Describing the extreme weakness of the Communist Party in the Russian countryside as of 1928, Stephen Kotkin writes: "Siberia counted only 1,331 party cells even in its 4,009 village soviets (and far from every village had a functioning soviet). Moreover, what constituted a 'party cell' remained unclear: one Orthodox Church soviet in Western Siberia denounced the local party cell for its card-playing and careerism; *another rural party cell was found to be holding seances to communicate with the spirit of Karl Marx.*" [my emphasis--DT] *Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928* http://www.rulit.me/books/stalin-volume-i-paradoxes-of-power-1878-1928-read-379183-222.html
Marxism-Spiritualism, anyone?
Before you dismiss this as ASB, remember that consulting the dead was not unknown in Soviet political history. As an old Bolshevik woman said to the 22nd Party Congress:
"My heart is always full of Lenin. Comrades, I could survive the most difficult moments only because I carried Lenin in my heart, and always consulted him on what to do. Yesterday I consulted him. He was standing there before me as if he were alive, and he said: 'It is unpleasant to be next to Stalin, who did so much harm to the party.'..." https://books.google.com/books?id=0E_5dMU_zMQC&pg=PA66
One should also note that the Soviets were actually interested in research into the paranormal; see https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/us-and-soviet-spooks-studied-parano-2008-10-29/
"Soviet research on telepathy dates from the early 1920s when a program was established at the Institute for Brain Research at Leningrad State University. The Soviets appear to have been fascinated with telepathy, which they called "biological communication," as a ship-to-shore way of communicating with submarines without using electronic equipment. They also considered training their cosmonauts to develop and use precognitive abilities to "foresee and to avoid accidents in space."
"It seems the Soviets also were quite taken with the possibility of psychokinesis (using mental imagery to move objects) as a way of "disrupting the electrical systems associated with an ICBM's [intercontinental ballistic missile] guidance program."
"The Soviets were more inclined than American scientists to believe that paranormal phenomena might be the result of "bioenergetics," or the energy given off by the metabolic processes of living things. This theory stated that people exuded "bioplasma," (a theoretical energy field) that, under certain conditions, was capable of emitting charged coherent radiation beyond the body surface in the form of electrons and possibly protons.
"Although the Soviets did not reach a consensus on the existence of bioplasma, RAND concluded, "the very pursuit of this theory indicates that Soviet parapsychologists were attempting to explain alleged paranormal phenomena with a greater degree of specificity than their Western counterparts."
Now if they just "discovered" that at least in the case of "geniuses" like Marx and Lenin, the bioplasma was so strong that it even survived the disintegration of the body, and that the Party, armed with the teachings of psychic science--"which are completely compatible with dialectical materialism"--had a unique ability to communicate with Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc.... (Of course with Lenin the preservation of his brain might make the process easier.)
Marxism-Spiritualism, anyone?
Before you dismiss this as ASB, remember that consulting the dead was not unknown in Soviet political history. As an old Bolshevik woman said to the 22nd Party Congress:
"My heart is always full of Lenin. Comrades, I could survive the most difficult moments only because I carried Lenin in my heart, and always consulted him on what to do. Yesterday I consulted him. He was standing there before me as if he were alive, and he said: 'It is unpleasant to be next to Stalin, who did so much harm to the party.'..." https://books.google.com/books?id=0E_5dMU_zMQC&pg=PA66
One should also note that the Soviets were actually interested in research into the paranormal; see https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/us-and-soviet-spooks-studied-parano-2008-10-29/
"Soviet research on telepathy dates from the early 1920s when a program was established at the Institute for Brain Research at Leningrad State University. The Soviets appear to have been fascinated with telepathy, which they called "biological communication," as a ship-to-shore way of communicating with submarines without using electronic equipment. They also considered training their cosmonauts to develop and use precognitive abilities to "foresee and to avoid accidents in space."
"It seems the Soviets also were quite taken with the possibility of psychokinesis (using mental imagery to move objects) as a way of "disrupting the electrical systems associated with an ICBM's [intercontinental ballistic missile] guidance program."
"The Soviets were more inclined than American scientists to believe that paranormal phenomena might be the result of "bioenergetics," or the energy given off by the metabolic processes of living things. This theory stated that people exuded "bioplasma," (a theoretical energy field) that, under certain conditions, was capable of emitting charged coherent radiation beyond the body surface in the form of electrons and possibly protons.
"Although the Soviets did not reach a consensus on the existence of bioplasma, RAND concluded, "the very pursuit of this theory indicates that Soviet parapsychologists were attempting to explain alleged paranormal phenomena with a greater degree of specificity than their Western counterparts."
Now if they just "discovered" that at least in the case of "geniuses" like Marx and Lenin, the bioplasma was so strong that it even survived the disintegration of the body, and that the Party, armed with the teachings of psychic science--"which are completely compatible with dialectical materialism"--had a unique ability to communicate with Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc.... (Of course with Lenin the preservation of his brain might make the process easier.)
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