Historical nihilism

Historical nihilism is a term originating from the Communist Party of China, condensing lessons learned from the fall of the Soviet Union. It serves to explain how "[t]he Soviets won the October Revolution with only a few hundred thousand members; it defeated the Nazis with a few million; but when it had tens of millions of members, it suffered a tragic collapse."

A tendency developed from Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin onward to disparage the achievements of the party, giving rise to unprincipled criticism. This tendency accelerated during the Glasnost era: as the modern media sphere developed and CPUSSR relaxed all control, it became fashionable to reject the Marxism, Lenin, and even the 1917 Revolution itself. Chinese strategists observed wearily, as the western ideological media machine took advantage of this weakness. What happened next provided a valuable lesson.

Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fall to pieces? An important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce! To completely repudiate the historical experience of the Soviet Union, to repudiate the history of the CPSU, to repudiate Lenin, to repudiate Stalin was to wreck chaos in Soviet ideology and engage in historical nihilism. It caused Party organizations at all levels to have barely any function whatsoever. It robbed the Party of its leadership of the military. In the end the CPSU—as great a Party as it was—scattered like a flock of frightened beasts! The Soviet Union—as great a country as it was—shattered into a dozen pieces. This is a lesson from the past!

—  Xi Jinping, Uphold and Develop Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Infrared maintains that historical nihilism universally means an effort to specifically forget, ignore, revise, etc. the history of individual or collective phenomena. For example, in its efforts to reject its own history, the West, as a collective being, is historically nihilist in its rejection of the truth of its past-- that being their rejection of the origin of the Modern Universal State laying within the Mongol empire. This is not without precedent. Chinese scholars have accused Western scholars describing the Qing Dynasty as imperialist of historical nihilism.

Revisionist usage

After the XX Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. ... Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.

- Alexander Yakovlev, senior advisor to Gorbachev

External links

• 2021 Speech by Xi Jinping taking a stance against historical nihilism
• Historical Nihilism and the Fall of the USSR — Communist Party of China documentary
• The 1619 Project (One of the major sources of liberal historical nihilism in the United States)

Further reading

• Khrushchev Lied
• List of myths about Stalin