Sowjetideologie - Realität oder Fiktion?
Soviet Ideology - fact or fiction?

Summary/Abstract: Starting from the prevalent Western views on Soviet ideology, the author tries to show it in its present diversity and fields of activity. Not what the Soviets say about it is de¬cisive, nor its function in the official framework of the regime, nor its use in foreign affairs. Rather, Soviet ideology has to be seen in all its manifold functions, including its relationship to the party cadres, to the population in general, to all diverging opinions and information as well as the population groups behind these. In its present defensive position Soviet ideology has shed its Utopian elements and been reduced to the catch-all formula of the "developed society of socialism". Due to this change, the regime's promises turn to demands of the population, to consumer demands. In ad¬dition, by adjusting to the present state of affairs, its inadequacies must be justified and even its negative features must be defended, even though their abolition had been promised.

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