Adorno and Horkheimer suppressed Soviet criticism to preserve Moscow-aligned discipline in 1936.

Evidence

Heated sub rosa discussions of Pollock’s findings did take place, but never broke into print. In fact, after his book was published in 1929, the Institut maintained an almost complete official silence about events in the USSR, broken only by an occasional survey of recent literature by Rudolf Schlesinger, who had been one of Grunberg’s students in the twenties. It was really not until a decade later, after the Moscow purge trials, that Horkheimer and the others, with the sole exception of the obdurate Grossmann, completely abandoned their hope for the Soviet Union. Even then, preoccupied with problems that will be discussed later, they never focused the attention of Critical Theory on the left-wing authoritarianism of Stalin’s Russia. The lack of available data certainly was one reason, but one ought not to ignore the difficulties involved in a Marxist analysis, however heterodox, of communism’s failures. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 136 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Institut avoided public criticism of the USSR until the Moscow purge trials — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 136

Related

• The Institut avoided public criticism of the USSR until the Moscow purge trials (similarity 0.93)
• Stalin’s purge trials finally destroyed the Institute’s hopes for the Soviet Union (similarity 0.84)
• In 1927 most Institut members, including Horkheimer, still supported the Soviet experiment (similarity 0.81)
• Horkheimer himself distrusted the hopeful elements in his authoritarian state essay. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The Institut avoided public criticism of the USSR until the Moscow purge trials #corroborates (0.92) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 136