” [The non-aligned movement in the contemporary world], MEMO, No. 5 (May 1984), 26–41.

50 See, for instance, Brutents, Osvobodivshiesia strany v yo-e gody [The liberated countries in the 70s] (Moscow: Izd. Politicheskoi literatury, 1979), and “Sovetskii Soyuz i osvobodiv-shiesia strany,” Pravda, February 2, 1982, pp. 4–5.

51 See, for example, Butenko (fn. 19), and Yu. Novopashin, “Vozdeistvie real'nogo so-tsializma na mirovoi revoliutsionnyi protsess” [The influence of genuine socialism on the world revolutionary process], Voprosy filosofii, No. 8 (August 1982), 3–16.

52 Pravda, May 22, 1985, p. 2. Gorbachev's formulation differs from Brezhnev's. It omits mention of “full recognition of these states’ sovereignty over their natural resources … [and] support of their efforts to eliminate remnants of colonialism, to uproot racism and apartheid.” See Pravda, April 28, 1981, p. 2.