Abstract
Many assume the Soviet Union represented a social experiment emanating from Marx's thought. If this is so, then the abuses and failures of the Soviet system are also assumed to be the result of flaws in Marx's ideas. However, if a direct causal relationship between Leninist-Stalinism and Marx's communism is not accepted, it should be possible to demonstrate that a qualitative transformation of Marx's thought occurred after his death. This transformation, rather than Marx's own theories, culminated in the development of an authoritarian bureaucratic state. A field of associated statements exists that allows us to trace this transformation in which communist politics was altered into a rigid and formulaic dialectic stripped of Marx's flexibility, humanism and concerns over alienation and freedom.
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