.. Soviet Philosophy Probably was Dangerous

This blog entry is here completely by proxy. In the previous one I pondered German philosophy and its connections to German political ideas. Then I came across Dr Jari Leskinen's book "Towards socialism, The Marxist Pilot Project at Pirkkala Schools" that has raised some eyebrows in Finland.*

Dr Leskinen, a historian, explains that in the early 1970's the Finnish Social Democratic Party** had lots of representatives in the Ministry of Education and its Elementary School section. At the same time, Finnish universities had some active leftist social science researchers. With the funding of the said Elementary School Section, a group of researchers started a pilot project in the municipality of Pirkkala. New and obviously very Marxist material featured in the curriculum of Geography, History and Social Studies for 7..16 year old pupils. Additionally a visitor from the Finnish Soviet Union Friendship Association*** explained merits of socialism based on material produced in Moscow (in Finnish). All this is well documented.

Leskinen thinks that the eventual goal of the pilot could have been to integrate Marxist education in the elementary/secondary school curriculum and therefore encourage the pupils to vote socialists (after the pupils had turned adults of course). Thus Finland could undergo a peaceful revolution and became socialist. This sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory and it is not as well documented.

Back to philosophy. Most of the social scientists behind the pilot seemed very convinced about the so-called marxist-leninist theory and methodology in social sciences. As an example of this Leskinen mentions that the researchers wanted to expose how the capitalist hegemony and ideology is ingrained in institutions like the [Finnish Lutheran] church and army. ****

The fun and maybe dangerous part of the dogmatic marxist-leninist philosophy appears in the Moscow published material used by the visiting lecturer (please note that this was not a part of the curriculum). The book titled "Soviet Union, Your Questions Answered" was published by Finnish Soviet Union Friendship Association, of course. A citizen of a capitalist country visiting the Soviet Union will naturally have many questions. The answers given in the book are somewhat perfect application of reasoning though the premisses and the conclusions do not necessarily have a lot to do with reality. Here are some examples (translations are ad hoc and shortened, not literal).

Q: Why is there no youth culture like rock'n'roll in the Soviet Union? A: In capitalist countries there is antagonism and generation gap because the youth still sees though the corruption but the older generation is made cynical by capitalist exploitation. In the Soviet [you can imagine the rest].

Q: Why are there no fashionable clothes and accessories? A: The Soviet system efficiently produces things that meet people's needs. Fashion is rubbish and the enlightened Soviet citizens do not want it.*****

Q: Is there pollution and environmental damage in the Soviet Union? A: In the capitalist system, means of productions are owned by the rich who only care about their profits. For them, protecting people and the environment are just a cost. In the Soviet Union, the factories are owned by people. Special care is taken [you can imagine the rest].


* Just in case anyone reads this blog: Finland was never a socialist country.
** This party resembles Labour in the UK. It's not a communist party.
*** This was much more than a club. It was a semi-official meeting point for Soviet and Finnish politicians, received lots of grants from the government and had more than 100 000 members in the 1970's.
**** In France the philosopher Louis Althusser had similar ideas. In the UK Paul Willis' Learning to Labour is quite famous.
***** Coincidence: Niall Ferguson in Civilization mentions "consumer society" as one of the "killer applications" of the West.