Marxism-Spiritualism?

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.)
 
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trurle

Banned
Well, Marxism-Spiritualism is possible but would be very destabilizing to the regime. I remember many (may be even majority) of older Soviet citizens (born before 1940) took spinning tables, prophecies etc very seriously.
I do not see the chance spiritualism will be officially allowed. Unless spirit-calling will be rigidly centralized and controlled. If left uncontrolled even to slightest degree, great confusion with dead authorities (Marx, Lenin etc.) issuing contradictory messages is inevitable.
 
Well, Marxism-Spiritualism is possible but would be very destabilizing to the regime. I remember many (may be even majority) of older Soviet citizens (born before 1940) took spinning tables, prophecies etc very seriously.
I do not see the chance spiritualism will be officially allowed. Unless spirit-calling will be rigidly centralized and controlled. If left uncontrolled even to slightest degree, great confusion with dead authorities (Marx, Lenin etc.) issuing contradictory messages is inevitable.
Which has to lead to extremely amusing and depressing situations. :p
 
Freudo-Marxism, anyone? Frankfurt school.

Well, I think Marcuse was the most Freudian of the Frankfurt School, and he was pretty unimpressed, albeit in a polite and good-natured way, with attempts at bringing spirituality into left-wing politics. See his comments on Norman O. Brown, for example.

But then, the very next paragraph opens with the statement: “Darkness at noon. A progressive darkening of the everyday world of common sense.” Of common sense only? Or has the darkness also descended on the “way out” which Brown has opened? The equating sequence: revolution=revelation=redemption=resurrection strikes not only at common sense but at sense. True, it is not merely common sense that is false; thus it may be an indispensable, rational task to reduce words to non-sense, “to transcend the antinomy of sense and non-sense, silence and speech” (p. 258). However, this task, if it should help us to find “the way out,” is a political task: the silence is not that of the Tibetan or any other monastery, nor of Zen, nor of mystical communion—it is the silence which precedes action, the liberating action, and it is broken by action. The rest is not silence but complacency, or despair, or escape. And when and where such action is barred, the task of reducing words to non-sense is the critique of the established language as the language of the Establishment which makes sense out of nonsense: the non-sense of its preservation and reproduction as its sole raison d’être.
 
Freudo-Marxism, anyone? Frankfurt school.

I discuss psychoanalysis in the USSR in my post at https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/psychoanalysis-flourishes-in-ussr.402544/ ("I have recently been reading the fascinating *Freud and the Bolsheviks: Psychoanalysis in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union* (Yale University Press 1998) by Martin A. Miller (incidentally, all quotes in this post are from that book unless otherwise indicated). He shows how during the early-to-mid-1920's the USSR did indeed seem to be well on the way to becoming one of the great world centers of psychoanalysis (p. xi: "Psychiatrists who had traveled to study with Freud, Carl Jung, and Karl Abraham in Western Europe organized a training institute in Moscow years before any existed in London, Paris, New York or Buenos Aires--all cities that later became flourishing centers of psychoanalysis...")--with not just the tolerance but the active support of important elements of the party and state....") As I note there, Trotsky showed some interest in Freud, but this very fact helped to lead to the extinction of psychoanalysis in the USSR.

The Frankfurt School was another matter--they were too unorthodox in their Marxism ever to stand much chance of being accepted in the USSR.
 
I once read about this political party in Argentina that was composed of a bunch of Trotskyists that thought mankind was made by aliens.
 
I very much doubt that communication with the afterlife - Spirit World, will descend into political debate! If a group of people are gathered together with the intention of getter a message from Lenin, it's just as likely, if not more likely, that the message that comes through is for one of the guards from his long since passed away grand-mother.
Messages arrive due to the need of the recipient. It's like a one-way telephone system, you may wish to hear 'A', but instead 'R' comes through a neighbour you knew at a previous address - they want you to pass on a message.
While your mannerisms, and personality traits remain, what earthly view you had maybe a lot different after 'crossing over'.
 
I once read about this political party in Argentina that was composed of a bunch of Trotskyists that thought mankind was made by aliens.

You're probably thinking of the Posadists. Their belief was not that mankind was made by aliens but that flying saucers were real and should be welcomed--because they could only be a product of a civilization far more advanced than those on Earth--and such a civilization must of course be socialist, and could help Earthlings build socialism.

In a sense, they were simply an extension of Trotsky's rejection of "socialism in one country"--they also rejected socialism on one planet!:p
 
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