Competing Projects of Socialism in the USSR During the Period of Political Romanticism Part II. Socialism Without Economics: Constructivism and Dystopia

Abstract

The article is the second part of the work devoted to the period of political romanti­cism in the USSR in the third quarter of the XX century. A characteristic feature of this period is large-scale theoretical discussions around the concept of socialism and projects of socialist construction. The article examines the options for the non-eco­nomic interpretation of the Soviet experiment: the constructivist project of creating a “new man”, “progressor”, offered by G.P. Shchedrovitsky and the romantic dys­topia of A. Zinoviev, who describes communism-socialism as a paradoxical mutation of the social order, which uses Western technology, but generally opposes civilization as such. It is shown that despite the historical defeat in the dispute with the “pragma­tists”, the “romantics” had a great influence on the collective cognitive structures of the Soviet society. The understanding of socialism they formed largely hindered the development of “compromise”, hybrid political and economic programs and did not allow options for liberalization, privatization and movement along the so-called Chi­nese path.