Atlas / Comparisons / Bolsheviks vs Juche
Bolsheviks and Juche
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on EC, AU, SC. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, ID, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(b) | Kimilsungism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | −10 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −05 | +09 | 14 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | +10 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +10 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | +10 | 17 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | −02 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
RSDLP(b) · CU −05
Culturally radical in the first phase: the most permissive family and gender law then in existence anywhere.
- Documented act or statuteDivorce on demand, civil marriage and the legalisation of abortion were introduced between 1917 and 1920.
- Documented act or statuteThe criminalisation of homosexuality was removed with the tsarist code in 1922.
Kimilsungism · CU +09
At the traditional pole: a hereditary leader cult and a hierarchical social order with no autonomous association.
- Programme textThe Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System govern private conduct including speech within families.
RSDLP(b) · ID −07
Internationalist and class-based rather than national: membership was defined by relation to production, not descent.
- Programme textThe Comintern was founded in 1919 on the premise that the revolution was not national.
- Documented act or statuteCoded −7 rather than lower because 'former people' were disenfranchised by class origin in the 1918 constitution.
Kimilsungism · ID +10
Coded at the ceiling on the strength of the inherited caste classification and racial-national doctrine.
- Documented act or statuteSongbun classification is inherited through the paternal line and governs residence, education and rations.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Bolsheviks
1903–1924 · Russia
A disciplined vanguard party seizes power in the name of the working class and imposes socialism from above.
Juche
1955– · North Korea
National self-reliance under a hereditary leader treated as the source of all social life; military-first priority.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
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