in practice but not in his theoretical works. In 1924 Stalin gave a series of lectures on The Foundations of Leninism that gave expression to this. Probably Stalin’s most notable ideological contribution was The History of the All-Union Communist Party: A Short Course that was published in 1935. In A Short Course , Stalin presented his variety of socialism as a direct, scientific development of thought begun by Marx and Engels and continued by Lenin and through to himself. He presented his socialism not only as being pure, but as also the only acceptable variant of socialism. In this work, Stalin can be seen as the ultimate ideological pragmatist. Unlike Lenin, who once he had crystallized his ideology remained a “true believer”, Stalin’s ideology also served an ulterior purpose of reinforcing his legitimacy and authority. Furthermore A Short Course was not just purely an ideological work but a political justification as its final chapter dealt with “The Liquidation of the Remnants of the Bukharinite-Trostskyist Gang of Spies, Wreckers, and Traitors to the Country”. Here Stalin presented himself as defender of the Faith against the “heretics” - in reality his political enemies. The most serious deviations in A Short Course was regarding Lenin’s beliefs that after the revolution a classless society would come into being and that the state would wither away . Stalin stated that although a new social and economic order had been built, there still existed 3 classes: the working class, the peasantry and the working intelligentsia eg. administrators, teachers. These 3 classes however, were not in conflict and had “non-antagonistic” interests and drew common benefit from the state’s provision of employment, education, health care, nutrition and shelter. Also, no indication was given that this social structure would change in the near future. In respect to the witherin...
