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MODULE CODE GV103-4-AU
MODULE TITLE INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CLASS TEACHER MARCO BINETTI
COURSEWORK TITLE MARXISM AND THE FALL OF SOVIET UNION IN 1991
ASSIGNMENT NUMBER #2
WORD COUNT 1027

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 Marxism and the fall of Soviet Union in 1991

In this essay I will discuss Marxism in International Relations, a theory that was
developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. Moreover, I will apply this
theory to a real life event that affected many Eastern European countries – the collapse of the
Soviet Union in the 1991. Since Marxism inspired Lenin (first leader of the USSR and the
government that took over Russia in 1917) and became a foundation for Leninist ideology, I
believe that this case of study is perfect to reflect on Marxism and its assumptions.

‘’The Manifesto of the Communist Party’’ is probably most widely read work in the
Marxist canon. This canon was prepared the presentation at the second congress of the
Communist League in London in 1847 and outlines a political programme based on a general
account of society and history and incorporating a distinctive critique of capitalism
(Suchting, 1983, p.55). In the first section of the Manifesto called "Bourgeois and
Proletarians", Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels talks about the historical nature of social
hierarchy where one social class (bourgeoisie) imposes control over the other one
(proletariat).

Moreover, the world, according to Marxism, is dominated by the capitalist class, who
not only controls the means of production, but the instruments of governance in their
respective societies. That is probably why they claim, that the one of the main reasons for
instability for international system is bourgeoisie with its effective capitalist globalization.
Capitalist globalization is mentioned in the Manifesto as well: ‘’The bourgeoisie, by the rapid
improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of
communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation <…> It compels
all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them
to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves.
In one word, it creates a world after its own image’’ (Marx and Engels, 1969, pp.15-16).

Other key aspect discussed by Marxism is materialist conception of history. It claims

that individuals must satisfy their material or physical needs before they can do anything else
(Andrew Linklater, 2001, p.132). In practice, if subordinate class wanted to survive, they had
to surrender to the dominant class that control and own the instruments of production. This
practice basically provides one of the main reasons for social conflict between two classes.
Karl Marx’s work concerns humankind’s historical growth process and movement toward
final self-realization and fulfilment in a society he called communist. He argued that
eventually exploitation would reach the point at which a proletarian class revolution would
occur and the power of the bourgeoisie would be broken.

The first application of Marxist ideas to explain international processes was by

communists and revolutionaries of the early twentieth century such as Rosa Luxemburg,
Rudolf Hilferding and Vladimir Lenin. These authors developed what we now call the
classical theories of imperialism. Marx has identified imperialism as a major force in world
politics, and he certainly anticipated what we now call globalization in the context of his
critique of capitalism (Stephanie Lawson, 2015, p.125). But it was Lenin who provided a
more extensive assessment of this and provided basis for later critical studies of key issues
in World-Systems theory: development, underdevelopment and dependency theory. He
(Lenin) in a preface to ‘’Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism’’ provided a general
picture of the world capitalist system in its international relationships. Lenin adapted
Marxism to conditions in Russia. Lenin called for an elite group to lead the revolution and

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 set up a "dictatorship of the proletariat". ... The armed factory workers joined mutinous
sailors from the Russian fleet in attacking the provisional government. It was so called
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that insisted on a revolutionary interpretation of Marx's ideas.

Marxism-Leninism transformed from a humble reformist social doctrine to a fully

fledged ideology (Kubalkova, 1980, p.167). Communism during the civil war of 1918 – 1920
was succeeded by the relaxed era of new economic policy, which was followed by the Five
year plan. Russia became the world’s first Marxist-Communist state and one of the most
powerful nations in the world, occupying nearly one-sixth of Earth’s land surface. During
the 1960s and 1970s the Communist party elite rapidly kept gaining wealth and power.
However, Marxism as theory and the practice of authoritarian communism in the USSR had
to experience an unhappy fate. State power was abused on a massive scale and lost all
connections with Marx’s essential humanitarianism during the period of Stalins dictatorship.
Millions of average Soviet citizens had to face starvation. Industrialization in Russia resulted
in lack of consumer goods. USSR started to lose its hold on Eastern Europe.

Even though Marxism was a building block of a Soviet Union system and module of
a functioning society and state it was twisted, changed and altered in the needs of Lenin and
Stalin and to the needs of the country that the system was not designed for. Marxism, on its
own premises was actually designed as a movement for fully industrialized societies,
however it came as a serious contender for power in societies that are mainly agrarian, such
as Russia at the time. It seems that Marxism does not work in the real world and does not
take greediness and selfishness of the human being into account, which can lead state to the
tyranny. Despite its weaknesses Marxism contributes to the theory of international relations.
First of all, the materials conception of history, analysis of production and class are crucial
to realist theories in order to prove that the struggle of military power and security shapes the
basic world politics structure. This leads to two further points which is that Marxism has
always been concerned with capitalist globalisation and international inequality; and for
Marxism the global spread of capitalist modernity is the backdrop to the development of
modern societies and the organisation of their international relation (Andrew Linklater, 2001,
p.150). Moreover, it helps to analyse relations of power and inequality, and exposes some of
the limitations of traditional International Relations theory in both its liberal and realist
manifestations.

References:

Marx, Karl. Manifesto of the Communist Party (共產黨宣言). Hyweb Technology

Co. Ltd., 2011.
Viotti, Paul R., and Mark V. Kauppi. International relations theory. Rowman &
Littlefield, 2019.
Kubálková, Vendulka, and Albert Cruickshank. Marxism-Leninism and the theory of
international relations. Routledge, 1980.
Burchill, Scott, et al. Theories of international relations. Macmillan International
Higher Education, 2013.
Lawson, Stephanie. Theories of international relations: Contending approaches to
world politics. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Goehlert, Robert. Anarchism: A Bibliography of Articles 1900–1975. Political
Theory 4.1, 1976.

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 Sanders, David, and Richard Carver. The struggle for health: medicine and the
politics of underdevelopment. The struggle for health: medicine and the politics of
underdevelopment, 1985.
Curtiss, John S., and Alex Inkeles. Marxism in the U.S.S.R.--The Recent Revival.
Political Science Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3, 1946, pp. 349–364. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2144639.

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