Soviet Philosophy

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PROFESSOR SOMERVILLE here presents a sympathetic and, to some extent, an apologetic study of the application of Marxist ideology to the harsh realities of post-revolutionary Russia. There have been several partisan endeavors in the past, mostly by disillusioned Marxist thinkers and unregenerate social democrats, to prove Stalin’s “betrayal" of communist principles.

Some students of Soviet history have been tempted to amend Chesterton’s dictum on Christianity to read “Communism, like Christianity, has not been a failure it has never been tried. Professor Somerville’s eonelusion, following a two-year field study in the Soviet Union, appears to agree with the remark attributed to the late Lincoln Steffens: “ I have looked into the future and it works.

Much of the book is a simplified exposition of Marxist philosophy. The author’s more important contribution is, to use his own prefatory words, “to make the book true to the content and meaning of a living philosophy its it is found among those who live by it.”It is the first, attempt by an American teacher of philosophy to explore the foundations and to describe the superstructure of a new civilization which is steadily gaining strength.

Professor Somerville is no ivory-tower philosopher. After several years of teaching philosophy in eastern American colleges he was appointed Columbia University Cutting Traveling Fellow in the U.S.S.R. between 1935 and 1937 he lived, worked, and studied with Russians. Those were critical, stormy years in Soviet history, following Kirov’s assassination, which ushered in the grim purge in Soviet politics, science, art, and, indeed, every phase of life. While German and Japanese war clouds gathered over Russia s frontiers, Stalin, as if in anticipation of the struggle tor existence that was to come later, executed the thorough house cleaning which, to so many foreign observers, appeared to threaten the very foundations of the regime.

From points of observation in the Academy of Sciences and in Moscow University, the author diligently studied the translation of Marxist theory into Soviet practice. He lived in a strictly Russian milieu and was able to share the hardships, joys, and sorrows of simple Soviet citizens —an opportunity rarely enjoyed by American scholars. Incidentally, American authorities interested in developing cultural collaboration with the Russians might note Professor Somerville s testimony to the effect that “Soviet scholars are among the most hospitable and generous in the world.”

The unusual experience, added to his academic background, enables the author to answer such timely, passionately controversial questions as: What do Russian spokesmen mean by Soviet democracy? Does the new relationship between church and state indicate a compromise with materialistic philosophy? How real are the democratic freedoms guaranteed in the Soviet constitution? Carefully marshaling his facts and logic, Professor Somerville refutes the common contentions of anti-Soviet critics that fascism and communism are alike. He argues against glib comparison of the Soviets with superficially similar regimes, by outlining the singular character of the Soviet state, its ultimate objectives, and its present-day attitudes toward foreign peoples, social and economic strata, race, religion.

Written in non-technical language, this survey ot first principles will prove especially valuable to the growing legion of close students of Soviet civilization in the Anglo-Saxon world.

HENRY SHAPIRO