ABSTRACT. The article is devoted to unmasking the myth of Soviet propaganda about the existence of socialism in the USSR. To expose this myth the author uses Marxist theory and explains that politarism, designated by Karl Marx as an Asian mode of production, flourished in Soviet Russia, and not socialism. Through a new critical approach to “socialism” in the USSR and extensive theoretical analysis of previous Russian history the author puts a new face on the October Revolution of 1917. From his point of view it was not a socialist revolution but rather a politarian counterrevolution that resulted not in the rule of the proletariat but in the power of the party-state bureaucracy. The author underscores that all this mythology on socialism, socialist revolution, dictatorship of the proletariat continues to be repeated in the pages of modern historiography. pp. 54–75

Keywords: socialism; the USSR; history of Russia; social mythology; Marxism; politarism

How to cite: Grinëv, Andrei Val’terovich (2016), “Was there Socialism in the USSR? Regarding Myths in Russian Historiography,” Geopolitics, History, and International Relations 8(1): 54–75.

Received 12 May 2015 • Received in revised form 12 August 2015
Accepted 13 August 2015 • Available online 1 October 2015

doi:10.22381/GHIR8120163