![]() ![]() For Marx, social classes were defined and structured by the relations concerning: (1) work and labor and (2) ownership or possession of property. On various occasions during our discussions, I had to explain to my fellow classmates that the communist, Karl Marx, rejected utopian socialism in favor of what he coined “scientific communism.” Marx claimed that changes in the economic structure of the society of his time were the result of class conflicts or class struggles between the capitalists (bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletarians). Contrarily, during my college years in the former Soviet Union, I was well–versed and educated in the Marxist–Leninist subjects: historical and dialectical materialism, scientific communism, scientific atheism, history of the Communist Party and history of the labor movement. What was surprising was that, in spite of sincerely embracing Marxist teaching, the post–graduate students at Brown, one of the oldest and leading Ivy League universities in the country, seemed to know very little about Marxism. authorities and the American public in general. At the time, the West and the Soviet Union were in the heyday of the Cold War every Soviet–like presence was “put under the microscope” by the U.S. It was understandable that I was in the position of frequently having to answer such questions. Follow-up questions were somewhat parochial and usually included: “Alexander, are you a Marxist?” And my usual response to the question was, “No, I am an anthropologist.” Our Eastern European accents and mannerisms set us apart from other students and, not surprisingly, we were questioned frequently by Brown students about our country of origin and upbringing. I was a graduate student in the anthropology department and Boris was a graduate student in the math department.īoris and I were a novelty and an enigma at Brown. I was from Kiev and Boris was from Odessa, both cities of the former Soviet Union. Then, only two Soviet-born and raised students were at Brown. ![]() In the early 1980s, I attended graduate school at Brown University.
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