The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe are major failures in the history of the international producer movement. The death of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to seize power has its inevitable reasons, and the lesson is painful and profound. It is of great significance for the socialist construction and development of our party and country in the new period to correctly understand the essence and reasons of the great changes in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and learn from them.
For the essence and reasons of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the main views of experts and scholars at home and abroad are as follows:
(1) Determinism of external factors, that is, mainly the external factors of the "peaceful evolution" strategy pursued by western developed capitalist countries, made the "fortress" of the Soviet Union and eastern European socialist countries broken from the outside;
(2) Personal determinism, that is, Gorbachev and other major party and government leaders in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe committed unforgivable mistakes and crimes, became revisionists and traitors, and betrayed the * * * production party and socialism. Some scholars also put the "old scores" of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe mainly on Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Stalin.
(3) Economic determinism, that is, the fundamental reason for the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is the poor economy. The performance is as follows: in the years before the drastic changes, the economic development speed of the countries in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe slowed down, even negative growth, low efficiency, soaring prices, sharp increase in fiscal deficit, decline in people's living standards, and economic crisis, political crisis and ethnic crisis appeared to varying degrees;
(4) Ideological determinism, that is: ① countries have not adhered to the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, and have not combined the universal principles of Marxism with the specific realities of various countries, and their thoughts are rigid and stuck in a rut, falling into serious subjectivism and dogmatism for a long time; (2) Gorbachev's "new thinking" and "humane democratic socialism" abandoned Marxism-Leninism;
(5) Party determinism, that is, the construction of the ruling party itself has not been done well, and there are problems in ideological construction, political construction, organizational construction and work style construction. In particular, the party is seriously divorced from the people, and all kinds of corruption continue to breed and spread, becoming increasingly common and rampant. Some scholars even believe that there is a privileged group of party and government bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, and members of this group enjoy various privileges. The problems existing in the construction of the ruling party, especially the increasingly serious corruption, have caused the people's disappointment, dissatisfaction and disgust with the party and the government, and finally ruined the great socialist country of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
(6) Model (system) determinism, that is, the fundamental reason for the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is to stick to the traditional Soviet model for a long time. In the early days, this model basically adapted to the historical conditions of various countries, and made the socialist cause of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe win a great victory in AG. However, with the development of productive forces and the change of objective conditions, the disadvantages of this model are gradually exposed, and economic rights are highly concentrated. Managing the economy by administrative orders requires only planning, not market, and egalitarianism. Politically centralized, regardless of party and government, with the party acting as the government. Democracy is imperfect, the legal system is trampled on, individuals are arbitrary and superstitions are prevalent. These disadvantages are killing the vitality and vigor of socialism day by day, which has become an obstacle to the continuous development of productivity in eastern Europe of the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries began to carry out wave after wave of reforms in the mid-20th century, except Yugoslavia, this reform did not fundamentally break through the traditional Soviet model. As a result, the economic gap between the Soviet Union and eastern European countries and western developed capitalist countries has widened, and the superiority of the socialist system has not been fully and effectively brought into play.
(7) Three contradictory determinism, namely: the contradiction between the long-standing "Left" line and the over-centralized party and government leadership system in Soviet society and the requirements of vigorously developing productive forces, democracy and freedom in socialist society; The contradiction between the privileged group of party and government bureaucrats and the people; The contradiction between the forces of great russianism and the people of all ethnic groups. The long-term existence of these three contradictions eventually led to three crises, namely, "economic crisis, social and political crisis and national crisis". The intensification of the three major crises led to three extinctions, namely, "the Soviet Union died in the party, the Soviet Union died in the country, and the Soviet-style socialism was desperate";
(8) The determinism of breaking away from the global economic system, that is, the proposal and implementation of Stalin's theory of "two parallel markets", has completely broken away from the internationalized world economy and isolated from the mainstream of world economic development;
(9) "Left" error determinism, that is, a series of "Left" errors made by the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in line, principles and policies before the mid-1980s;
(10) "Right" wrong determinism, that is, after the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union and eastern European countries made serious right-leaning mistakes, such as abandoning Marxism–Leninism's guidance, pursuing "humane and democratic socialism", blindly making concessions to western developed capitalist countries, and allowing domestic opposition and ethnic separatist forces to engage in anti-Party, anti-socialist and anti-ethnic separatist activities.
(1 1)6 pairs of 12 causal determinism, that is, there are 6 pairs of12 reasons for the disintegration of the Soviet Union: ① internal and external factors, and internal factors are dominant; ② Near and far, mainly near; ③ Deep layers, mainly deep layers; ④ Subjective and objective, mainly subjective; ⑤ Macro and micro, mainly macro; ⑥ Upper and lower floors, with the upper floor as the main one. These reasons interacted, penetrated and influenced each other, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
(12) Two dead-end determinism, that is, the countries with drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have embarked on two dead ends: ① The party and government leading bodies in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have long been rigid, adhered to a set of "Left" line principles and policies, adhered to the traditional Soviet socialist model formed and established under specific historical conditions, and refused to reform and open up. As a result, socialism lost its vitality and became the same as capitalism. (2) When carrying out reform and opening up, we can't scientifically evaluate the history of the Party's leading the people's struggle, and we can't understand the relationship and principle difference between the basic socialist system and the model (system). Therefore, when reforming the old system, even the basic socialist system was abandoned. As a result, it abandoned the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and the leadership of the * * * production party, deviated from the socialist direction of reform, and eventually led to the collapse of the party, the disintegration or deterioration of the country and the people.
The main viewpoints of experts and scholars at home and abroad explain and discuss the causes of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe from different angles, each with its own rationality. However, the reasons for the great changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are profound and multifaceted, not caused by one or several reasons, but by the "resultant force" of the whole society at a certain historical stage, which is man-made, natural, historical, realistic, inevitable, accidental, positive, negative, malicious, well-intentioned and so on. Therefore, we should not think that there is only one or several reasons for the great changes in the Soviet Union and East China. At the same time, "multiple causes" cannot be generalized as "no cause". It is necessary to combine the historical situation at that time with the current historical requirements, find out the main reasons, learn lessons and guide reality.
Engels once pointed out that the development of history is the result of "resultant force". The reasons for the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe should also be composed of "resultant forces". The socialist setbacks in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are caused by many complicated factors. These factors are intertwined, among which the most critical factor is the internal problems of the ruling party, the production party, which makes it appear irreparable deviation and mistakes in formulating and implementing the principles, policies and measures for the construction and development of the party and the country. Specifically:
1, the rigidity of the Soviet model
192 1 year, Lenin put forward the "new economic policy" on the basis of summing up experiences and lessons. It is Lenin's attempt to build socialism under the condition that small farmers are dominant according to the actual situation in Russia. It is a further development of Marxist theory and has effectively promoted the recovery and development of Russian national economy. However, due to Lenin's premature death, this policy was not well adhered to.
1929 Stalin announced the cancellation of the new economic policy. The Soviet model gradually formed after that. The main characteristics of the Soviet model are: in terms of ownership, industrialization and agricultural collectivization are carried out, and collective ownership is tried to be raised to the ownership of the whole people, in an attempt to realize the transformation from socialism to * * * productism in a relatively short time; In the aspect of economic operation mechanism, the highly centralized mandatory planned economy system is implemented, excluding commodities and market economy, and only a certain degree of commodity exchange is allowed in the production and circulation of consumer goods, which lacks vitality; In the political system, a highly centralized leadership system is implemented, and the party does not distinguish between party and government. There is a lack of democracy within the party, bureaucracy is prevalent and the supervision mechanism is imperfect. In terms of ideological and cultural system, the state strictly controls the ideological and cultural field by means of administrative orders, and does not allow any theoretical innovation.
In a certain period of time, the Soviet model can concentrate the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the whole country to develop production, especially heavy industry and military industry, and quickly realize national industrialization, laying a solid material foundation for defeating German fascism in World War II. However, since the sixties and seventies, with the development of the times, the new scientific and technological revolution has been surging, and the disadvantages of the Soviet model have become more and more obvious, which is increasingly unsuitable for the requirements of the times. Especially during the Brezhnev period, the political and economic system of the Soviet Union became more and more rigid, which missed the opportunity to carry out practical reforms, thus becoming an obstacle to progress and bringing the economic development of the Soviet Union to a standstill. There are serious drawbacks in the political and economic system formed by the Soviet Union and other socialist countries that imitate the Soviet model, which affects the exertion of socialist superiority and weakens the vitality and vitality of socialism.
At the same time, the Soviet Union grossly interfered in the internal affairs of other socialist countries. Some Eastern European countries tried various reforms in 1950s and 1970s, such as Yugoslavia's "autonomous socialism" reform and Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland's reform, but they all died because of various subjective and objective reasons and the intervention of the Soviet Union.
2. Economic development lags behind.
It is the basic requirement of the people for the ruling party to be rich and strong. When the economy stagnates, people will lose confidence. Great achievements have been made during the Soviet Union's administration, but the rigid political and economic systems and strategic mistakes of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries have affected the sustained and healthy economic development of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union ignored the leverage of the law of value for a long time, rejected the commodity and market mechanism, and mainly carried out the country's economic construction through administrative orders and planning means. In terms of development strategy, the Soviet economy has long adopted an extensive development mode, focusing on developing heavy industry and military industry. Although this is necessary and correct in a certain period of time, after World War II, especially after the 1960s and 1970s, the development strategy was not adjusted in time according to the changes in the objective situation, which led to the abnormal development of the national economy and a heavy burden, which seriously hindered the process of economic development and the new scientific and technological revolution, and laid the groundwork for the loss of the ruling position of the * * * production party. Today, few socialist countries in the world (China, Viet Nam, North Korea, Cuba and Laos) realize this. For example, Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, repeatedly said during his recent visit to China: "There is nothing more important than economic work."
3. The success of the western strategy of "peaceful evolution"
Under the conditions of mutual opposition and competition between socialist and capitalist social systems, western countries adopted two methods to defeat the socialist countries in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. One way is to implement a blockade and embargo policy against countries in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, with military threats, especially nuclear threats, as the premise and backing, to exert military pressure, threaten war and carry out direct subversive activities against these countries. Another method is to adopt the strategy of "peaceful evolution" and fight a "war without smoke". The main means of the western "peaceful evolution" strategy are: forcing the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to make concessions in line with their intentions by economic means; In the name of "human rights", "democracy" and "freedom", it directly interferes in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and supports the anti-socialist forces within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in various ways. Third, use various media tools to engage in attack tactics, infiltrate ideology and culture, and incite anti-social tendencies. It is manifested in: ① using modern media to incite people; ② Use movies, TV, books, etc. Infiltrate ideology and culture; (3) Use personnel exchange for ideological and cultural infiltration; (4) Infiltrating socialist countries with religion; ⑤ Cultivate pro-Western "democratic forces" and "dissidents" to plan and support unrest.
4.* * * The construction of the production party has not been done well.
It can be said that the failure of party building is an important internal cause of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. For a long time, as the ruling party, the Soviet Union's * * * production party and the workers' party in eastern European countries have a series of serious problems in the party's ideological construction, political line, organizational construction and work style construction.
In terms of ideological construction, both the * * * production party and the workers' party in power in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have changed from dogmatic and simplistic Marxism-Leninism to openly denying and abandoning Marxism-Leninism. Lenin attached great importance to the Party's ideological and theoretical construction, and stressed the need to apply the basic principles of Marxism in practice and explore the road of revolution and construction in line with Russia's national conditions. After Lenin's death, Stalin made contributions to defending and propagating Marxism-Leninism. However, he gave a one-sided, dogmatic and vulgar explanation to some conclusions of Marxism-Leninism, which stifled the spirit of theoretical innovation and exploration. There are ideological rigidities and personal superstitions in the Party. During the reign of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Marxism-Leninism became an empty slogan and rhetoric, which could not answer all kinds of new questions raised by the ever-changing reality. After Gorbachev came to power, he put forward "humane and democratic socialism", which openly betrayed the basic principles of Marxism.
On the political line, Stalin abandoned Lenin's "new economic policy" prematurely, surpassed the actual national conditions and social development stage of the Soviet Union, was eager to announce the completion of socialism, and prepared to transition to * * * productism in the 1930s, thus implementing a series of "Left" policies, which damaged the enthusiasm of the masses; Khrushchev announced that he would complete the transition to productism within 20 years; Brezhnev put forward the theory of "developed socialism"; Gorbachev, on the other hand, went to the other extreme and proposed to "fundamentally transform" the whole social building from the economic base to the superstructure, thus fundamentally denying the socialist system.
In organizational construction, Stalin's power was too concentrated, which eventually led to personal monopoly and superstition, and the power of the Party Congress and the Central Committee was weakened. During the 13 years from the 18th National Congress to the 19th National Congress, no party congress was held, which seriously undermined the principle of democratic centralism. Although Khrushchev criticized Stalin's personal superstition, he took a very wrong way to confuse people's thoughts, and at the same time engaged in his own "personal superstition" and voluntarism. Brezhnev monopolized power without any supervision, engaged in hegemonism and interfered in other countries' internal affairs by force, and the party gradually lost the support and popular support of the broad masses. During Gorbachev's period, the principle of democratic centralism was completely abandoned. After the1991"819" incident, Gorbachev announced that the Central Committee of the Soviet Union "dissolved itself".
, eventually led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union.
In terms of style construction, the party style of the Soviet Union in the revolutionary era was generally positive and healthy. However, with the passage of time, especially during Khrushchev and Brezhnev, inner-party corruption became increasingly serious and nepotism prevailed. Senior Party cadres and their children enjoy all kinds of privileges, and a few bureaucrats abuse their powers for personal gain. These corrupt phenomena corrode the party's body from the inside. Other eastern European countries have the same problems in their own construction of the ruling party.
It should be pointed out that, in terms of theoretical innovation, the * * * production party of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has one thing in common, that is, dogmatism restricts theoretical innovation, and theory has not followed the development of practice for decades. On the surface, it seems to adhere to Marxism-Leninism. In fact, it is difficult to stand firm if divorced from reality. For example, Su's basic judgment on capitalism, the formulation of "total crisis of capitalism" has been used for more than half a century, which has not been adjusted in time according to the new situation of capitalism and is not convincing to the people. For another example, Su said, "In the Soviet Union, ethnic problems have been solved once and for all." In fact, it was the improper solution of ethnic problems that led to the final disintegration of the Soviet Union.
In the aspect of inner-party democracy, the problem of inner-party democracy of all parties in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has never been solved. The party's democratic centralism emphasizes centralization and lacks democracy in the implementation process. The most prominent problem is that the power system within the party is inverted pyramid. Without a bottom-up inner-party supervision and restriction mechanism, a privileged class will inevitably form. Once a political party becomes a representative of privileged interests, it will lose its ruling foundation. On the eve of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union, a public opinion survey of Soviet citizens showed that only 7%-8% people thought that the Soviet Union represented the people, and 70%-80% people thought that it only represented themselves. Another prominent problem is that party member's democratic rights are not fully guaranteed, which makes party member not motivated. Su * * * owns180,000 party member. When Gorbachev announced the dissolution, almost no one opposed it with practical actions. Ordinary party member didn't have the right to speak when he was in power. Naturally, he won't run for this party when he dies without power.
In terms of how to deal with various contradictions, if we lack political vigilance, sense of hardship and crisis handling ability, and do not pay attention to properly solving contradictions, it will lead to disastrous consequences. There are some very typical events in the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The political situation has been very unstable, but the party leaders have not received any signals. They are still visiting and on vacation, and they can't deal with the crisis decisively at the embryonic stage. During Gorbachev's period, Yeltsin wanted to dissolve the Soviet Union, and Gorbachev was indifferent. Ceausescu made a report to the Party Congress, and the delegates stood up and applauded nearly a hundred times. This is an illusion.
The producers' party has three magic weapons: integrating theory with practice, keeping close contact with the masses and democratic centralism. If we lose these three magic weapons, the producers will lose their strength and die. It can be seen that the failure of the construction of the ruling party, especially the deviation and degeneration of the party's top leaders from Marxism in their ideological line, is the most critical internal factor leading to the socialist setbacks in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
The setbacks of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have left many painful lessons, which deserve our careful study and summary. Under the new historical background of profound changes in the international and domestic environment, we should adhere to and improve the leadership of the * * * production party, strengthen the construction of the ruling party's ruling ability, and comprehensively promote the great cause of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics under the guidance of "Theory of Three Represents Thought" and the setbacks of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This is the key to ensure that the socialist system will never change color and the socialist cause will flourish.
At present, it is particularly important and urgent to strengthen the construction of the party's ruling ability. Apart from the historical lessons, fundamentally speaking, the party's ruling conditions and social environment have undergone profound changes, and our party is facing severe tests and challenges from three aspects. The international environment and the requirements of the times faced by the party; The arduous task and historical mission shouldered by the Party; The party's own situation and existing problems.
An important reason for the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is that the leadership of the * * * production party has not been well adhered to and improved, and the self-construction of the ruling party has not been done well. In a long historical period, the Soviet Eastern Party did not really form an ideological line of seeking truth from facts, dogmatism prevailed and made "Left" mistakes. The principle of democratic centralism has not been effectively adhered to, with more centralization and less democracy; Without building a clean and honest party style, corruption is serious. After the mid-1980s, in the process of reform and opening up, the political parties in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe neglected their own ideological construction and failed to take effective measures to fight against all kinds of erroneous ideas inside and outside the party. As a result, many cadres in party member and party member have shaken their socialist beliefs and ideals, resulting in confusion and different views within the Party. The party's democratic centralism has also been weakened and destroyed. Democracy is more than centralization, the party and the government lack the authority they deserve, the localities are fragmented and engage in extreme democratization, which makes the party organizations scattered, divided and split, losing cohesion and combat effectiveness; All kinds of corruption are becoming more and more common and serious. The people have lost confidence and hope in the party and the government, and socialism is eclipsed. In addition, the western imperialist countries launched a full-scale "peaceful evolution" offensive against the countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which broke the socialist "fortress" of the countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in internal troubles and foreign invasion.
Since entering the new historical period, China has brought order out of chaos, fundamentally corrected the previous "Left" errors, restored the party's ideological line of seeking truth from facts, adhered to the party's basic line, improved democratic centralism, opposed all kinds of corruption, severely punished corrupt elements, and gradually improved the party style. At present, although there are still some problems in party building, such as the low theoretical level of some cadres in party member and party member, the weak socialist belief, the inner-party democratic system still needs to be improved, and the corruption among leading cadres is still serious. Generally speaking, the party's ruling level and leadership level are constantly improving. China's great achievements in the reform and opening up for more than 20 years cannot be separated from the correct leadership of the Party. Only by upholding and improving the leadership of the Party and constantly strengthening the self-construction of the ruling party can socialism remain youthful and remain invincible.
The long river of history has passed away, and success or failure has turned into light and shadow, which is gone forever. Tracing back to the source of history, going upstream, thinking about the gains and losses of the past and drawing lessons from the past, we can stand on the tide of history, show the true colors of heroes, recast brilliant achievements, and write the eternal love.