THE ANATOMY OF COMMUNISM

by AndrewM. Scott '45. Philosophical Library,1951, 197 pp., $3.00.

This small book is an attempt to demolish the entire Marxist system of thought and to expose as false its application to Soviet Russia by Lenin and Stalin. Blow after blow is dealt at the false logic and psychology of Marx and Engels, especially with regard to "class" and "class consciousness." Thus, for instance, the existence of a proletarian class, as assumed by Marx, and still more of a single class will, is denied as being remote from reality. The author then proceeds to demonstrate the complete divorce of fact and theory in the Soviet Union. In the absence of a proletarian class will, the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes in reality the' dictatorship of the party, and indeed of the party leader. Marxism in fact becomes an "instrument of control, since its interpretation by Lenin and now Stalin enables them to justify their own policies as correctly Marxist and to denounce alternative policies as "un-Marxist." thus emerges as "evil masquerading as good.

This brief and sometimes over-simplified analysis of a very complex set of doctrines contains some acute insights concerning weak points of Marxism and its Soviet descendants. Its argument, persuasive in its very simplicity, may however not fully reflect the complexity of Marxist-Leninist thought and of social reality in Russia. A black-and-white doctrine is frequently countered by the denial that black is white, without meeting the real issue as to whether the truth is or is not a shade of grey. For instance, to deny the existence of complete identity of will of a class is one thing, but to assert that class consciousness is devoid of all factual basis is quite another, and would require not merely an analysis on the philosophical level, but a thorough historical and sociological analysis of western and Soviet institutions.