Scientific Communism

Scientific communism was one of the three major ingredients of Marxism-Leninism as taught in the Soviet Union in all institutions of higher education and pursued in the corresponding research institutions, and departments. The discipline consisted in investigation of laws, patterns, ways, and forms of class struggle, socialist revolution, and development of socialism and construction of communism.

Passing exams in scientific communism was an obligatory prerequisite in obtaining any postgraduate scientific degree in the Soviet Union; see "Kandidat" article for details.

Typical courses of study included the following topics, among others.

  • Origins and development of the communist theory
  • Theory of socialist revolution
  • International communist movement
  • Dictatorship of the proletariat
  • Transformation of socialism into communism
  • Socialist democracy
  • Communist interpersonal relations and upbringing
  • Criticisms of anti-communism

Read more about Scientific Communism:  Other Components of Marxism-Leninism

Famous quotes containing the words scientific and/or communism:

    The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.
    Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)

    By intervening in the Vietnamese struggle the United States was attempting to fit its global strategies into a world of hillocks and hamlets, to reduce its majestic concerns for the containment of communism and the security of the Free World to a dimension where governments rose and fell as a result of arguments between two colonels’ wives.
    Frances Fitzgerald (b. 1940)