The formation of the Soviet Union was initially based on a gradual transition to a communist society, but over the years of its existence it has not been possible to achieve its goal. But we can safely say that in the USSR they built a socialist society that meets almost all the basic principles inherent in the concept. Initially, this kind of society was considered only a small step leading to a bright communist future, but over time it became a completely separate concept.
The rise of socialism
In order to understand what the socialist system of society is, the first thing to do is reject it as a concept that appeared exclusively in the 20th century. History draws our attention at least to the existence of two states, which basically had echoes of socialism.
- Ancient Mesopotamia, which became one of the first states that arose on Earth. It was based on the power of temples, around which ordinary people gathered. The full-flowing rivers gave an impetus to the active development of agriculture, and as a result, the territory was divided immediately into several small states. However, numerous cuneiform tablets have come down to our time, which make it possible to know the economic side: all cultivated products were sent to a warehouse, from where they were distributed to every worker, and at that time they could not own land.
- The Incan empire before the period of conquest also resembled a socialist society: almost none of the inhabitants of this state had property in their property, and the concept of private property or money as such did not exist. Trade was not considered a significant occupation. Everything was controlled by the king, so that the whole territory was considered state property and granted for use.
Having gone deep into history, one can find a huge number of similar examples both in the Middle Ages and in the New Age.
The essence of socialist society
There are many concepts that scientists put into the concept of socialism. However, the base is a political and economic system of government, the basis of which is the predominance of society over everything. All production and distribution of income falls not on the shoulders of individual leaders, but of ordinary people in their mass.
It is believed that in developed socialist society, instead of private property prevailing in capitalism, it is public property that plays the main role, and the individual and the state itself are fading into the background. It is the collective that becomes paramount.
Fundamentals of the Political Model
Over the centuries, the idea of a socialist society has gradually changed. As a result, we obtained the following theoretical foundations of this type of state:
- the complete abolition of private property and the transfer of control over the personality of collective bureaucratic power;
- the destruction of not only property, but also the institutions of marriage, religion and the family themselves (for a long time even the exchange of wives and children lay in the basic concept).
A similar model was proposed only theoretically, and in practice has never been implemented even in the early centuries. There are huge differences between the theoretical and practical model of socialism.
The ideas embodied in socialism
Now it is generally accepted that socialist society is considered a phenomenon of the 20th century, which appeared in opposition to capitalism in the West or arose on the basis of the behavior of residents of Arab or African countries.
However, based on history, one can understand the basic idea that scientists laid in socialism. They believe that a person is initially predisposed for collective work, therefore, for the work done, he can safely receive a share of the benefits received by all of society. But at the same time, able-bodied citizens must also provide segments of the population such as the disabled or pensioners who cannot take care of themselves through equal distribution.
The very idea of such a society, where all people are completely equal, and class inequality does not exist in principle, seems incredibly attractive to many. All the needs of ordinary citizens are met completely free of charge: education, medicine, recreation, culture. It is assumed that the individual is completely satisfied with what he receives and does not want to achieve more or to realize himself.
Principles
The principles of universal justice and equality between any members of society, regardless of the tasks they perform, always always form the basis of a socialist state. The main positions are as follows:
- the priority of society over an individual: any person is completely dependent on the collective and all his actions are aimed at his good;
- the complete elimination of any class inequality;
- collectivism: all people in society are interconnected by close bonds of brotherhood;
- replacement of private property by public;
- planned economy - the entire economy is fully regulated by the state itself.
It should be borne in mind that there are various types of socialist society: utopian, peasant, Marxist and others. Each of them can raise a number of other features as a priority, however, the ones listed above are the basis for any.
Utopian socialism
All the ideas of socialist society were built precisely on the basis of utopia. Thomas More in his work on the ideal state did not lay down the laws of social development as the basis of the transformations of society. Therefore, utopian socialism sharply criticized capitalist society and dreamed of destroying it, but at the same time did not offer a real way out of the situation.
This kind of socialism was based on the equality and brotherhood of people, which was preached by the early Christians, harsh criticism of the bourgeoisie and the recognition of state power as the main stimulator of the development of the socialist system of society. Pestilence proposed to build a social system of an absolutely perfect kind - complete freedom, equality and fraternity for any person.
Marxist socialism
For the first time, Marx and Engels began to turn the theoretical utopian model of socialism into a science that can be applied at least a little in practice. They believed that in the course of normal historical development after the class struggle of the proletariat, which called all working people to themselves, a socialist society could be built.
In Marxist theory, socialism was considered only one of the steps by which the capitalist state can become communist. That is, only an auxiliary role was assigned to him. Both economists recognized that this type of society must possess some features of capitalism, and therefore all the results of labor should be distributed according to the contribution made by the individual worker. This kind of socialism was based on the principle of equivalence, but personal property could not be anything but individual consumer products. And private enterprise should be criminally punishable.
Stages of development
In modern literature there is quite conflicting information about how the construction of a socialist society should take place. However, two main stages can still be distinguished:
- dictatorship of the proletariat;
- nationwide society.
It is not customary to single out a special stage during which the reorganization of society into a nation-wide takes place directly. This is still the cause of numerous disputes between scientists. For some of them distinguish the third stage - overgrowing.
