Real socialism

Part of a series on
Marxism–Leninism
show Concepts Administrative-command system Anti-fascism Anti-imperialism Anti-revisionism Central planning Soviet-type economic planning Collective leadership Collectivization Commanding heights of the economy Democratic centralism Dialectical logic Dialectical materialism Foco Intensification of the class struggle under socialism Labour aristocracy Marxist–Leninist atheism One-party state Partiinost' People's democracy Popular front Proletarian internationalism Protracted people's war Self-criticism Social fascism Socialism in one country Socialist patriotism Soviet Yugoslav State Socialist Theory of the productive forces Third Period Vanguardism Wars of national liberation
hide Variants Castroism Guevarism Ho Chi Minh Thought Hoxhaism Husakism Juche Kadarism Khrushchevism Maoism Socialism with Chinese characteristics Stalinism Titoism
show People Joseph Stalin Mao Zedong Ernst Thälmann Khorloogiin Choibalsan Ehmetjan Qasim José Díaz Maurice Thorez Palmiro Togliatti Ho Chi Minh Võ Nguyên Giáp Earl Browder Nikita Khrushchev Walter Ulbricht Josip Broz Tito Mátyás Rákosi Lazar Kaganovich Georgi Dimitrov Bolesław Bierut Valko Chervenkov Klement Gottwald Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Enver Hoxha Kaysone Phomvihane Khalid Bakdash Leonid Brezhnev Deng Xiaoping Pol Pot Nikos Zachariadis Che Guevara Fidel Castro Agostinho Neto Mengistu Haile Mariam Kim Il-sung Chin Peng Hardial Bains Sanzō Nosaka Nicolae Ceaușescu Gustáv Husák János Kádár Erich Honecker Władysław Gomułka Samora Machel Thomas Sankara Mathieu Kérékou Siad Barre Nur Muhammad Taraki Alfonso Cano Rohana Wijeweera Gus Hall Harpal Brar Gennady Zyuganov Xi Jinping
show Theoretical works Foundations of Leninism Dialectical and Historical Materialism The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR A Critique of Soviet Economics Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism Guerrilla Warfare Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung President Ho Chi Minh's Testament The Governance of China
show History Soviet Union 1927–1953 1953–1964 1964–1982 1982–1991 Great Break Collectivization in the Soviet Union Industrialization in the Soviet Union Great Purge Spanish Civil War World War II Great Patriotic War Greek Civil War Cold War Eastern Bloc Chinese Revolution China 1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present Korean War Cuban Revolution aftermath De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency Revolutions of 1989
show By country Afghanistan Albania Angola Benin Bulgaria Cambodia China Congo Cuba Czechoslovakia Czechia Slovakia East Germany Ethiopia Granada Hungary Laos Mongolia Mozambique North Korea Poland Romania Somalia South Yemen Soviet Union Armenia Azerbaijan Byelarus Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Moldova Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekistan Vietnam Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Macedonia Montenegro Serbia Slovenia
show Organizations Comecon Comintern Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of Cuba Communist Party of India Communist Party of Kampuchea Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Party of the Soviet Union Communist Party of Vietnam French Communist Party Indochinese Communist Party Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party Lao People's Revolutionary Party Nepal Communist Party Party of Labour of Albania Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Sandinista National Liberation Front Workers' Party of Korea
show Related topics Bolshevism Leninism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Trotskyism
show See also All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anti-communism Mass killings Cold War Crimes against humanity under communist regimes Mass killings Criticism of communist party rule Cult of personality Marxist schools of thought National Bolshevism New class Post-communism Red fascism Red Scare Second Second World State capitalism State socialism State ideology of China State ideology of the Soviet Union Third-Worldism Totalitarianism
Communism portal  Politics portal  Socialism portal
v t

Real socialism, also known as actually existing socialism (AES)^[1] or developed socialism,^[2] was an ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union.^[3]

The term referred to the Soviet-type economic planning implemented by the Eastern Bloc at that particular time.^[3] From the 1960s onward, countries such as Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia began to argue that their policies represented what was realistically feasible given their level of productivity, even if it did not conform to the Marxist concept of socialism.^{[citation needed]}

The concept of real socialism alluded to a future highly developed socialist system. However, the lagging productivity growth and insufficient standard of living in the Comecon countries caused the phrase "real socialism" to be increasingly perceived as dishonest and unreal.^{[citation needed]} The actual party claims of nomenclatory socialism began to acquire not only negative, but also sarcastic meanings. In later years and especially after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the term began to be remembered as only one thing, i.e. as a reference for Soviet-style socialism.^{[note 1]}

The executive committee of the Comecon in session

Definition[]

After World War II, the terms "real socialism" or "really existing socialism" gradually became the predominating euphemisms used as self-description of the Eastern Bloc states' political and economical systems and their society models.^[4] De jure often referred to as "(democratic) people's republics", these states were ruled by a single Soviet-aligned Marxist-Leninist party, some of which were ruled autocratically and had adapted a form of planned economy and propagated socialism and/or communism as their ideology.^[4] The term "real (-ly existing) socialism" was introduced to explain the obvious gap between the propagated ideological framework and the political and economical reality faced by these states' societies.^[4]

The role of the Sino-Soviet split[]

Another aspect of the term real socialism related to the Sino-Soviet split and other ideological disagreements between the Soviet Union and its satellite states on one side and the People's Republic of China and the followers of a more Maoist brand of communist ideology on the other. The Maoist-inspired communist movement, which had grown so rapidly worldwide as a "radical left" alternative to Soviet ideas, had claimed that the Soviet Union was no longer socialist and had betrayed the revolution. To counter this claim of Marxist revisionism, the Soviets called their version "real socialism", implying that other models of socialism were unrealistic.^[5]

Soviet popular culture[]

The term was also used in an ironical criticism. The "reality" of "real socialism" was used against it. In particular, the term became a target of numerous political jokes in the Soviet Union, the following being typical examples:^[5]

• "Do you know the boundary between real socialism and communism?" – "The border runs along the Kremlin's wall" [hinting that only rulers of the Soviet Union live in the bright communist future promised by Karl Marx].
• "What is real socialism?" – "This is when you cannot yet get everything without money, but you already cannot buy anything for your money" [hinting at the long lines and frequent shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet stores].
• Armenian Radio was asked: "Is it possible to build real socialism in Armenia?". Armenian Radio answers: "Yes, but it would be better to do it in Georgia".

In the West[]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The term "actually existing socialism" was often used by orthodox^{[clarification needed]} communists in the West to attack either their external (generally Trotskyist) opponents or their internal (generally Eurocommunist) critics.^{[clarification needed]} The achievement of "actual" socialism was used as a counter to these groups' critiques of repression inside the "socialist countries".

See also[]

Footnotes[]

References[]

General

• Real socialism from A Dictionary of Sociology, 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press.