Left

The terms “right” and “left” first appeared in the French National Assembly at the beginning of the French Revolution . Three camps arose in it: on the right sat the “party of aristocrats" - adherents of the old absolutism , in the center sat the felians - liberal monarchists , and on the left - the Jacobins , who advocated radical transformations. Thus, initially the right were called those who want to maintain the existing situation ( conservatives ), and the left - those who advocate change (radicals).

Until the middle of the XIX century, liberals who advocated political freedoms and rights, a departure from tradition were considered as leftists - because these ideas were not traditional and accepted in society . But then, with the development of socialist ideas, left began to be called first of all their supporters who strove for social equality . The left included social democrats and anarchists ( anarcho-communists , anarcho-syndicalists ).

When in the first half of the 20th century the Communist parties stood out from the most radical wing of Social-Democracy , they were also referred to as left ("extreme left"). However, the left has traditionally advocated the expansion of democracy and political freedoms , and the communists, who came to power first in Russia in 1917 , and then in several other countries, were opponents of bourgeois democracy and political freedoms of capitalist society (the establishment of the dictatorship of the working class , according to their opinion, can significantly expand democracy, since it becomes the democracy of the majority of the people ^{[1] [2]} ).

The views of a number of theorists of communism, who recognized the progressive significance of the October Revolution in Russia, but criticized its development, and some even rejected the socialist character of Bolshevism , seeing state capitalism in it, were called left-wing communism (ultra-left). The left opposition in the RCP (b) and the CPSU (b) in the 1920s advocated intra-party democracy, against " NEPman , the fist and the bureaucrat ", and in the first half of the 1930s called for the liquidation of ranks in the army.

Criticism of Stalinism at the 20th Congress of the CPSU , the new Soviet course for economic development under a policy of " peaceful coexistence " with capitalist countries, displeased the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong and the leader of the Albanian Labor Party, Enver Hoxha . The policy of the head of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev, was called by them revisionist . Following the Soviet-Chinese conflict, many communist parties in Europe and Latin America split into groups oriented toward the USSR and “anti-revisionist” groups oriented toward China and Albania . In the 1960s and 1970s , Maoism enjoyed considerable popularity among left-wing intelligentsia in the West, but lost popularity after Mao's death and the emergence of critical material about his politics.

In the 1960s, the so-called “ new left ” appeared in Western Europe and the USA, contrasting themselves with the “ old left ”. They protested against the lack of spirituality of the “ consumer society ”, the depersonalization of mass culture , the unification of the human person and advocated “direct democracy”, freedom of expression, and non-conformism . The social base of the "old left" was the industrial proletariat , as well as the peasantry . The new left, including in this connection, considered the "old left" obsolete and lacking prospects, at least with respect to the countries of the First and Second Worlds, in which the proletariat and peasantry increasingly lost their positions, giving way to new types of workers in post-industrial society .

According to some opinions, the bipolar political scale (“right” and “left”) does not allow to correctly reflect the views on the role of the state in controlling the life of society and the role of the state in ensuring social equality; proponents of this opinion use the four-pole scale ( Nolan chart ) proposed by the American libertarian David Nolan in 1970 ^{[3] [4]} :

• conservatives (supporters of pragmatism, hierarchy, organization and superiority of the state over the individual);
• liberals (supporters of individualism, equality and tolerance);
• libertarians (supporters of minimal state intervention in society);
• authoritarianists (advocates of tight state control over society and advocates of government participation in the redistribution of income from rich to poor).

In the era of perestroika in the last years of the existence of the USSR, the concepts of “right-wingness” and “leftism” were often used in the sense opposite to that adopted in the West. Thus, liberals and anti-communists were often called “leftists,” and traditional Orthodox communists were called “rightists.” ^[five]

Traditional ^[6] direction from left to right is determined in relation to support:

• private property ;
• enhancing the exploitation of man by man;
• strengthening power ;
• the actual consolidation of inequality : social, sexual, religious, national and similar inequality.

In this case, belonging to the left is determined in relation to:

• the socialization of essentially public means of production ;
• inadmissibility of operation ;
• reduction or limitation of power , state violence ;
• an increase in the level of equality and individual freedom, in relation to an increase in the degree of social, political, religious, sexual, national and so on equality.

• Socialist International (Social Democrats)
• Reunited Fourth International ( Trotskyists )
• Committee for the Workers International (Trotskyists)
• International Marxist trend (Trotskyists)
• International Socialist Trend (Trotskyists)
• International League of Workers (Trotskyists)
• International Communist Movement (Left Communists)
• Internationalist Communist Trend (Left Communists)
• International meetings of communist and workers parties (Stalinists)
• International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (Maoists)
• International Workers Association ( Anarcho-Syndicalists )
• International Federation of Anarchists (Anarchists)
• European anti-capitalist left - an informal network of European ultra-left organizations
• European Left - a political party founded in 2004
• European United Left / Left Green North
• Party of European Socialists
• Northern Alliance of Green and Left
• SKP-KPSS

Social Democratic Parties

Left-wing socialist and broad left parties

Communist Parties

Maoist and post-Maoist organizations

Троцкистские организации

Left National Liberation Movements

Green parties

• A.I. Zaitsev . The discussion of socialism in antiquity // Antiquity and modernity: Conference reports of the Association of Antiquologists. Moscow. October 30 - November 2, 1989. - M. - S. 24-28 .
• Einstein A. Why socialism? (1949) (English) In Russian, the article was published in the journal Communist. - 1989. - No. 17. - S. 96-100.
• Archive of political advertising. Right and left in politics
• Levenchuk A. Politicians: left, right and upper
• Filippova E. Right and left - the question of labels
• Filippova E. Right and left. Twins but not brothers
• Bobbio N. Right and Left
• Lebedev S. Left and right in the history of Russian political thought
• Voevodin M. Right and left. And what, in fact, is the difference?
• Sirinelli J.-F., Burstein S., Rousselier N. (Paris) Leftist tradition in France: past, present, future . Interview G. N. Kaninskoy // French Yearbook 2009. M., 2009.
• Dorfman M. Left needs his own myth
• Damier VV European left in the XX century: an alternative to the system or an alternative within the system? // Carlo Rosselli and the Left in Europe. On the centenary of the birth of C. Rosselli. - M .: Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1999. - S. 55-64.

Criticism

• Mises L. Socialism. Economic and sociological analysis = Socialism. An Economic and Sociological Analysis. - - Moscow: Catallaxy, 1994 .-- 416 p. - ISBN ISBN 5-86366-022-8.
• Newcom S. Soap bubbles of socialism (1890)
• Berdyaev N. Democracy, Socialism and Theocracy