The Republic Of Fear
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Berlin Experiences/Mythbusting Berlin
What Was The Socialist Kiss? – Mythbusting Berlin
An intimate gesture or simply a carefully choreographed piece of political theatre? The 'Socialist Kiss' has gone down in history as one of...
Berlin Experiences · 28/01/26 · 11 min read
“The traditions of the dead weigh on the living like a nightmare”
Karl Marx
To understand the Socialist Kiss, we must first journey back to the very dawn of the Soviet Union.
The Bolsheviks, having seized power in 1917, were not merely content with overthrowing the old order; they sought to forge an entirely new world, populated by a new kind of human being: the New Socialist Man.
This was to be an individual utterly transformed, purged of the selfishness and bourgeois individualism of the past. The New Socialist Man was a collectivist, his every thought and action dedicated to the greater good of the state.
He was to be, in the words of the Bolsheviks’ propaganda, “selfless, learned, healthy, muscular, and enthusiastic in spreading the communist Revolution.”
This ambitious project of social engineering was, in essence, an attempt to remould human nature itself.
The Soviet state employed every tool at its disposal to achieve this goal, from education and youth movements to art, literature, and relentless propaganda.
The ideal of the New Socialist Man was a powerful one, a vision of a future free from the perceived decadence and exploitation of the capitalist West. It was a utopian dream, but one with a dark underbelly. The creation of this new man necessitated the suppression of all that was deemed ‘old’ and ‘counter-revolutionary’.
Individuality, dissent, and any form of personal loyalty that might supersede one’s devotion to the state were ruthlessly stamped out.
The creation of the ‘New Socialist Man’ would also require a new kind of leader, a figure who could embody the virtues of this new age. This new Socialist leader was not to be a remote, god-like figure like the Tsar, but a father to his people, a comrade amongst comrades.
He was to be a man of action and a man of the people, a leader who could inspire both awe and affection. This carefully constructed image was central to the cults of personality that grew up around figures like Lenin and, most notoriously, Stalin.
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