ABSTRACT
The role of the Marxist-Leninist tradition of ideas in Soviet Russia, argues Barrington Moore, has been to identify the important questions relevant to the ideology of means and to provide acceptable ways of asking them. A glance at Soviet Politics tends to confirm the argument that Moore's work as a whole displays considerable thematic unity. In Soviet Politics, functionalist considerations are very evident. In Soviet Politics, through a remarkable synthesis of historical, sociological and psychological perspectives, Moore provides an explanation of the development of Soviet Russia up until 1950. Moore makes a distinction between the Bolshevik 'ideology of ends' which envisaged 'the creation of a state in which eventually every cook could govern' and the 'ideology of means' which specified the organisational techniques by which the party would capture and retain power. Of particular interest to Moore are the reactions of landlords and peasants since their involvement in the established rural structures was greatest.
