In the USSR, did they ever stop 'officially' believing in the future Communist utopia?
Upvote:-2
No. By the late USSR Communism simply became synonymous with "good life". According to the classics, Communism should come with improved means of production that would bring plenty of goods.
There were some theories during the Perestroika, like the theory of convergence, that the Capitalist countries also will come to Communism their own way by improving means of production, so that the Capitalist and Socialist countries would "converge". Some pro-Capitalist people even argued that the Capitalist countries such as in Western Europe and the Nordics are "closer to the Communism" than Socialist ones because they went their own way. So, in short, "Communism" meant "good life and plenty of anything".
Upvote:-1
At some point they had to come to the realization that most likely there would not be a future for the USSR. All the slaughter, and all the sacrifices were predicated on the assumed fact that a glorious future, the End, would justify the hideous Means.
I would refer you to Alexander Solzhenitsyn —collected Works.
Upvote:2
In Viktor Suvarov's book, The Liberators, he frames a story where he and other officer cadets are discussing Communism while cleaning out a high ranking Party man's cesspool. He frames it by saying at each party convention they promise that "True Communism is 20 years away"...every year, always 20 years ahead.
His final line in that story is that in the following year's party convention they promised...nothing at all.
This chapter was framed about events in the mid 1960s.
So they did decide to forget about the promises of future equality, if not saying that the present was great.
Upvote:4
In the last 20 or so years of USSR Communism was the mandatory official propaganda that not many people believed in, but many people had to publicly affirm the belief, and nobody could openly express a doubt in, lest be subjected to severe repressions, up to commitment to a mental institution.
The affirmation of the belief in Communism was the mandatory mantra aimed at affirming loyalty to all-powerful regime.
This method of demanding loyalty via proclaiming validity of obvious falsehood is not unique to USSR. To some extent this is present in affirmation mantras of some religions.
Upvote:7
In 1986 Gorbachev's speech on XXVII congress of the CPSU he still clearly assumes the Communism as the goal. May be not immediate, but the goal.
The XXVIII congress in 1990 was already in the middle of USSR collapse. And the stenographic materials show that the notion of communism became somewhat debatable.
Google translation of both sources should be quite intelligible.
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