SOURCE: "Stalin and the Uses of Psychology," in World Politics, Vol. VIII, No. 4, July, 1956, pp. 455-83.

In the following essay, Tucker explores Soviet attempts to use Pavlovian theory in the creation of a policy for the controlled transformation of humanity.

The influence of ideological conceptions upon the men who make Soviet policy has been frequently and rightly emphasized. Some observers are so deeply impressed by this influence that they tend to regard the Soviet system as a kind of ideocracy. It is undeniable that ideology has been one powerful factor in the shaping of Soviet policies and actions from the time of the October Revolution to the present. But one must not lose sight of the fact that, in Soviet Russia, the relationship between ideology and policy is one of mutual interaction. It is a two-way process in which theoretical conceptions affect the making of policy and practical...