History of Communist Doctrines

Communist doctrine first appears in a religious form: religion, with its authority, sanctifies already disappeared or disappeared forms, which seemed beautiful because of the belief that the golden age is behind. The kingdom of the gods, according to legend, was a time of complete domination of communism. Fraternal life in communism was led by many priests of the ancient world (in Memphis , Thebes , Delphi , Eleusis , Samothrace ), Gallic druids and Jewish prophets . The same regime was practiced in Buddhist monasteries. The communist teachings of the Chinese philosophers Yang Zhu and Mo-di were also distinguished by their moral and religious character, of which the latter demanded a community of property, wives and children.

In Greece, communism was expressed in social novels that did not reach us, idealizing the social life of barbarians , such as the Scythians , and attributing a communist way of life to them, as well as in the teachings of many philosophers. Faleas from Chalcedon was the first, according to Aristotle , to propose a plan for the reorganization of society on the basis of complete equality and common ownership of land. Sophists spread communist ideas. In all likelihood, it was Aristophanes who portrayed them in the comedy: Society of Women ( Ἐκκλεσιάζουσαι ). Here, by the way, the following conversation occurs.

Blerus: “All owners are thieves.” Paraxogor: “Yes, at present; but under communist orders, when there are no owners, there will be no thieves. ” B .: "How?". P .: “Then what will they steal?” Everything will become common. ” B .: “And if robbers come to me at night?” P .: “Give them clothes voluntarily: from the common property you will get even the best ... All property should be shared and everyone should have their own part for life ... Everyone will have the right to everything: land, money, bread, goodies, tunics, wine, wreaths And so on".

Pythagoras gathered around himself students who, together with him, practiced a system of complete communication of property. More than 2,000 people in great Greece have learned, according to his biographer Porfiry, the communist way of thinking of Pythagoras. The principle of the Pythagoreans: inter amicos omnia communia (among friends everything is common). The Epicureans, according to Diogenes Laertius, also led a communist lifestyle. The most complete theoretical development of the communist ideal in Greece belongs to Plato . “The best state, the best government, the best laws,” he says in his conversation “On Laws,” are those that fulfill the old dictum: friends have everything in common, and if possible - common wives, common children, common estates. ” In the conversation “On the State”, Plato describes the ideal, in his opinion, social order in which the two upper classes of warriors (or guards) and rulers (or philosophers) lead a communist lifestyle and do not have property. By the labor of the third class — artisans and farmers — they satisfy their necessary needs; luxury and storage of precious metals is prohibited; their communism extends to clothing, food, housing, wives and children. “A community of wives and children will deliver the greatest good. Everyone will see in another a sister or brother, son or daughter, father or mother. ”

The communist ideas of Pythagoras and Plato later found themselves followers in the person of Apollonius of Tyana and Plotinus , and the latter sought their practical implementation, but to no avail. Religious sects ( Essenes , Therapists ) continued to be a true refuge of communism. “All believers were together and had everything in common: they sold estates and all property, and shared it with everyone, depending on the needs of everyone” (Acts of the Apostles II, 44–45). Later, communist ideas are made available to sects that have fallen from the rule of law, but also in the church are used in monasteries. At the beginning of the II century, Karpokrat , a philosopher from Alexandria, demanded a community of wives and property, resulting, in his opinion, from the laws of nature.

A number of other sects began from Egypt and Syria: the Phibionites , Agapets, and others professing the teachings of communism. In the first century, the Nicholas , who saw voluntary prostitution as belittling the flesh and deriving property communism from the teaching and example of the apostles, came directly from among Christians.

Mazdakites

The religious and philosophical doctrine of Mazdakism became widespread in Iran and some neighboring countries in the early Middle Ages . It is named for Mazdak, the son of Bamdad - the leader of the Mazdakite movement (although the teaching itself arose at the end of the III century under the influence of the spreading Manichaeism ). The founder of the teaching is the Zoroastrian priest Zardusht-i Hurrakan, who lived during the reign of Shah Bahram V , hence the other name for this teaching - “Zarushtakan”. It was based on the ideas of the Gnostics of Karpokrat and the Roman Bundos , who moved to Iran in 300 AD. e. The main postulate of Mazdakism was that the basis of the world process is the struggle between a bright, good beginning, acting reasonably and naturally, and a dark, evil beginning, which is chaos and chance, and that this struggle will inevitably end (already in "this world") with victory "Good" over "evil."

Mazdakism contained ideas widespread in a number of sects of Iran and the Roman Empire about the need for mutual assistance, equality of property, etc. Calling for the struggle to eliminate social inequality, identified with "evil" and opposed to "good", forcible implementation of the "God-given" universal of equality, Mazdakism became at the end of the 5th century the ideology of the Mazdakite movement of peasants and the urban poor in the Sassanid state (early 490s - late 520s ).

Mazdakite communities remained in Iran, Central Asia , and Azerbaijan until the 14th century . The ideas of Mazdakism were used in many popular movements of the medieval East.

Serbedar Movement

The 14th-century Serbian people’s liberation movement, which was attended by broad sections of the population of Iran and Central Asia against the Mongol-Turk nomadic nobility, took place under the ideological shell of Shiism in combination with Sufism . The ideologists of the movement were Sheikh Khalifa, who preached in the mosque of Sebzevar under the guise of Sufi teachings "innovations" and "worldly affairs" (the idea of ​​a popular uprising), and after his assassination in 1335 - Sheikh Hassan Juri. The latter gave the organization of the Serbedars the form of a dervishe order. Many artisans and peasants became the sheikhs' murids (disciples).

In the state of Serbadars, there was a struggle between the moderate wing and the left current (dervishes), who sought property and social equality. The rulers of the state were compelled to reckon with this left current until 1364 , when the moderate wing defeated its opponents. This circumstance weakened the state of the Serbedars in Khorasan and ultimately led to its liquidation by Timur (1381).

Religious Communism

In the fifth century, communism was preached by Pelagius , who claimed that the rich would not be allowed into the kingdom of God. His teachings spread to Africa, Palestine, Sicily, Gaul and Britain. At the same time, communism is propagated in Persia by the prophet Mazdak and then perceived by the Arabs, among whom several communist sects arise. In the 7th – 8th centuries, the Manichaeans brought upon themselves the persecution, who taught that matter was the beginning of all evil and deduced from this the obligatory nature of complete communism. Despite the fact that they were executed up to 100 thousand, the sect did not disappear for a long time and had a great influence on subsequent movements. In 1030, heretics were burned in Turin, who were brought before the court: omnem nostram possessionem cum omnibus communem habemus. Poverty and community of property is promoted in the XI and XII centuries. Cathars and Valdenese.

Around 1260, a sect of so-called Fraticelli (brothers) appeared in Ancona, who left the monasteries as a result of licentious monastic life and wandered throughout Italy and France, teaching that the necessary condition for salvation is the refusal of private property. After the persecutions to which this sect was subjected to Boniface VIII and John XXII, the Fraticelli disappeared, but their name continued to be applied to many communist sects of the subsequent time and, by the way, to the Beggards who played the same role in Germany as the Fraticelli in Italy. In the second half of the 13th century, other communist sects also spread - the so-called apostles, headed by Gerardo Segarelli , who was burned at the stake in 1304, and dolchinists, followers of Dolcino , a student of Sagarelli, who shared the fate of his teacher.

The teachings of the humiliates or pauperes catholici, the Beginians and brothers and sisters of a free spirit were distinguished by their communist, but not so oppositional character. The sect of the latter was a fragment of the Beggards and relied in its communist tendencies on pantheistic teaching, according to which each soul is the abode of God, and matter is hostile to it; therefore, a person who wants to have fellowship with God must renounce everything unspiritual.

At the end of the 15th century, the sermon of the Czech prophet Bohemia gained immense popularity. “Princes, spiritual and secular,” he said, “will have only what the people will have, and then all will have enough; it comes to the point that princes and gentlemen will work like day laborers. Fish in water and game in the field will belong to everyone; taxes, corvee, interest, quitrents, tithes to the spiritual and secular masters will be abolished. ” The preaching of Bohemia paved the way for the spread of Anabaptism , as it was a political and social movement. According to the teachings of the Anabaptists, “a Christian should not have any property; among Christians, a community of property should be established, as was the case in apostolic times. ” Some Anabaptists also demanded a community of wives (subsequently partially implemented by John Leiden ), translating the Gospel order: “Give to the asking one” with the words: “give to the asking one”. The defeated, the Anabaptists dispersed, but their teachings for a long time still worried the peasant population of Germany, Holland and Switzerland. In Moravia, it led to the founding of a colony practicing peaceful, friendly communism in its dormitory. Hostile historians have attributed communist tendencies to many other religious sects of the reformation era, but with respect to most, it is completely unfair. Communists of Hernguters , who do not deny private property when living and working together, and especially the famous Paraguayan Jesuit colonies , which in reality are nothing more than a peculiar organization of forced serfdom, are also called Communist communities.

Religious philosopher Pavel Florensky wrote about communism:

The idea of ​​a dormitory, as a joint life in complete love, unity of mind and economic unity - whether it will be called in Greek cinematography or in Latin - communism, which is always so close to the Russian soul and shining in it as the coveted commandment of life, was raised and embodied in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra by Rev. Sergius .

- Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and Russia ^[1]

Utopian Communism

In addition to the ascetic communism of the above-mentioned sects and revolutionary communism of the Anabaptists, the Middle Ages, already at the dawn of a new time, gave rise to materialistic communism, expressed primarily in the "Utopia" of Thomas More , which dominated during the 17th-18th centuries and received the most acute expression in the Baböf conspiracy. Inspired by Plato, but to an even greater extent - by the economic disasters of contemporary English life, Thomas More painted in his Utopia (1518), this most remarkable of all social novels, the materialistic-communist ideal (in the totality of the ideas Utopia developed in it belongs to however, more to the history of socialism , see Utopian socialism ). The population of the fantastic country portrayed by the Sea does not conduct trade and has no money, but receives everything necessary from the state, in exchange for a 6-hour compulsory labor. Enslavement of people, according to Mora, is a consequence of private property. The most perfect public order is the one that gives the best satisfaction to all the needs of the greatest number of people. Having become widespread, the “Utopia” of Mora earned the approval of some of the most educated people of that time (for example, Erasmus of Rotterdam ) and caused a number of imitations. The nearest is “I mondi celesti, terrestri e infernali” (1552), Doni.

More original successor of Mora was Campanella , in his fantastic novel "Civitas soli" (1620) brought communism to the extreme (common wives) and at the same time gave it a theocratic connotation.

Of the later communist utopias, mention is made of: The History of Sevarambes (Histoire des Sevarambes, 1677), Verassa, The Adventures of Jacques Sadera (Les aventures de Jacques Sade ur dans la dé couverte des terres Australes, 1693), Gabriel Fouagni and The Basiliade (Naufrage des iles flottantes ou la Basiliade de Pilpa ï, 1753), Morelli . Seeing the inequality of property as the root of all evil, Morelli demands that the distribution of products should be based not on labor, but on people's needs; except needs, and all their passions must also be fully satisfied. This leads Morelli to the proclamation of marriage communism. Having described the ideal communist system in the Basiliade, in the essay Code of Nature (Code de la nature ou le v éritable ésprit des lois, de tous temps négligé et mé connu, 1755) he puts his thoughts into a dogmatic form. Three main laws are recommended by Morelli for the reorganization of society: the first - property is abolished, the second - every person is considered as an official, as an official, and third - every citizen is obliged to contribute to the common good. To receive food from the state is the right, work is the responsibility of citizens.

To a certain extent, communist ideas were expressed by priest Jean Mellier in his Testament (1760), published with the pass of communist places, by Voltaire , as an anti-religious document.

We find a more coherent, but not inconsistent communist system in the writings of Mably : Entretiens de Phocion (1763), De la lé gislation on principes des lois (1776) and Droits et devoirs du citoyen (1789). “Ownership leads to division into classes,” says Mably. The rich always prefer their personal good to the good over the public, and the poor cannot love a government that leaves them in poverty. A community of property alone creates good citizens. ” However, Mably does not hope for the full implementation of his ideas; it seems to him that “greed and ambition will always hinder the legislator’s business”, which he proposes to follow mainly the example of Lycurgus . Considering the goal of life is not pleasure, but virtue, Mably, unlike Mohr and his followers, gives his communism a somewhat ascetic character and recommends “moderation” to people. Lycurgus’s legislation (the communist character of which was greatly exaggerated by French writers of the eighteenth century) seemed exemplary to more than one Mably: in the Encyclopedia Lycurgus was called “the philosopher who knew the nature of man better than anyone else”. Inspired at that time by the "Republic" of Plato and the primitive communism of the island of Crete . In drafting the constitution, Gero de Sichelle also searched the Paris library of the genuine laws of Minos to put them in the foundation of French law.

Communist Ideas of the French Revolution

The main figures of the Great French Revolution were alien to communism and even hostile to it; but nevertheless, in this era, communist ideas had their representatives. Francois Boissel (1728-1807), a lawyer, speaker of the Jacobin clubs, demanded complete equality, and as a condition for it - common property and product sharing in accordance with the needs. Marat in his philippics against the "money aristocracy" sometimes agreed on such thoughts: "equality of rights should lead to equality of pleasure; only this can calm down the thought. " The author of Cath échisme des athé es, a collaborator of Babeuf and the true author of the Babuvist manifesto, Silvan Marechal, formulated his communism with the following words: “there is no longer private ownership of land! We demand the total consumption of the earthly fruits belonging to all ”... Babeuf himself first stood on the point of view of the division of land and complete property equality. “Actual equality,” he wrote, “is not a chimera. The practical experience of its implementation was happily undertaken by the great tribune of Lycurgus. ” The “equal club” organized by Babeuf and soon closed by the government differed in certain communist tendencies, and even in 1796 there was a conspiracy between Babeuf, Darte and others to overthrow the republican government and create a new state form on a communist basis. “We wish,” the manifesto of the conspirators said, “common property or common property.” There is no longer private ownership of land, land is a draw. The fruits belong to everyone ... Let there be no other difference between people, except for the difference in gender and age ... Nature gave each person an equal right to enjoy all the benefits. Work and pleasures must be shared by people. ” With the suppression of the Baboeuf conspiracy, by 1799 and especially in the early 19th century. utopian communism and socialism in France represented by Charles Fourier .

Owen Communities in England

In England, philanthropist and socialist Robert Owen , who first proposed setting up colonies for the unemployed, began to recommend the communist communities as a complete solution to the working issue in the mid-1820s, and he himself undertook several unsuccessful experiments of this kind in America (in Indiana and Mexico ). There are 11 communist character communities founded by its followers; all were short-lived. However, Owen's theoretical doctrine belongs entirely to socialism.

Early Mormonism

The ideas of social justice and the socialization of all property dominated the Mormon church at an early stage, when preacher Sidney Rigdon enjoyed great influence in it. When Rigdon was excommunicated as a result of the successor crisis , Mormons gradually abandoned the practice of socializing property.

Communist Thinkers of France in the First Half of the 19th Century

Buonarroti , a participant in the 1796 conspiracy and personal friend of Babeuf, sentenced to exile and returned to Paris only after the July Revolution, was the conductor of communist ideas in France in the 1930s. Verbally and in writing (he owns the story of Baboeuf’s conspiracy written for publicistic purposes), he promoted communism among French youth. However, even his personal participation in some secret republican societies did not give them a communist character. The starting point of modern French communism is 1840, when several Communist magazines began to appear almost simultaneously, and when the Voyage en Icarie of Cabe , "La Bible de la Libérté" of Abbot Constant , "L'Evangile du Peuple" of Eskiros , "Ni châteaux, ni chaumiè res »Pillo et al., who immediately discovered significant theoretical differences in the communist camp.

All communist teachings of that time can be divided into three types: 1) sentimental-ethical communism, 2) materialistic-revolutionary communism, and 3) mystical-religious communism.

The main representative of the first is Etienne Cape . The characteristic features of his teachings, which incited attacks from other communists on him, were that he expected a social coup exclusively from the peaceful dissemination of ideas, pinned great hopes on the altruistic feelings inherent in people, allowed the possibility of a transitional regime when private property is preserved, and himself professing vague deism, sought religion in religion for his system. Since 1841, the previously radical political journal Le Populaire has been made an organ of the Cape communist doctrine. He immediately had to enter into polemics with the communist materialists and communist mystics.

Cape adjoins Laponner, who founded, together with Sharon and Lagotiere , the magazine L'Intélligence. Subsequently, an employee of "Populaire", Laponner expressed here only sentimental wishes that "there were fraternal relations between entrepreneurs and day laborers," and explained the existence of the proletariat with "the egoism of some and the ignorance of others."

An intermediate place between ethical and materialistic communism is occupied by the teachings of Richard Lagotier . In his “catechism” (Petit cathéchisme de la ré forme sociale, 1839) he says: “What is property? The right granted by nature to every living thing to the things necessary to satisfy his needs. ” In his other essay: “De la loi sociale” (1841), we read: “For the normal development of the abilities of all personalities we need: equality in the means of subsistence, proportional equality, distributing labor according to forces, food - according to needs, education - according to abilities." The magazine La Fratérnité (1841–1843), published by Lagotiere, rebelled against the extremes of materialist communism.

The most remarkable representative of the latter is Desami , first a personal friend and employee of Kabe, then his most fierce opponent. In opposition to Kaba, he did not believe in the power of love and believed that a good economic system was enough to intelligently regulate human egoism. The like-minded Desami, Abbot Pillo , demanded in his pamphlet: “Ni cháteaux, ni chaumières” forcibly enforcing communist principles; he suggested treating opponents of communism as obsessed with violent insanity. L'Humanitaire (1841), a journal of workers belonging to Société des travailleurs égalitaires, also adhered to materialistic communism. The banquet, organized in 1840 by the Desami Pillo group, attracted 1,200 people.

Representatives of mystical-religious communism were the abbot Constant , Eskiros , Dumenil , Didier, Desjardins and others. Seeing the full social code in the Gospel, Constant and his preaching of communism put the mouth of Christ. Now threatening with violence ("Bible de la Liberté", 1840) and praising Thomas Münzer ("Le Testament de la Liberté", 1848), then calling mankind for love and for "true" religion ("Le livre des larmes ou le Christ consolateur ", 1845), Constant demands the establishment of a" Christian community of property "(communaut é chré tienne). K. is not free from contradictions: he also speaks of the association of labor with capital, leaving this latter in private possession. Constantine calls his teaching neocatolic communism. The poet, novelist and author of pedagogical works, Eskiros , in his anonymously published essay “L'Evangile du Peuple” (1840), presented a revolutionary communist commentary on the Gospel. His communism, although frank, is mystical and foggy.

The communist writings of Dumenil are also distinguished by the prophetic, mystical character. In "Livre des Communistes" (1845) by René Didier, communist ideas are already expressed in the form of some kind of painful nonsense. Desjardins, in the essay: “De l'Organization de la Fraternité ou d'une constitution à donner aux peuples” (1848), advocates moderate and eclectic communism based on two formulas: à chacun selon ses besoins and à chacun selon ses oeuvres "; from this deduces equality in the necessary and in accordance with the merits surplus. The implementation of communism in the life of Desjardins expects "legislative activity of the people's representatives." Frenois also shares the latter opinion, speaking in the pamphlet Système unitaire ou lettres philosophiques et encyclopédiques (1840), for a special kind of communism, centralized, and calling itself "unitary."

The total number of all communists in France, in 1844, exceeded, according to their adversary, Proudhon , 100 thousand people. The greatest number of adherents, especially in the working class, was Cape. His teachings were also brought to Germany , Switzerland , England , Spain and the United States .

Communes in the USA

Cape himself made the experience of the practical implementation of his ideas in the USA , for which in 1847 a million acres of land was bought in Texas and the resettlement of French workers there was organized. After a series of setbacks at the site of the proposed colony, the emigrants settled in New Orleans , where Cape came to them, organizing a new colony of 280 people in Nova ( Illinois ). Thanks to the hard work of the settlers, the affairs of the Ikari community went well and until 1855 its population increased, reaching the number of 500 members. But this year there were disagreements and discontent against Kabe, who had appropriated dictatorial power. He was arrested and expelled from the colony, after which 200 people followed him to St. Louis ( Missouri ), where a new dormitory was founded, which only briefly survived its founder. Meanwhile, the Ikarians who remained in Novo, having resettled in Iowa , set up a new agricultural colony here on republican-communist grounds. Zemler, who visited her in 1879, talks about the then aspiration for a per capita section that manifested itself in the young generation.

Regardless of Cape, in the years 20–40 a whole series of other communist communities arose in America, mainly of a religious nature. The largest wealth in Iowa was achieved by the Amani society , made up of Germans who resettled in 1842, united by religious fanaticism. There, up to 1600 people occupied and cultivated about 30,000 acres , enforcing the strict principles of ascetic communism.

Communities of perfectionists or Biblical Communists (their founder, John Noyes ), who renounced allegiance to the United States, rejected property and marriage, and established gender equality, have the same character; then the community of Zohar separatists ( Ohio ), the “economy” of harmonists (followers of George Rapp ) and many others.

A common feature of all American communist experiences is their extreme fragility and the religious fanaticism of their founders; some, moreover, were distinguished by a particularly consistent implementation of communist principles that applied not only to property, but also to marriage.

Communist ideas in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland

Отголосками французского коммунизма в Бельгии являются статьи Иоттранда в газете «Courrier Belge», в Швейцарии и Германии — агитация и сочинения подмастерья портняжного цеха Вильгельма Вейтлинга . В своём главном сочинении: «Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit», Вейтлинг эклектически соединил мысли Кампанеллы, Бабёфа, Оуэна, Кабе и Фурье. Эта смесь социализма с коммунизмом привела его к репартиционной формуле Дежардена, независимо от последнего. Труд умственный приравнивается Вейтлингом к труду физическому, а для точного исчисления затраченного каждым количества труда предлагаются особые бухгалтерские книги. В Швейцарии агитация Вейтлинга привела к образованию тайного коммунистического клуба, мечтавшего о кровавом перевороте и имевшего своих агентов в различных государствах. В Германии в это же время коммунистические идеи проникли в литературные круги и нашли некоторую опору в философии Фейербаха .

До середины XIX века обычно проводилось чёткое различие между социализмом и коммунизмом . Представители этих учений не соглашались с друг с другом и создавали разные организации.

В 1847 году в Лондоне из остатков коммунистического клуба создан был, для целей мирной пропаганды, союз коммунистов , куда вошли Маркс и Энгельс ; в качестве программы Союза, после его второго конгресса, ими был издан Коммунистический манифест , переведённый на все европейские языки и получивший громадную известность. Представляя собой первую формулировку основных принципов научного социализма, Коммунистический манифест заимствует у коммунизма его идеал, а у социализма — экономическое учение и многие практические требования, причём последние занимают первое место, а коммунизм отступает на второй план.

Марксизм провозгласил ближайшей целью создание пролетарского государства и отмену крупной частной собственности на средства производства . Основным принципом такого государства провозглашался лозунг « От каждого по его способностям, каждому — по его труду », при этом сохраняется оплата труда и денежное распределение товаров. Строй, в котором собственником средств производства является государство, обычно называется социализмом . В далёкой перспективе Маркс предсказывал появление системы, основанной на принципе «каждый по способностям, каждому по потребностям» ^[2] , которую обычно называли коммунизмом , а некоторые современные марксисты — полным коммунизмом . Сам Маркс назвал коммунизмом общественно-экономическую формацию, основанную на общественной собственности на средства производства, первой стадией которого является социализм, а высшей — коммунизм. Таким образом, марксистский термин «коммунизм» объединяет эти две системы.

С конца XIX века и по наше время наиболее значительными коммунистическими идеологиями являются анархо-коммунизм и марксизм . В XX веке на основе марксизма появились такие коммунистические учения, как ленинизм , троцкизм и маоизм .

• Водовозов Н. В. Коммунизм // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.