Publication Details

Abstract

The process of rebirth taking place in the socialistic movement all over the world took the way to overcome all the deformations which had occurred during the so-called „period of the personality cult“. In our time a great amount of cognitions and facts has been gathered on this subject; for the time being, however, there is not yet a more exact and deep elucidation of the reasons and essence of the „cult“, a more accurate definition of the concept of „the cult of personality“ and of its place in the system of deformations. The views taken up until the present on the question (of the cult of -personality can be, by and large, divided into two groups: Into the first group are classified the views according to which the personality cult was a consequence of deficiencies in Stalin's character and of mistakes of his theories, by saying that Stalin had misused power, overmounted the Party and the State etc. All the negative phenomena of that period are described as „personality cult“ and as consequences of this cult. The second group embraces the view's which describe the personality cult together with everything what was surrouding it, as a lawfully occurred phenomenon having its roots in the essence of the socialistic system and Marxian teaching. However incorrect we consider to be this kind of expounding the questions of the personality cult, it must be stated: that socialism cannot be pleaded for by describing the personality cult with all its errors and crimes hs a „necessity, of the policy“ of the socialistic system in capitalistic encirclement. Neither of the two concepts takes into account the historico-materialistic viewpoint. The cult, i. e., the veneration of a personality has its origin in the early stage of the development of human society, it was strengthened and spread in the system of slavery .and in feudal society as a phenomenon of social relations of supremacy and subordination, as a means for their strengthening. Cult in whatever form is a phenomenon of backwardness and reaction, a form of suppression, a means by which classes ruling in antagonistic formations were enforcing the material and spiritual oppression of the people. The cult of personality in socialistic society can exist only as a product of the deformation of the basic components of the socialistic system. In the historical development, socialism is subsequent to conditions which have existed in a country prior to revolution. The degree of development of a country before going the way to socialism influences both the tasks to be solved in the process of revolutionary development and the method and forms by which these tasks are to be realized. Leaving out of consideration the actual situation, yielding to the pressure of traditions and absoletisms results in the deformation of the new socialistic reality. The cult of personality in socialistic society is the consequence of a whole complex of objective and subjective factors which have deformed the basic principles of the socialistic system and Marxian teaching.