Access to Advanced Education in the USSR

In: Nationalities papers: the journal of nationalism and ethnicity, Band 15, Heft 2, S. 158-183

Abstract

The goals of social progress, as perceived by Marx and Engels, are the creation of conditions for the achievement of full social equality, and the development of the abilities of all members of society. They uphold the principle that when the means of production are socialized, then the condition of ending not only class contradiction but also class distinction is created. The full realization of equality is possible only given a complex set of conditions arising at the higher stage of communist society.In 1921 Lenin admitted thet it had become apparent that the system formed in Russia after the revolution (October 1917) had suffered defeat in its attempt to introduce communist principles of production and distribution. Within this complex environment, Lenin put forward a new concept of socialism, very different from his earlier version, that allowed class distinctions and inequality to persist.