Scientific communism was one of the three major ingredients of Marxism-Leninism as taught in the Soviet Union in all institutions of higher education and pursued in the corresponding research institutions, and departments. The discipline consisted in investigation of laws, patterns, ways, and forms of class struggle, socialist revolution, and development of socialism and construction of communism.
Passing exams in scientific communism was an obligatory prerequisite in obtaining any postgraduate scientific degree in the Soviet Union; see "Kandidat" article for details.
Typical courses of study included the following topics, among others.
- Origins and development of the communist theory
- Theory of socialist revolution
- International communist movement
- Dictatorship of the proletariat
- Transformation of socialism into communism
- Socialist democracy
- Communist interpersonal relations and upbringing
- Criticisms of anti-communism
Read more about Scientific Communism: Other Components of Marxism-Leninism
Famous quotes containing the words scientific and/or communism:
“To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.”
—Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)
“Today’s Communism can survive only if it abandons the myth of an infallible party, if it continues to think, and if it becomes democratic.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)