ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union has now survived for almost six decades. Throughout this period it has captured attention as one of the most interesting political phenomena of modern times. It was the first country to carry through a long planned for, and much publicized, Marxist socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks, having captured State power, set in train vast social, cultural, economic, and political changes on a scale unknown since Peter the Great. These reforms were not ad hoc political expedients but were rooted in a systematic, coherent theory of society and a novel view of the nature of man. The basic doctrine behind these revolutionary changes rejects all the traditional solutions of social and intellectual problems – this explains why ‘the Russian Experiment’ continues to attract the fascinated attention of outsiders. Marxist ideas have a dynamic quality such that a large number of other nations have followed the Russian model. The question is whether indeed this new form of society and the views which go along with it represent the shape of the future for the whole of mankind.
