"Reálný socialismus"
Lubomír Sochor, edited and introduced by Ivan Landa (Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought III, no. 1 (2019): 171–200
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Keywords: Real socialism, liturgical Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism, alienation, ritual
Here we reprint a previously inaccessible, and now revised, English translation of a 1983 article by Lubomír Sochor, in which Sochor explores the conservative features of “real socialism.” He defends the claim that the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which is allegedly becoming real, is progressively emptied and transformed into repressive ritual. This transformation, termed by Sochor as “liturgization,” is further described in detail and illustrated through examples. Finally, the question is raised whether people can or even do realize their conceptions of the good life through ritualized practices.
Ivan Landa introduces the text with a brief presentation of Sochor's intellectual development, which culminated in a book project on theories of Stalinism. Although the project remained unfinished, from the extant material one can conclude that Sochor was interested not only in the historical genesis of intellectual Stalinism (“Marxism-Leninism”), or in its ideal-typical reconstruction, but above all in the pragmatics of Stalinism.
doi for Ivan Landa's introduction: 10.46957/con.2019.2.10
doi for Lubomír Sochor's text "Real Socialism": 10.46957/con.2019.2.11
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