From Marx To Lenin: Establishment Of The "Socialist Ideology"

The "ideology" was a major theoretical and practical issues in the historic process of the socialist revolution and construction and reform all at times, which bore on the overall interests of the party and state. The Party always attached importance to the development of socialist ideology. However, in the primary marxism, ideology was a social phenomenon to need urgently to eliminate and the concept had the meaning of negativeness. Then there wasn't a construction question on ideology. So there was a becoming for the concept in the history of marxism. In what sense marxists changed the stand from criticism by theory to positive construction on ideology, and when and in what sense the concept socialist ideology came into existence. Taking the socialist ideology as main clue, this paper makes systemic scholarly re-organization on the historical process from establishing the basic principle on ideology to constructing the theory of socialist ideology, which happened during the history of the construction and the development of marxism. In this paper, we put the concept socialist ideology into the history of marxism and try to understand it under the certain historic circumstances. By the historical analysis of the concept socialist ideology, the text discusses mainly the historical background of the appearance of the concept and how marxists dispose the ideology and the function for socialist ideology in the socialist movement.Carrying on the traditional thought of the Europe over hundreds of years, Marx and Engels pioneered the marxism, which had its principle on ideology. Standing at the top of the liberation of mankind, they thought all kinds of theories and ideological systems contented themselves with explaining the word and called them "ideologies". They worked hard to deconstruct and subvert the ideologies completely. By the deconstruction, especially the critique of the socialist ideology, Marx and Engels established the basic principle on ideology, which was to seek truth from facts and to proceed from reality. Acting up to the principle, they adjusted the ideology strategy and tactics according to the new historical conditions. They considered there was a transition period before the communism, when the weapon of critique needed to construct positively. Then Engels made great efforts in the systematization of marxism in his later years. The Second International kept on the work. When the content of marxism couldn't provide ready answers to the new questions they faced, the Second International continued to adjust the ideology strategy and tactics acting up to the principle of seeking truth from facts. However, because of the difference in the understanding of historical materialism and theoretical commitments in view of different assessment of the situation, the orthodox marxist understood marxism by a rigid way of thinking while Bernstein deserted the communist ideals. So they didn't solve the practical dilemma for marxism both. By ways of making cutting remarks about the Second International, the early representatives of Western Marxism pioneered another thought tradition on ideology. They also observed the principle of seeking truth from facts and tried to re-comprehend marxism. They analyzed capitalism from the point of view of cultural critique and strived to find out the realistic approaches to get out of trouble in the area of ideology for the humanity. At the same time, observing the marxist principle on ideology, Lenin integrated marxism with the concrete practice in Russia and developed marxism to solve the practical new problems faced by Russia. In the process of seizing power, Lenin formulated the socialist ideology concept, which was indicated the marxism. He pointed out marxism was a scientific ideology and should be inculcated to wage a tit-for-tat struggle against the capitalist ideology. From then there was a new question that the socialist ideology should be constructed from the positive side. After the dictatorship of the proletariat was established, as an important link of the state political power, the socialist ideology had its specific content. At first the ideology concept was used in critical significance and then the socialist ideology concept was putted forward. When the original ideas didn't fit in with the actual situation of revolution, Lenin solved the contradiction between the critical principle and the constructive practices about ideology in the marxism successfully. Then marxist ideology theory entered into a new stage of social development.Therefore, the socialist ideology concept was proposed as an ideological system which was opposed to the capitalist ideology from historical clue of its creation, so it was socialistic but not capitalistic. After the political power of the proletariat was established, it became the ideology in socialist society, which was an instrumental link in the organs of the socialist political power. So far as the contents were concerned, it was not only a world view opposing to the capitalist ideology, which expounded systematically the basic understanding about the human society for socialists, but also the profound self-examination and consciousness of the marxism, which was the fundamental judge and basic assumption about the socialism.