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
Other components of Marxism-Leninism
- Marxist-Leninist philosophy (Marxist philosophy plus developments of Vladimir Lenin), subdivided into dialectical materialism and historical materialism
- Political economy subdivided into the political economy of capitalism and political economy of socialism
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