Criticism and self-criticism

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Criticism and self-criticism ( Russian Критика и самокритика ) was a term in Marxism-Leninism to denote constructive technical, political or scientific debate - as a distinction to the destructive criticism assigned to the class enemy . At the same time, members of various communist parties and organizations in the 20th century called “self-criticism” colloquially a communicative practice, the participants of which criticized each other as well as themselves.

The term

In the Soviet propaganda language, the term has only been traceable since the 15th party congress of the CPSU (December 1927). At first it was not a philosophical term, but only as a catchphrase part of a populist campaign in the course of which Stalin called on the “ordinary workers” to criticize supposedly corrupt functionaries “from below”. The prefix “self-” did not originally refer to the individual critic, but to the proletariat, which thereby criticized itself collectively “itself”. It was not until after the Second World War that “criticism and self-criticism” was elevated to a philosophical principle and reduced to Hegel's dialectic. In the following decades there were several waves of “self-criticism”. The campaign launched by Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the 1980s under the catchphrase “ Glasnost ” followed this tradition.

Practice of the confession of guilt and their interpretation

In the 1930s the demand was derived from the members of the Communist Party as well as other Soviet collectives to criticize each other during the regular meetings. Such meetings were often recorded and the mutual accusations voiced there could result in sanctions (reassignment to party candidate status, duty of social work, professional disadvantages). The writer and historian Wolfgang Leonhard describes how in “Criticism and Self-Criticism” the accusations broke away from actual expressions of the criticized and addressed his alleged sentiments in a speculative way:

“Harmless, unimportant, completely apolitical statements were magnified and distorted into gigantic proportions, so that character traits and political conceptions seemed recognizable. Afterwards these (never formulated) political concepts were equated with (also never carried out) political actions and finally the horrific consequences were brought to mind. "

- Wolfgang Leonhard : The revolution dismisses its children . Frankfurt aM / Berlin / Vienna 1974 [Org. 1955], p. 184.

Christian confession

Authors such as Klaus-Georg Riegel, Oleg Charchordin and Berthold Unfried attribute “self-criticism” in one form or another to Christian confession . For Klaus-Georg Riegel, public confessions of guilt (criticism and self-criticism) belong to the most important control instruments that revolutionary and religious virtuoso communities (Max Weber) have at their disposal. The public admission of misconduct against the values ​​and norms of the religious community includes a) the confession of one's own guilt, b) the submission to the respective sanctioning authority and c) the willingness to accept the penalties imposed. The "constant self-purification" of the "revolutionary order", according to N. Bukharin 1922, serves as a rite of purification, which aims at the inner self of the fellow believer willing to redeem, to undertake the examination of conscience himself and to be ready to voluntarily report the wrongdoings committed to the control authorities of the community . As G. Lukacs demanded as early as 1920, it is about a "moral change". It is about the rebirth of the new man, which presupposes the destruction of the previous biography. The public confession of guilt is staged as a ritual drama of individual self-accusation and collective punishment, the purification and symbolic purification of the religious community according to institutionally established rules. Public confessions of guilt are ultimately intended to reduce the insecurity that is structurally anchored in virtuoso communities about the extent to which their members are faithful, willing to devote themselves and obey.

According to Oleg Charchordin, the focus was on mutual public accusation, not individual confession of guilt to a confidant. The practice of individual confession of guilt existed only among communists of Western European origin, which is due to the different confessional and repentance practices of the Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Greek or Russian Orthodox) churches. Berthold Unfried also regards “self-criticism” as a ritual related to public confession and as a concept of mutual surveillance among equals, but in contrast to Charchordin he clearly emphasizes the importance of individual confessions of guilt. However, the charges and self-accusations were often staged by a higher authority.

Political decision-making

In contrast to Unfried, Riegel and Charchordin, Lorenz Erren denies any relationship to Christian confession, penance and repentance practices and traces the origin of “self-criticism” back to a “specifically Stalinist form of political will formation”, which was an originally democratic voting mechanism “held hostage have taken “. According to Erren, "Stalin's majority faction" was able to enforce its claim during the 1920s (with reference to the "faction ban" introduced in 1921) to obtain unanimous approval in all intra-party votes. Deviants who voted no or abstained (especially Trotsky's supporters) were invariably faced with the choice of either subsequently joining the Stalinist majority vote or being expelled from the party. According to Erren, similar mechanisms worked within the Stalinist CPSU as in some democratic parties in Western states: Here as there, there is pressure to conform (“factional pressure”), which enables party leaders to form a “monolithic” “bloc” out of their supporters. According to Erren, the Stalinist practice of political confession of guilt developed as a result of this pressure to conform (intensified by police repression) but completely independent of the concept of “criticism and self-criticism” - or even in opposition to it. According to Erren, it was not the Bolshevik party elite but rather other groups such as writers, artists and German asylum seekers who misunderstood the term “self-criticism” as an invitation to criticize oneself in person - not only for political deviations, but also for “sins” in everyday life (alcohol abuse, sexual promiscuity, etc.). Even the idea of ​​breeding a “new person” did not play a significant role under Stalin.

Practice in China

The practice of the Chinese Communist Party differs significantly from that of the Soviet Union. The idea of ​​moral perfection ("overcoming the old, egoistic, petty-bourgeois self") seems to have played a far greater role here. Criticism and self-criticism is also the 27th chapter of the words of Chairman Mao Tsetung .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lorenz Erren: "Self-criticism" and confession of guilt. Communication and rule under Stalin (1917–1953). Munich 2008.
  2. ^ Oleg Charchordin: The Collective and the Individual in Russa. A Study of Practices . Berkeley 1999
  3. ↑ Berthold Unfried: "I confess": Catholic confession and Soviet self-criticism . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, ISBN 3-593-37869-8 .
  4. ↑ See also: Getty, John Arch: The road to terror. Stalin and the self-destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven 1999.
  5. ↑ Lorenz Erren: "Self-criticism" and confession of guilt. Communication and rule under Stalin (1917–1953). Munich 2008.

literature

  • Lorenz Erren: Self-criticism and confession of guilt. Communication and rule under Stalin (1917–1953). Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-57971-0 .
  • John Arch Getty: The road to terror. Stalin and the self-destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven 1999.
  • Oleg Charchordin: The Individual and the Collective in Russia. A Study of Practices. Berkeley 1999.
  • Klaus-Georg Riegel: Denominational rituals in Marxism-Leninism . (= Origin and future; vol. 7). Styria, Graz et al. 1985, ISBN 3-222-11601-6 .
  • Klaus-Georg Riegel: Rituals of Confession within Communities of virtuosi: An Interpretation of the Stalinist Criticism and Self-criticism in the Perspective of Max Weber's Sociology of Religion. In: Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 1 (2000), pp. 16–42.
  • Brigitte Studer and Berthold Unfried: The Stalinist party cadre. Identity-Establishing Practices and Discourses in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Böhlau Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-412-09101-4 .
  • Berthold Unfried: “I confess”: Catholic confession and Soviet self-criticism . (= Studies on historical social science; vol. 31). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, ISBN 3-593-37869-8 .

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