PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW
[4]Translated from the Russian by James Riordan
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First printing 1975
© Translation into English. Progress Publishers 1975
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
10504--318
773--74
014(00--75
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[5] Contents page Foreword..................... 7 Chapter I. Genesis of Theory of Socialist Revolution..... 9 1. Marx and Engels: Proletarian Revolution...... 10 2. Lenin's Contribution............. 24 3. Theory of Socialist Revolution After Lenin..... 45 Chapter II. Objective Plus Subjective Factors of Socialist Revolution 57 1. Marx and Lenin: Objective and Subjective Conditions for Revolution............... 58 2. Uneven Maturation of Conditions for Revolution ... 64 3. Lenin: Revolutionary Situation as an Objective Condition for Revolution............... 78 4. Subjective Factor and Its Role in Revolution..... 94 Chapter III. The Working Class as the Centre of All Revolutionary Forces.................. 103 1. The Working Class as Leader of Social Revolution and Motive Force for Changing Society on Socialist Lines . 103 2. Working-Class Unity as a Decisive Condition for Victory 123 3. Class Alliances of the Proletariat........ 140 Chapter IV. Ways and Means of Gaining Power...... 151 1. Marxism-Leninism and Revolutionary Struggle .... 151 2. Non-Peaceful Path to Revolution......... 166 3. Gaining Power Peacefully........... 175 Chapter V. Historical Place of Proletarian Dictatorship .... 194 1. Historical Role of Proletarian Dictatorship..... 194 2. The Need for the Working Class to Consolidate Power 201 6 __NOTE__ (set-register ?L "\n\n__RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__\nCONTENTS\n\n") __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ CONTENTS 3. Essence and Forms of Proletarian Dictatorship .... 206 4. Historical Boundaries of Proletarian Dictatorship . . . 218 Chapter VI. World Revolution and the Two Rival World Systems 223 1. The Leninist Theory of World Socialist Revolution . . 223 2. Contention of the Two World Systems Is the Forefront of the 20th Century Social Revolution....... 237 3. Alliance of Major Revolutionary Forces and the World Socialist System............... 253 4. World Social Revolution and Its Mounting Opportunities 267 5. Communists as the Militant Vanguard of Proletarian World Revolution.............. 276 Chapter VII. Imperialism Today and the Growing Prerequisites for Socialist Revolution............ 288 1. A Leninist Analysis of Imperialism and the Contemporary World ................. 288 2. Scientific Progress and Worsening Capitalist Contradictions 302 3. The Heightened State-Monopoly Character of Capitalism and Developing Material and Socio-Political Conditions for Revolution............... 319 Chapter VIII. Democratic Struggle as a Component of Socialist Struggle................ 338 1. Growth of Democratic into Socialist Revolution .... 339 2. Campaign for Democracy as a Component of the Campaign for Socialism............... 353 Chapter IX. Socialist Revolution and the National Liberation Movement................ 371 1. Leninism and the Part Played by the National Liberation Movement in World Revolution......... 371 2. Problems of Non-Capitalist Development...... 391 Chapter X. War, Peace and Revolution.......... 412 1. Peace and World Revolution.......... 412 2. Just and Unjust Wars, the Military Programme of Proletarian Revolution.............. 416 3. Peaceful Coexistence and World Revolution . . . . . 424 4. Real Possibilities of Averting World War Today ... 435 [7] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FOREWORDV. I. Lenin devoted considerable attention in his works to the theory of socialist revolution, which is a major component of Marxism. He led the Russian workers to victory in the world's first triumphant socialist revolution, which initiated an epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism. It is due to his immense contribution to the theory of proletarian revolution that the theory of socialist revolution has come to be known as Leninist in contemporary Marxist literature.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties draw on the Leninist theoretical heritage in developing their philosophy of socialist revolution.
Both the ideologists of the bourgeoisie and the Right- and ``Left''-wing revisionists try to demean the theory, to prove it is outmoded, delimit the historical and geographical bounds of its impact and divide the integral Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory into a series of ``models'' constructed on a nationalistic and pseudo-scientific foundation.
But the situation today shows they are wrong to think that the class struggle will mellow in capitalist states. In fact, just the opposite is happening: social conflicts are extending and deepening, thereby dispelling such anti-communist shibboleths as ``class harmony'', ``social partnership'' and ``class collaboration''. The situation was summed up in the Resolution passed at the 24th Congress of the CPSU in 1971 on the Central Committee Report: "The attempts of capitalism to 8 __NOTE__ (set-register ?L "\n\n__RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__\nFOREWORD\n\n") __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ FOREWORD adapt itself to the new conditions do not lead to its stabilisation as a social system. The general crisis of capitalism continues to deepen. State-monopoly development results in an aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, and in the rise of the anti-monopoly struggle. The leading force in this struggle is the working class-----The large-scale actions by the working class and the working masses herald fresh class battles which could lead to fundamental social changes, to the establishment of the power of the working class in alliance with the other sections of the working = people.''^^1^^ The irreversible course of history and the experience of world socialism and the workers' and national liberation movements provide fresh evidence of the historical veracity of Lenin's theory of socialist revolution which expresses the basic needs of this day and age.
_-_-_~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, pp. 214--15.
[9] __NUMERIC_LVL1__ CHAPTER I __ALPHA_LVL1__ GENESIS OF THEORYThe founders of Marxism-Leninism saw the ultimate aim of the socialist liberation movement in creating, by deliberate revolutionary action, a society in which the harmonious development of each person would be a precondition for the complete and free development of everyone.
The path of mankind into the communist future lies through socialist revolution which is destined to replace the moribund capitalist system by socialism. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia initiated this social process of radically changing the world; it is the paramount task of the working class and all other working people led by Communists to complete it. How they do so has been shown by the Marxist-Leninist theory of socialist revolution which explains scientifically the inevitability, paths, conditions, motive forces, forms and consequences of revolutionary social change. The historic importance of the theory today stems from the very nature of our age—that of the transition to socialism; no longer are theoretical questions merely being posed, they are being implemented in direct revolutionary practice and they accord with the practical requirements of the liberation struggle.
The theory of socialist revolution is a major component of Marxism because it reveals the laws of revolutionary change, the victory of the working class in every country and the entry of every nation into the socialist phase of communism. Being a powerful theoretical weapon of the working class in its desire to change the world, it exerts increasing 10 __NOTE__ (set-register ?L (concat "\n\n__RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__\n" "LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION\n\n")) __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION influence upon the destiny of humanity. As more and more people become aware of the theory, it becomes an ever greater mobilising force in the historic struggle for the universal triumph of the grand ideals of scientific communism.
The formation of the Marxist theory of proletarian revolution dates from the 1840's. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels provided in The German Ideology a comprehensive argument for the need for and inevitability of communist revolution. They later elaborated upon the basic principles of the theory and provided it with a methodological foundation.
Lenin developed the theory further towards the end of the 19th century; it was under his leadership that the socialist revolution prevailed in one of the world's largest countries.
The theory has since been further developed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the fraternal communist parties and the world communist movement in circumstances marked by a strong upsurge of socialism, its emergence beyond the bounds of a single country, socialist revolutions in a number of states and the formation of the world socialist community. The Leninist theory of socialist revolution has received its most profound development in present-day circumstances in the decisions of congresses and in the Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and in the principal documents of the world communist movement.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. Marx and Engels:Marx and Engels propounded the theory of socialist revolution because a need had arisen for it in the international labour movement. The developing liberation movement required a scientific theory of revolutionary social change whose creation had been necessitated by certain material and social prerequisites. They developed it at a time when the capitalist mode of production existed in many countries, when contradictions within this system were already manifest and when the working class had entered the arena of class struggle and had demonstrated its revolutionary potential in several revolutionary battles. Furthermore, the natural and social sciences had reached a stage where a new and really 11 __NOTE__ (set-register ?R (concat "\n\n__RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__\n" "GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION\n\n")) __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION scientific dialectical and materialist philosophy was called for.
Marx and Engels, however, lived in an age of pre-- monopoly capitalism, when the objective prerequisites for socialism were only just being formed. The 1848 Revolution and the Paris Commune showed, as Engels wrote in 1895, "that the state of economic development of the Continent at that time was not, by a long way, ripe for the elimination of capitalist production".^^1^^ Lenin, too, spoke of this in his "Socialism and War": "Half a century ago,'' he wrote in 1915, "the proletariat was too weak; the objective conditions for socialism had not yet = matured...."^^2^^ In his book Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), Lenin said that capitalism had completely matured for a victorious socialist revolution only when it had entered the imperialist era.
In revealing the laws of capitalist development, Marx and Engels laid the basis for a scientific theory of socialist revolution which has retained its vitality to the present day.
The following should be regarded as the major propositions of the Marxist theory of proletarian revolution: the role of social revolutions in history as powerful engines of historical progress, as an instrument for replacing moribund socio-economic formations by new and progressive orders; the common people as the major motive force of revolution; the historical inevitability of proletarian revolution and the universal historic role of the proletariat as both the gravedigger of capitalism and the creator of communist society; the decisive part played by the revolutionary proletarian party in socialist revolution; the international character of proletarian revolution; the international unity of the revolutionary proletariat as a precondition for its triumph; the essential differences between proletarian revolution and all previous revolutions in general and bourgeois revolutions in particular; the involvement of peasants in proletarian revolution and the construction of a new socialist society; the connection between the national liberation struggle and the fight for socialism; the proletarian dictatorship as the _-_-_
~^^1^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol. 1, Introduction by Engels ``(The Class Struggles in France''), Moscow, 1969, pp. 191--92.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21, p. 313.
12 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION product and agent of socialist revolution; the destructive and constructive functions of proletarian revolution; the demolition of the bourgeois state apparatus; peaceful and nonpeaceful forms of proletarian revolution.Marx and Engels gave a thorough analysis of capitalism as the last form of human exploitation, explained the objective laws of its appearance and development and showed that it was doomed to die.
In their historical approach to an analysis of capitalism, they made it clear that capitalist society was a necessary, not a chance, stage in human development, that, by comparison with feudalism, capitalism was historically a progressive social system. By breaking the shackles of feudalism, it had given a mighty impetus to the forces of production. In their famous Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels wrote that in less than a century of domination, the bourgeoisie had created more powerful forces of production than all preceding generations taken together. Yet, by creating these vast forces of production, bourgeois society had prepared its own demise. At a certain stage of development, capitalist relations of production come into conflict with the social nature of production, become too limited for the forces of production and change from being forms of their development into their fetters. The conflict between developing forces of production and outmoded capitalist relations of production is the economic basis for socialist revolution. This conflict can only be resolved by the destruction of capitalism and the revolutionary replacement of capitalist by socialist relations of production.
While in The German Ideology, Manifesto of the Communist Party and elsewhere, Marx and Engels substantiated the inevitability of proletarian revolution by revealing the general laws of historical development, in Capital Marx provides the fundamental economic basis for the law of the revolutionary transformation of capitalist into socialist society.
Marx and Engels exposed the antagonistic contradictions of capitalism and showed how the social character of production was singularly unsuited to the private form of appropriation. The forces of production are capable of providing for all members of society; but in bourgeois society 13 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION vicious exploitation and impoverishment of working people and the sumptuous way of life of a small band of owners of the basic means of production exist side by side.
The bourgeoisie had fulfilled its historic mission as a class, and its further economic and political dominance became a severe brake on social progress and a source of numerous catastrophes. That is why Marx and Engels claimed the time was ripe to expropriate capitalist property. While maintaining that capitalism was doomed, they said it would not die automatically. The outmoded reactionary classes would use every means at their disposal to defend capitalist relations of production with the desperation born of the doomed. In order to destroy the bourgeois system one had to break the resistance of capitalism, to promote politically conscious revolutionary actions by the working people and to bring down capitalism by a proletarian socialist revolution. As early as 1844, Marx had written that " socialism cannot arrive without = revolution".^^1^^
The founders of Marxism irrefutably showed that the proletariat was the force destined to destroy bourgeois relations of production. Capitalist development itself creates and unifies that force; by socialising labour, capitalism simultaneously nurtures its own grave-digger, instructs and unifies the working class, inspires it to revolutionary combat, engenders anger in it with the capitalist system, unites it into mass armies capable of expropriating the expropriators, of seizing political power, of taking the means of production fr.om the band of usurpers, of transferring them to the whole of society and, thereby, guaranteeing a powerful upsurge in the forces of production for the benefit of the working people. The proletariat cannot free itself from the capitalist yoke without liberating the whole of society from exploitation and all forms of oppression. Marx once called the workers the only thoroughly consistent revolutionary class "that bear in their hands the regeneration of = mankind."^^2^^ The middle sections of bourgeois society—the peasants and urban petty bourgeoisie—fare no better; they are faced by a downturn in their fortunes, impoverishment and _-_-_
~^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 1, Berlin, 1969, S. 409.
~^^2^^ The General Council of the First International 1866--1868, Moscow, 1964, p. 329.
14 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION exploitation. The real answer to their problems lies not so much in trying to retain their former status within the framework of capitalism or in a return to pre-capitalist times, as in a concerted struggle together with the proletariat against capitalism. These classes, as Marx and Engels stated, are only revolutionary to the extent that in the workers' struggle against the bourgeoisie they reject their own viewpoint and side with the proletariat.The Utopian socialists regarded the working class only as a mass of downtrodden and impoverished people whose sufferings and poverty evoked sympathy and compassion. But they failed to appreciate that only the working class can lead all working people out of the capitalist wilderness to socialism, that no other class is capable of fulfilling this great historic mission. The Marxist treatment of the historic role of the proletariat is one of the greatest discoveries in the social sciences. Lenin called it the greatest discovery of Marxism: "It is to the great historic merit of Marx and Engels that they indicated to the workers of the world their role, their task, their mission, namely, to be the first to rise in the revolutionary struggle against capital and to rally around themselves in this struggle all working and exploited = people."^^1^^
On the basis of a profound analysis of antagonistic socioeconomic formations, Marx and Engels were the first social thinkers to work out a scientifically substantiated theory of class struggle as the motive force of social development.
They strongly rejected the unreal notions of the Utopian socialists that socialism could be established by persuading the ruling classes to reconstruct society along socialist lines; they also rejected all the various reformist concepts and showed that socialist revolution grew naturally out of the intensifying class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and was, in fact, the culminating point of that struggle. Socialism could come into being only in great historic class battles.
At the same time, they opposed any adventurist playing at revolution and rash attempts to stir up a revolutionary crisis artificially. They labelled as "alchemists of _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 165.
15 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION revolution" people who took such a dangerous attitude; they regarded as extremely harmful for the socialist cause any attempt "to run ahead of the process of revolutionary development, artificially to whip it up to a crisis and to make a revolution ex promptu without the presence of necessary conditions".^^1^^ They regarded the maturation of prerequisites for revolution as an objective process. The task of proletarian revolutionaries was to make a circumspect study of economic and political development, to be able to determine whether a revolutionary crisis was present and, accordingly, to map out the workers' tactics. For the proletariat to be fully prepared to meet the revolutionary crisis growing out of the objective process of capitalist development, it had to prepare for revolution in a planned and patient way, taking account of the necessary stages of development. An example of their condemnation of voluntarism in revolutionary tactics may be cited in regard to those members of the League of Communists who at a time when the liberation movement was at a low ebb, continued with their plan to organise armed uprisings. In 1850, Marx and Engels rebuffed the sectarian group of Willich and Schapper who were urging the League to take an adventurist line and were causing a split. In subsequent years, they continued their uncompromising struggle against "playing at revolution" as they called the voluntaristic plans of various anarchistic elements. By showing that the proletarian revolution could not occur at any specific moment and that certain conditions had to be present for it to occur, they arrived at an appreciation of the specific prerequisites of revolution, the need for a revolutionary situation whose major aspects were later analysed in detail by Lenin.While regarding every social revolution as a turning point in social development which immeasurably accelerated social = progress,^^2^^ Marx and Engels attributed a special role _-_-_
~^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 7, S. 273.
~^^2^^ See, for example, Engels's "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany'', in which he calls revolution "a powerful agent of social and political progress...''. It would, he said, "in five years cover more ground than it would have done in a century under ordinary circumstances''. K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol 1, p. 327.
16 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION in human destiny to the socialist revolution. They called it a gigantic historic stride in social development.Socialist revolutions radically differed from all preceding revolutions in so far as they went deeper and wider in implementing social change; they were more popular in the sense that they involved far more working people and were more organised as far as the theoretical and political awareness of the revolutionary actions of the participants was concerned.
Marx in his work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte stressed that proletarian revolutions were a far more protracted and profound process than bourgeois revolutions that had been completed shortly after the new classes had come to power and when the main obstacles to their economic and political dominance had been removed. The seizure of power by the revolutionary class in a proletarian revolution marked only the starting point for a radical revolutionary reconstruction of the whole political and economic structure of society. In point of fact, the proletarian revolution embraced the entire transitional period from capitalism to socialism.
As distinct from previous revolutions which had taken mainly spontaneous forms, the proletarian revolution could not occur without the revolutionary masses realising its historic mission.
Proletarian revolutions occupy a particularly important place in social development. No previous major revolutions had destroyed exploitation of man by man. At best, they had only replaced one form of exploitation by another. Only the socialist revolution would eliminate all exploitation, replace capitalist relations of production by socialist, put an end to the last form of private ownership of the means of production—i.e., bourgeois property, and replace it by socialist public ownership. The socialist revolution, therefore, would open a new era in the history of mankind, would complete the pre-history of mankind and signify the beginning of real human history.
Marx and Engels saw the great historic significance of the proletarian revolution in that it enlightened the working people, raised them to the most vigorous historical creativity, brought about a hitherto unheard-of upsurge in 17 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION initiative, bold beginning and creative endeavour. The working class needed revolution both to demolish the old and create the new relations of production, and to prepare itself for building socialist society. In The German Ideology, they explained that for the working people to obtain the communist consciousness "the alteration of men on a mass scale is necessary, an alteration which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society = anew".^^1^^
They also showed that a necessary condition for the proletariat to fulfil its historic mission was for it to be led by a revolutionary and independent class party. Marx said that "even under the most favourable political conditions all serious success of the proletariat depends upon an organisation that unites and concentrates its = forces...".^^2^^
Marx and Engels looked upon the proletarian revolution not as a spontaneous uprising by millions of workers, but as politically conscious, highly organised, purposeful revolutionary actions that combined revolutionary enthusiasm with an iron proletarian discipline, that combined a great impassioned outburst with an understanding of the ultimate aims of struggle, that combined a selfless heroism with an unconquerable faith in the hallowed ideals of communism. Only a revolutionary proletarian party could secure this blend and thereby make the working class the leading social force that was aware of its great historic destiny. Only it could equip the proletariat with revolutionary theory, instil in the spontaneous workers' movement the ideas of scientific communism and organisation; only it could take upon itself the leadership for preparing and carrying through socialist revolution; only it was in a position to fulfil the responsible tasks as the command of the proletarian army of fighters for socialism. In 1889 Engels wrote: "For the proletariat to _-_-_
~^^1^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Moscow, 1964, p. 86.
~^^2^^ The General Council of the First International 1866--1868, p. 329.
18 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION be strong enough to win on the decisive day it must—and this Marx and I have been arguing ever since 1847—form a separate party distinct from all others and opposed to them, a conscious class = party."^^1^^Marx and Engels regarded that party as the vanguard and political leader of the working class, "the resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all = others...".^^2^^ It would be indissolubly connected with the working class and express its vital interests. In order to lead the workers' struggle, the party had to be the most active and militant, the most classconscious section of the proletariat, able to see farther than other workers, to appreciate the conditions, course and overall results of the proletarian movement, to approach the daily struggle of the proletariat from the point of view of its ultimate goal and to be the representative of "the interests of the movement as a = whole"^^3^^ at various stages of the struggle against the bourgeoisie. In their view, Communists should lend an international character to the labour movement by taking into account the national objectives of the working class in every country and defending the overall interests of the entire international proletariat irrespective of nationality.
While remaining true to the workers' interests, Communists do not isolate themselves in a sectarian way from the various non-proletarian revolutionary movements. They "everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of = things."^^4^^ At the same time, Communists never forget the contradictory and irreconcilable nature of the interests of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, they need tirelessly to prepare the working class to fight to overthrow capitalism and to establish their own political domination as a mandatory stage on the way to communism.
_-_-_~^^1^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, 1965, p. 409.
~^^2^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol. 1, p. 120.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
~^^4^^ Ibid., p. 137.
19 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONThe directions that Marx and Engels gave to the proletarian party were the basis on which Lenin, in new circumstances, developed his integral theory of the .revolutionary proletarian party of a new type.
Marx and Engels had regarded the socialist revolution not as a nationally restricted phenomenon but as a worldwide, consciously implemented revolutionary process which at one time or another, in one form or another, every nation in the world has to pass through. They had believed that the national and international interests of the proletariat were closely allied, that the international proletarian front was opposed to an international capitalist front and that the various national proletarian contingents comprised components of a single world proletarian army. This army could only be victorious when all its contingents acted in concert for ''. . .disregard of that bond of brotherhood which ought to exist between the workmen of different countries, and incite them to stand firmly by each other in all their struggles for emancipation, will be chastised by the common discomfiture of their incoherent = efforts".^^1^^ The proletariat should tirelessly fight for the national and international unity of all its sections. "Nothing but an international bond of the working classes,'' Marx said, "can ever ensure their definite = triumph."^^2^^ Hence the Marxist principle of proletarian internationalism and the slogan "Working Men of All Countries, Unite!".
Marx and Engels, therefore, saw the socialist revolution as a world revolutionary process, first because it embraced all nations of the world, and second because the internationalism of revolutionary actions by the proletariat was the major condition for its triumph.
The notion of permanent revolution which they formulated had immense significance for the theory and practice of revolutionary struggle. In countries that had not had a bourgeois revolution, as Marx and Engels had indicated, the socialist revolution would be preceded by a democratic coup whose principal purpose would be to sweep away the feudal rubbish from that field of battle on which the working class was to _-_-_
~^^1^^ The General Council of the First International 1864--1868, p. 286.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 329.
20 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION measure its strength against the bourgeoisie. The workers would take part in that but they should not for one minute lose sight of their ultimate interests. Their job, therefore, was "to make the revolution permanent, until all more or less possessing classes have been forced out of their position of dominance, until the proletariat has conquered state power..."^^1^^ The idea of permanent revolution is central to the theory of socialist revolution. Lenin relied upon it when he elaborated his theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution growing into socialist revolution.Marx's idea of combining a peasant revolutionary movement with a proletarian revolution is another important ingredient in the development of the socialist revolution theory. Marx and Engels saw a paramount pledge of the victory of socialist revolution in the workers' skilled use of the revolutionary potential of the peasants—manifested both in their fight against vestiges of feudalism and in resistance to capitalist exploitation—and in the workers' ability to combine socialist revolution in the towns with a peasant war in the countryside. Marx wrote that ".. .the peasants find their natural ally and leader in the urban proletariat, whose task is the overthrow of the bourgeois = order'',^^2^^ and that in the peasants ".. . the proletarian revolution will obtain that chorus without which its solo song becomes a swan song in all peasant = countries".^^3^^ A little later, in 1856, in a letter to Engels on the same question, Marx noted that "the whole thing in Germany will depend on the possibility of backing the proletarian revolution by some second edition of the Peasant War. Then the affair will be = splendid...".^^4^^ From this we may conclude that, first, in a general way Marx advanced the idea of an alliance between the workers and the peasants, second, that the working class should play the leading role in this alliance (the idea of proletarian hegemony in the socialist revolution) and, third, he pointed out the decisive significance of an alliance of the two largest _-_-_
~^^1^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol. 1, p. 179.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 482.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 484.
~^^4^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, p. 92.
21 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION classes in bourgeois society to bring about the victory of socialist revolution.The founders of Marxism saw the proletarian fight for socialism in close connection with the movement for national independence. While the struggle for national liberation would encourage the struggle for socialism (by debilitating the exploiting classes of the dominant nations), the fight for socialism would inevitably lead to the elimination of national oppression. Engels had said in underlining the link in the struggle for social and national emancipation, "no nation can be free while it oppresses = another".^^1^^ Marx and Engels regarded the working class as an active fighter against national oppression; in the Manifesto of the Communist Party they wrote that "in proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an = end."^^2^^
Marx's justification of the need for proletarian dictatorship was another important historical discovery and has rightly been described as a cornerstone of Marxism. Lenin believed that one could only regard oneself as a Marxist if one recognised not only class struggle but took it a step further to recognition of dictatorship of the proletariat.
The question of political power is a central issue of the proletarian revolution, as of any social revolution. In its fight to establish, develop and maintain the relations of production it requires, every ruling class relies on state power with its powerful state apparatus, armed forces, prisons, courts and other punitive agencies. In the hands of the bourgeoisie, state power is the principal means for preserving bourgeois relations of production. The only way to eliminate them is to deprive the bourgeoisie of state power and for power to be seized by the class which is interested in destroying bourgeois property and affirming socialist property. The fight to replace capitalist by socialist _-_-_
~^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 18, S. 527.
~^^2^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol. 1,
22 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION production relations, therefore, is above all a political struggle for state power, for replacing bourgeois dictatorship by a dictatorship of the most revolutionary class of our age— the proletariat. Marx wrote that "between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat".^^1^^Born of the victorious socialist revolution, the proletarian dictatorship would subsequently become a weapon of that revolution, destined to play a decisive part in eliminating bourgeois relations and establishing socialist relations of production.
In summing up the experience of the 1848 Revolution, Marx developed the notion of the proletarian dictatorship in his conclusion that the victorious proletariat had to smash the bourgeois state machine. He showed that all previous revolutions had only improved upon the military and bureaucratic state apparatus. Once it had gained power the proletariat needed a completely different type of state power. Later, on the experience of the Paris Commune, Marx showed what exactly had to replace the smashed bourgeois state machine, in what form the proletarian dictatorship could be implemented and what would be the characteristic features and major peculiarities of the new proletarian state. If the working class were not to create such a state, it could neither carry out socialist changes, nor defend successfully the gains of the socialist revolution from enemies at home and abroad. The creative function of the proletarian revolution and its motive force, the working class, is manifest in the creation of a proletarian state.
The founders of Marxism foresaw the protractive nature of the world revolutionary process and the inevitability of many sacrifices. The workers will have to surfer, Marx said, "15, 20 or 50 years of civil wars and international conflict not only to change existing conditions but also to change _-_-_
~^^1^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works = (in three volumes), Vol. 3, p. 26.
23 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION themselves and to make themselves capable of political control".^^1^^It is true that in the daily revolutionary work, Marx and Engels often expressed in their correspondence an overoptimistic forecast about the proximity of proletarian revolution. How then should we view their specific forecast of dates for the beginning of proletarian revolution in a particular country? Over the most important issue, their forecast of the inevitability of proletarian revolution has been borne out. In 1871, the French workers rose up against the bourgeoisie of France and established a proletarian dictatorship in the form of the Paris Commune. Although it was subsequently to fall, the very fact that it was proclaimed, that it existed, had immense significance for the subsequent revolutionary struggle of the working class. This fact demonstrates the veracity of the Marxist forecasts that proletarian revolution is not something for the dim and distant future. In many instances, however, the specific forecasts of Marx and Engels on dates for the beginning of socialist revolution in various countries have not been borne out. Lenin wrote in this respect: "Yes, Marx and Engels made many and frequent mistakes in determining the proximity of revolution, in their hopes in the victory of revolution. But such errors—the errors of the giants of revolutionary thought, who sought to raise, and did raise, the proletariat of the whole world above the level of petty, commonplace and trivial tasks—are a thousand times more noble and magnificent and historically more valuable and true than the trite wisdom of official liberalism, which lauds, shouts, appeals and holds forth about the vanity of revolutionary vanities, the futility of the revolutionary struggle and the charms of counter-revolutionary ' constitutional' = fantasies...."^^2^^
Those are the most important aspects of the theory of proletarian revolution in which the founders of Marxism provided answers to the vital issues of the workers' class struggle. The only true criterion of any theoretical truth is practice. And the practice of the workers' liberation _-_-_
~^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 8, Berlin, I960, S. 412.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 12, pp. 377--78.
24 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION struggle has again and again proved that the principles of the theory of socialist revolution discovered by Marx and Engels, like the whole of their theory in general, have been brilliant forecasts of the subsequent course of historical development. They armed the working class with an understanding of its class interests and its historic mission and faith in its mighty emancipating strength. __ALPHA_LVL2__ 2. Lenin's ContributionThe conditions of the proletariat's class struggle changed radically as capitalism entered the imperialist era. As Lenin pointed out in his writings on imperialism, the contradictions of bourgeois society became more acute as the new epoch commenced. World capitalism was ripe for socialist revolution having reached the stage of far-reaching revolutionary upheaval; it had arrived at the eve of its demise.
The liberation struggle of the working people had intensified manifold. The degree of organisation and political maturity of the proletariat had increased and the peasants and other non-proletarian working people and oppressed nations joined the movement. The threat of proletarian revolution now hung over capitalist society. The working people of individual states, especially those of Russia, led by the proletariat demonstrated in steadily increasing social battles their mighty revolutionary potential to fight and to win.
The considerable shift in the class struggle and the new revolutionary experience posed new questions to revolutionary theory. Moreover, the ideologists of opportunism had taken over the leadership of the Second International after the deaths of Marx and Engels. They distorted and tried to drive out of the minds of the proletarians the fundamental ideas of Marxist revolutionary philosophy in regard to the historic mission of the working class, the socialist revolution and the proletarian dictatorship.
Lenin subjected all the principal ideas of the founders of Marxism in regard to proletarian revolution to a careful analysis, re-established the fundamental ideas that had been distorted by opportunists and developed them further on the basis of recent historical experience. The revolutionary 25 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION struggle had advanced many new issues which had to be subjected to theoretical analysis. Lenin provided exhaustive answers to the questions that had arisen. After studying social development and summing up the experience of the international revolutionary movement, he put forward fresh salient ideas for the theory of socialist revolution and formulated the fundamental laws of the workers' class struggle in the imperialist era. All that became an integral part of Marxism known as the Leninist theory of socialist revolution. The workers of the world thereby gained a powerful ideological weapon without which they could not have undertaken a victorious liberation struggle under monopoly capitalism.
Being an international philosophy, the Leninist theory could only be born in a country which had been the epicentre of the contradictions of world capitalism and which, because of that and also because it represented the height of revolutionary passion and maturity of revolutionary prerequisites, was becoming the centre of the world liberation movement. Russia became that centre at the turn of the century; the founders of Marxism had, in fact, foreseen Russia's revolutionary future. As Lenin had noted, "Marx and Engels naturally possessed the most fervent faith in a Russian revolution and its great world = significance".^^1^^
Russia had entered the imperialist epoch having bypassed bourgeois revolution and the accompanying destruction of all vestiges of medievalism and serfdom. It had still to resolve these tasks in more advanced conditions of class struggle, in a situation where the balance of class forces was more favourable to the working people and the proletariat was more revolutionary, class-conscious and organised than it was in Western Europe.
The agrarian nature of the tsarist economy and overall backwardness were combined with the existence of a highly developed capitalism. Lenin wrote that Russia had "the most backward system of landownership and the most ignorant peasantry on the one hand, and the most advanced industrial and finance capitalism on the = other!"^^2^^ Russia
_-_-_~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 12, p. 376.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 13, p. 442.
26 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION was, in fact, ahead even of the United States of America in concentration of industry: while in Russia 54 per cent of all workers were employed at large factories (with a labour force of over 500), only 33 per cent of the American labour force worked at such large factories. The high degree of concentration of industry in Russia was a vital factor in forming the Russian industrial proletariat which essentially differed from workers in small and artisan industries in the degree of its unity, organisation, political maturity and militant revolutionary spirit. The most revolutionary proletariat in the world and the leading detachment of the world liberation movement was formed at the large industrial enterprises of Russia.The Russian working class was in Russian politics the force which could unite in a formidable revolutionary torrent the various revolutionary movements and lead the masses to momentous social battles. The Russian working class was not alone in its struggle for liberation: it enjoyed mass support from various social forces.
The many-million-strong peasantry became an ally of the industrial workers. The presence of vestiges of feudalism and the absolute power of the big landowners in the countryside brought the mass of peasants to oppose tsarism and move closer to the proletariat. Due to the political flaccidity of the Russian bourgeoisie and its subservience to tsarism, the peasants became increasingly convinced that the industrial proletariat was the only class on which it could rely for complete and unconditional support. They saw in the proletariat a social force which could lead and win the battle to put an end to the existing landowning system and oppression. The proletariat, in turn, realised that it could not guarantee the victory of socialist revolution without a revolutionary alliance with the mass of the peasants. It could not form the political army of revolution needed for victory unless the great idea of a revolutionary alliance between the workers and the peasants materialised.
The working class also found allies for revolutionary struggle in the national liberation movement of the many millions of oppressed nationalities in Russia who consisted mainly of peasants. Tsarist Russia was a prison of nations. The innumerable non-Russian nationalities had no franchise 27 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION and suffered humiliation and insults; for them tsarism was both torturer and executioner. They increasingly joined the struggle for national equality. But it was only under proletarian leadership that this struggle could be victorious. The downtrodden nationalities began to realise this with increasing clarity and joined the battle of the revolutionary proletariat. The working class of Russia headed by the Bolshevik Party, united in a single mighty avalanche of liberation struggle all the anti-feudal, democratic and national liberation forces.
The revolutionary movement in Russia had great international significance; the liberation struggle of the Russian working class and peasants was bound to encourage the revolutionary movement all over the world. Russian tsarism had been one of the foremost and strongest components of the imperialist system. Its revolutionary overthrow, therefore, was bound to shake world imperialism to its very foundations. In rising up against tsarism, the Russian workers and peasants cast down a bold challenge to world imperialism and launched their country onto a path of farreaching revolutionary change.
All this explains the fact that it was Lenin, the leader of the Russian and the international proletariat, who had made an outstanding contribution to the theory of socialist revolution, having illuminated the way for workers everywhere to overthrow capitalism. Even a simple list of the issues of Leninist theory of socialist revolution makes it possible to appreciate the breadth and depth of this theory, its importance and topicality. The following propositions of the theory are among its most fundamental: the maturity of the world capitalist system in the imperialist era for socialist revolution to occur; the increasing unevenness of capitalist development in the imperialist age; the possibility of the proletariat being successful initially in a single or a few countries; a division of the world and formation of two systems; a weak link in the chain of imperialism; bringing the masses to socialist revolution; objective and subjective conditions of socialist revolution; hegemony of the proletariat and the leading role of its militant vanguard—the communist party—in the liberation movement; an alliance of the workers and peasants as the decisive force of socialist 28 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION revolution; uniting of the struggle for socialism and the national liberation struggle; the tactics and strategy of the revolutionary proletariat in socialist revolution; the development of the bourgeois-democratic and the national liberation revolutions into socialist revolutions; combining the fight for democracy with the fight for socialism; the decisive role of the proletarian dictatorship in defending the socialist revolutionary gains; the non-capitalist path of development for peoples who had emancipated themselves from colonial oppression.
The notion of the hegemony of the proletariat in all forms of present-day liberation struggle occupies a central position in the Leninist theory of socialist revolution. Marx and Engels had produced the basic ideas for creating this notion— i.e., of the proletariat as the grave-digger of capitalism and the leader of the mass of peasants in socialist revolution. They were unable, however, to develop these ideas into a coherent philosophy of proletarian leadership of the revolutionary struggle.
The class struggle of the proletariat had not accumulated by that time enough experience or factual material for producing such a philosophy. At the time that Marx and Engels lived, proletarian leadership of the various forms of liberation struggle had not yet become a matter of direct practice. Marxists were then convinced that the proletariat would take the lead only in a direct struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish socialism. In their support for the democratic movements, the founders of Marxism spoke not of the proletariat leading the bourgeois-democratic revolution but only of its active participation in that revolution. Marx wrote that the workers "know that the revolutionary movement of the bourgeoisie against the feudal estates and the absolute monarchy can only accelerate their own revolutionary movement. They know that their own struggle against the bourgeoisie can only dawn with the day when the bourgeoisie is victorious. . .. They can and they must accept the bourgeois revolution as a precondition for the workers' = revolution".^^1^^
The new circumstances of the class struggle in the _-_-_
^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 4, S. 352.
29 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION imperialist era confronted Marxists with the problem of developing the notion of proletarian leadership of all forms of liberation movement, of developing and adapting the Marxist thesis on the historic mission of the working class to the new historical setting. This turned out to be a fundamental task that life itself had presented. The credit for resolving this task must go to Lenin. In his uncompromising struggle with Russian and international opportunists he worked out the principles of proletarian hegemony in the liberation struggle.Lenin underlined the importance of proletarian hegemony in the revolutionary movement when he wrote that the working class "must be the leader in the struggle of the whole people for a fully democratic revolution, in the struggle of all the working and exploited people against the oppressors and exploiters. The proletariat is revolutionary only insofar as it is conscious of and gives effect to this idea of the hegemony of the = proletariat."^^1^^
Today, the principle of proletarian hegemony of the revolutionary movement acquires an even greater importance. As was noted at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in Moscow in 1969, events of recent years bear witness that in the capitalist states the working class "is the principal driving force of the revolutionary struggle, of the entire anti-imperialist, democratic movement".'^^2^^ At the same meeting L. I. Brezhnev said that "no other class, no other social stratum of society is as organised and strong. The numerical strength of the working class is enormous. Its revolutionary experience is exceptionally rich. Its ideological, cultural and spiritual level has been rising from year to year. The political and moral prestige enjoyed by it in society has grown = immeasurably."^^3^^
It is precisely hegemony in the revolutionary liberation struggle that makes it possible for the working class to win over the majority of the population and to form from it a victorious political army of socialist revolution.
Since the working class cannot prevail over its class _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 17, p. 232.
~^^2^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, Moscow 1969, Prague, 1969, p. 24.
^^3^^~Ibid., p. 150.
30 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION enemies on its own resources, it is destined to lead the revolutionary struggle of all oppressed and exploited people. To achieve that, it must be able to be the political leader of the common people, learn to win over the masses from the bourgeoisie and to achieve the difficult task of rallying around itself and unifying in a united revolutionary front all those classes and sections of the population which can take part (either at all or only at some stages) in the liberation movement.The notion of the hegemony of the proletariat consists of Lenin's idea of the working class attracting the various class forces to take part in the struggle for socialism at various stages and of leading these forces. It serves as the basis of the strategy and tactics of the proletariat. One could with complete justification call the strategy and tactics a science of how the proletariat implements its hegemony in the liberation struggle.
In several other works, Lenin noted that the struggle for democracy and democratic demands was a necessary preparatory stage for the proletariat to gain hegemony in the socialist revolution. It was in the process of this struggle that proletarian hegemony took shape and grew strong over the wide non-proletarian masses of working people who would come gradually to trust the proletariat, be prepared to act in concert and see it as its defender and leader. In this battle the proletariat gains political awareness and experience of isolating the bourgeoisie from the common people and of leading these common people. It becomes tempered, organised, gains confidence in its own strength and, in a word, prepares itself for taking power and administering society. Lenin wrote that "it is, however, quite inconceivable that the proletariat, as a historical class, will be able to defeat the bourgeoisie, unless it is prepared for that by being educated in the spirit of the most consistent and resolutely revolutionary = democracy".^^1^^
The supreme expression of proletarian hegemony in the liberation struggle is leadership by the proletarian party of all the most militant, active and resolute revolutionary actions of the common people, for "without organisation'', _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21, pp. 408--09.
31 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION Lenin wrote, "the masses lack unity of = will".^^1^^ That is why Leninism above all linked the attainment of the goals of the liberation struggle to the preparedness, organisation, unity and theoretical maturity of the communist party and its influence over the widest sections of the working people.The leading role of the working class and its revolutionary party in the liberation struggle is steadily increasing. In more and more countries, the working class is gaining the hegemony, the attainment of which is today the sure guarantee of consistent implementation of the tasks of fighting for social and national liberation. Experience of the contemporary communist movement suggests that the slightest retreat by communist parties from the principles of the Leninist notion of proletarian hegemony, any renunciation of leadership of the democratic movement is fraught with dangerous consequences for the working people and leads to sectarianism, to Communists becoming divorced from the people and to a weakening of their influence over the people and of their revolutionary positions.
The proletarian hegemony in the liberation struggle does not come of itself, but is won in persistent struggle with the bourgeoisie which, through its extensive agencies, strives to seize control of the revolutionary movements so as to weaken them and manipulate them for its own purposes. Unless the bourgeoisie is removed from leadership of the liberation movement there can be no possibility of consistent and complete implementation of the vital tasks of this movement or of any progress being made.
For the proletariat to gain hegemony it must first and foremost establish a revolutionary alliance with the poorer sections of the peasants, liberate the peasants from bourgeois influence and mobilise all their massive revolutionary potential for the fight for democracy and socialism. The entire history of class struggle in the capitalist era shows that the peasants are the principal ally of the working class. Lenin pointed out that a worker-peasant alliance was the most essential issue "of our entire revolution and of all future socialist = revolutions".^^2^^ Revolutionary actions by the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 240.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 33, p. 155.
32 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION proletariat which are not based on a firm alliance with the peasants are bound to end in failure. This is testified to by the first Russian revolution in 1905, the first socialist revolution in Hungary and many other revolutionary events. The victory of socialist revolution in Russia and in several other European and Asian states vividly illustrates the fact that a worker-peasant alliance under proletarian leadership is a necessary condition for successfully fighting for democracy and socialism.Lenin, of course, never regarded the peasants as the only ally of the working class. The non-proletarian urban workers—the intellectuals, office workers, petty bourgeoisie—are also a social basis for forming the political army of socialist revolution. It is increasingly important for the proletariat to win them over to its side when it tries to attain hegemony in the liberation movement. Today, with the rapid development of science and technology and the consequent changes in the social and class composition of society in advanced capitalist countries, the number of peasants is diminishing while that of intellectuals and service personnel is rapidly increasing. Meanwhile, these social groups and the working class are moving closer together by virtue of their material status, the degree of their exploitation by monopoly capital and the coincidence of their social interests. This comingtogether facilitates the proletariat's task of involving in revolutionary struggle these burgeoning social groups. The diminishing share of peasants in the revolutionary movement led by the proletariat is, therefore, fully compensated by the rising share of intellectuals and office workers.
Another vital ingredient in the notion of proletarian hegemony is that of proletarian leadership of the general democratic struggle of oppressed peoples: combining the struggle for socialism with the national liberation movement. Lenin regarded the national liberation movement as a major revolutionary force. The successful development of the world revolutionary process, therefore, greatly depends on the workers' ability to establish an alliance with the movement of oppressed peoples for independence and to direct their revolutionary vigour towards resolving issues of national and social emancipation. In stressing the 33 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION immense significance of combining the proletarian struggle for socialism with the struggle by oppressed peoples for national liberation, Lenin regarded it expedient to augment the well-known slogan of Marx and Engels on the unity of workers of the world by "Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!".
The idea of proletarian hegemony is a cornerstone of the theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution developing into socialist revolution which Lenin elaborated drawing on the Marxist notion of permanent revolution. These ideas are integral to the Leninist theory of socialist revolution. The theory of one revolution growing into another comes from the concept of proletarian hegemony as a logical consequence of the objective process of revolutionary movements led by the proletariat. The democratic cannot grow into the socialist revolution without proletarian leadership. Only with consistent and complete proletarian hegemony can a popular revolution continue beyond the democratic stage and become socialist. Proletarian leadership in a democratic revolution provides that decisive force which sustains the process of progressive revolution, its growing into socialist revolution and guarantees the complete and radical implementation of democratic and socialist changes.
Lenin showed beyond doubt that in countries where the liberation struggle is led by the working class, favourable conditions are created for bringing the bourgeois-- democratic and socialist revolutions closer together.
Leninism regards the bourgeois-democratic revolution not as an end in itself, but as a stage along the road to socialist revolution. It confronts the revolutionary proletariat with the task of doing everything possible so that revolution continues beyond the democratic stage. In Lenin's view, the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasants was necessary both for implementing bourgeois-democratic changes and for clearing the way for socialist revolution and for facilitating direct struggle for socialism.
One aspect of the theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution growing into socialist revolution is the notion that the revolutionary forces should regroup around the proletariat at the end of the bourgeois revolution, by the time the revolution reaches the socialist stage.
3 --- 1386 34 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONWhat does such a regrouping entail? "We may illustrate this by reference to the Russian Revolution. During the bourgeois-democratic revolution in February 1917, the proletariat, in its fight against the autocracy and the landowners, headed a broad coalition of democratic forces that embraced the peasants and the urban petty bourgeoisie. When it was time to implement socialist tasks, the working class had to regroup the revolutionary forces and create a political army of revolution that differed in class composition. During the transition from the bourgeois-democratic to the socialist revolution, the social sections of the peasants became differentiated: the peasant bourgeoisie crossed into the camp of counter-revolution, the middle peasants vacillated, and only the poor peasants and farmhands retained their revolutionary enthusiasm for further battle for socialist objectives under the leadership of the proletariat. The urban sections of the petty bourgeoisie also wavered in their attitude at this time.
Lenin put forward the strategic slogan at the time of urging the proletariat to take power together with the poorer peasants and the semi-proletarian sections of the population, while neutralising the middle peasants. However, since the October Revolution also resolved the tasks of bourgeois-democratic revolution, all the peasants followed the proletariat. During the socialist revolution, the proletariat pursued a policy of separating from the bourgeoisie the middle peasants and petty-bourgeois urban elements and led its political army into battle against the big and middle bourgeoisie, including the rural capitalists—the kulaks.
This regrouping of class forces took a somewhat different tack in several of the people's democracies. The broad democratic class alliances which arose at the democratic stage of revolution often continued to operate at the socialist stage of revolutionary struggle.
What are the requirements that guarantee transition from bourgeois-democratic to socialist revolution? Lenin said that two conditions were necessary: first, the proletariat had to be politically conscious and organised and had to be led by a party capable of leading it to decisive battles for socialism and, second, the semi-proletarian urban and rural elements 35 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION had to be closely united around the proletariat. The socialist revolution can only be successful if the workers are able to make all the exploited and particularly the poor peasants their true support and reliable ally. In The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, Lenin wrote that to attempt to raise an artificial wall between the bourgeois-- democratic and socialist revolutions, "to separate them by anything else than the degree of preparedness of the proletariat and the degree of its unity with the poor peasants, means to distort Marxism dreadfully, to vulgarise it, to substitute liberalism in its = place".^^1^^
The Leninist theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution growing into socialist revolution teaches the workers to conquer their enemies little by little, first during the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution and then during the socialist revolution. Lenin elucidated this idea in his article "Draft Speech on the Agrarian Question in the Duma" in which he said: "Imagine, gentlemen, that I have to remove two heaps of rubbish from my yard. I have only one cart. And no more than one heap can be removed on one cart. What should I do?" In his reply to this question, Lenin said that anyone who really wanted to sweep his yard clean would first remove one heap and then the other. "To begin with, the Russian people have to carry away on their cart all that rubbish that is known as feudal, landed proprietorship, and then come back with the empty cart to a cleaner yard and begin loading the second heap, begin clearing out the rubbish of capitalist = exploitation!"^^2^^
The entire course of the workers' liberation movement has borne out the correctness and vitality of this Leninist theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution growing into socialist revolution. It lay behind the strategy and tactics of the Bolshevik Party in all three Russian revolutions and was embodied in the revolutionary struggle of the working people in the people's democracies. It teaches Communists in capitalist states correctly to combine the fight for socialism with the fight for democracy, skilfully to lead the popular movement for peace, democratic liberties and radical social reforms.
_-_-_~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 37, p. 300.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 12, pp. 282--83.
36 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONThe sphere of application of this theory grew manifold as a result of the socialist revolution in Russia. Until then, the bourgeois-democratic revolution could only grow into socialist revolution in countries that had reached a certain level of industrial development; it could therefore not occur in the bulk of colonial and semi-colonial states which were far from being industrial. Matters changed greatly after the proletarian revolution in Russia. National liberation movements became a component part of the battle for reconstructing the world on socialist lines. Lenin said that once the oppressed nations had cast off the yoke of colonial and feudal oppression they could—with the assistance of countries in which the proletariat had come to power—enter the road of socialist development bypassing the capitalist stage. Thus Lenin pointed out that not only the ordinary bourgeoisdemocratic revolution, but its specific variety—the national liberation revolution—could grow into socialist revolution.
Lenin also developed the important idea that the proletariat could triumph initially in a single country; he formulated this idea during World War I. After the October Revolution, Lenin said: "I know that there are, of course, wiseacres with a high opinion of themselves and even calling themselves socialists, who assert that power should not have been taken until the revolution broke out in all countries. They do not realise that in saying this they are deserting the revolution and going over to the side of the bourgeoisie. To wait until the working classes carry out a revolution on an international scale means that everyone will remain suspended in mid-air. This is = senseless."^^1^^
Lenin demonstrated that during the imperialist period, the fundamental capitalist contradictions—i.e., between labour and capital, between imperialist powers and colonies and between imperialist states themselves—attain maximum acuteness and are bound to result in revolutionary crises. When capitalism enters the imperialist era, therefore, favourable conditions exist for a direct assault on capitalism, conditions which the working class can and must utilise if it is to win the struggle for socialism.
On the basis of his analysis of the contradictions of _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 372.
37 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION monopoly capitalism, Lenin formulated the law of uneven economic and political capitalist development in the imperialist era and showed how important it was to the struggle for socialism. This law operates at all stages of capitalist development and not merely in the imperialist era. Lenin wrote: "The development of capitalism proceeds extremely unevenly in different countries. It cannot be otherwise under commodity = production."^^1^^ In the imperialist era, uneven capitalist development greatly increases and results in some countries leaping ahead of others; it therefore becomes qualitatively different, a mighty factor in hastening the end of capitalism. As Lenin put it, capitalism at the imperialist stage "is growing far more rapidly than before; but this growth is ... becoming more and more uneven ... its unevenness also manifests itself, in particular, in the decay of the countries which are richest in capital = (Britain)."^^2^^In what way does the growing uneven development of capitalism affect the outcome of the workers' liberation struggle in various countries? One result was that the previously dominant capitalist states now fell behind in their economic development, were caught up and even overtaken by other states. This growing unevenness, on the one hand, engendered a sharp unevenness of political development of capitalist states and a non-simultaneous maturation in them of prerequisites for socialist revolution, and, on the other hand, led to rapid and frequent changes in the balance of power between capitalist states. The new correlation of forces was at odds with the partition of colonies, markets and spheres of influence. The viable capitalist states demanded markets and raw material sources on a scale corresponding to their burgeoning economic strength, and the strongest capitalist powers sought world dominance. The contradictions between imperialist powers intensified to the maximum, frequently resulting in imperialist wars, weakening monopoly capital and preventing it from uniting in the struggle against the liberation movement and enabling the revolutionary workers to pierce the imperialist front at its weakest spot. This together with the international solidarity of the proletariat _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., Vol. 23, p. 79.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 22, p. 300.
38 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION created an international situation that encouraged a successful struggle for socialism in certain countries. When asked how a country like Switzerland could defend its right to socialist existence if the proletariat there had gained power yet was surrounded by imperialist states, Lenin wrote in 1916 that great powers, of course, would not hesitate to use their colossal forces to put down a socialist Switzerland ''. . . if, first, the beginnings of a revolution in Switzerland did not generate a class movement of solidarity in neighbouring countries, and, second, if these Great Powers were not tied up in a war of attrition which has practically exhausted the patience of the most patient = peoples."^^1^^At the same time, growing uneven development intensifies the maturing in some places of internal prerequisites for socialist revolution. As Lenin said, "... the workers' revolution develops unevenly in different = countries".^^2^^
Uneven development in the capitalist world is not only a feature of whole states but of enterprises, trusts, branches of industry, regions and areas within a country. Unevenness of this nature leads to greater class conflict and contradictions between individual groups of exploiting classes in general and of the bourgeoisie in particular, to a debilitation, thereby, of the enemies of the working class within a state, and to a better chance of the proletariat to be successful. It also engenders differences in the degree of maturation of prerequisites for socialist revolution between parts of a country. That is why some parts of a country can become bases of a revolutionary movement while others become hotbeds of counter-revolution or more or less ``peaceful'' areas. It is very important to bear this in mind when forming a political army for socialist revolution, for its successful leadership by Communists and in planning its campaign.
In justifying his conclusion that socialism could prevail initially in a single country, Lenin showed that due to the non-simultaneous maturation of the prerequisites for socialist revolution, the victory of the proletariat could not occur as a simultaneous act throughout the world. In his "Military Programme of Proletarian Revolution'', he wrote, ''... _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 158.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 28, p. 119.
39 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION socialism cannot achieve victory simultaneously in all countries. It will achieve victory first in one or several countries, while the others will for some time remain bourgeois or = pre-- bourgeois."^^1^^Since the initial victory of socialism is possible only in one or a few countries, the question arises of what sort of conditions are necessary for victory.
At the time that the Leninist theory of socialist revolution came into being, this question was distorted by the opportunist leaders of the Second International, notably by Karl Kautsky, who on many occasions maintained that the socialist revolution had initially to prevail in countries with the most highly developed forces of production, where the proletariat comprised an overwhelming majority of the population. Kautsky was here distorting and falsifying Marxism. Marx had, in fact, foreseen that the revolution might start not in the most advanced capitalist state, not "in the heart" of the capitalist world, but on the periphery, in the "extremities of the bourgeois body''. He based this upon the fact that in the most developed countries the bourgeoisie had stronger positions, would put up stronger resistance and would be able to deal more easily with any revolutionary trouble. In 1850, Marx wrote that "violent outbreaks must naturally occur rather in the extremities of the bourgeois body than in its heart, since the possibility of adjustment is greater here than = there".^^2^^
Lenin enriched Marxism on this question. In complete accord with Marx, Lenin felt that the initial victory of the workers in highly developed states might be delayed, inasmuch as the bourgeoisie was stronger there, had at its disposal a powerful state apparatus and was more experienced in the art of deceiving the workers. Moreover, the victory of the proletariat in such states could be hampered by their possession of colonies. He wrote: "Today we see a different combination of international forces. We say that it is easier for the movement to start in the countries that are not among those exploiting countries which have opportunities for easy _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., Vol. 23, p. 79.
~^^2^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (in three volumes), Vol. 1, p. 289.
40 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION plunder and are able to bribe the upper section of their workers."^^1^^But while it might be more difficult for the working class in highly developed capitalist states to initiate world socialist revolution, it might be quicker and easier to build socialism because of the high level of the forces of production there and then to move to the higher phase of communism.
Lenin decisively opposed those who maintained that the first break in the imperialist chain might occur in the economically weak, least developed capitalist countries. In answer to Bukharin who had argued this in his book The Economics of the Transitional Period, Lenin wrote: "It is not true that one can start with the weak to middling. We could have obtained nothing without a certain level of = capitalism."^^2^^
In analysing the revolutionary potential of different countries, Lenin asserted that the workers would win first in countries that were the weak links in the imperialist chain, countries which by no means had to be those with the highest level of industrial development. As he showed, the initial victory of socialism could occur in countries with a medium level of capitalist development (pre-revolutionary Russia was precisely such a country), and subsequent successful socialist revolutionary changes could occur even in backward countries with support from the victorious socialist state.
The success of a socialist revolution is not merely determined by the level of economic development of a country and the size of the proletariat, but by the acuteness of class contradictions, the balance of class forces, the revolutionary spirit of the working class, the presence of a Marxist-- Leninist party capable of organising victory, by the degree of influence of the working class on the non-proletarian mass of the people and by the firmness of the bourgeois positions.
Russia was the weakest link in the chain of world imperialism, the focus of its contradictions in the early part of this century from the viewpoint of all these conditions. Long before the October Revolution, Lenin had indicated to the Russian proletariat its vanguard role in the world liberation movement, the possibility and the need for the chain of world imperialism to be broken initially in Russia.
_-_-_^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 471--72.
~^^2^^ Lenin Miscellany XI, Moscow-Leningrad, 1931, p. 397 (in Russian).
41 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONAn entire historical epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism, of revolutionary downfall of capitalism and growing victories of socialism lies between the first victory of the proletariat in one country and the final demise of capitalism in all countries. Lenin had foreseen that this would be an epoch of historic liberation battles, of world socialist revolution in which a single revolutionary stream would form out of the fight of victorious socialist countries against world capitalism, the fight of the working class to establish its dictatorship and the national liberation and democratic movements. According to Lenin, more and more countries would fall away from the imperialist system in the course of these revolutionary liberation movements and join the socialist system.
The Leninist notion that socialism could prevail initially in a single country is a salient part of the theory of world revolution. It provides a rational picture of world socialist revolution from the viewpoint of consistent socialist internationalism. According to this theory, the liberation movement of individual countries is a component part of the world liberation movement and the victory of the proletariat in individual states is not a narrowly national phenomenon but part of the world socialist revolution.
International solidarity of the proletariat occupies a prominent place in the Leninist theory of socialist revolution. The working class can triumph initially in a single country only under the banner of proletarian internationalism which demands that ".. . the interests of the proletarian struggle in any one country should be subordinated to the interests of that struggle on a world-wide = scale...".^^1^^ Only close collaboration and mutual support among workers of various countries can guarantee success for the liberation struggle and subsequent defence of socialist gains. While taking strict account of the domestic situation in its tactics and strategy the communist party must, therefore, also consider interests of the world revolutionary movement.
Lenin's notion of the possible victory of socialism initially in one country clearly illustrates the creative development of revolutionary theory. The importance of this notion is that _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 148.
42 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION it encourages the revolutionary initiative of workers and inspires them to bold and decisive action. Having demonstrated that socialism could triumph in any one country alone, Lenin maintained in the Bolshevik Party an unshakeable confidence in the success of socialist revolution in Russia. Lenin's theory lay behind the tactics and strategy of the Great October Socialist Revolution.He devoted a great deal of attention to the question of bringing the people to socialist revolution and seeking ways of achieving it. Underlining the importance of this issue for the revolution, he wrote: "To be able to seek, find and correctly determine the specific path or the particular turn of events that will lead the masses to the real, decisive and final revolutionary struggle—such is the main objective of communism in Western Europe and in America = today."^^1^^
According to the Leninist theory of socialist revolution, proletarian victory is primarily a result of the domestic development of each country and the extreme intensification there of class contradictions. Lenin held that one could not foresee the combination of circumstances that would incite the workers of a country to revolution. Life itself is incomparably richer than all logical schemes. The historical situation can change abruptly and is changing more rapidly than the most ardent revolutionaries suppose. To prevent an unforeseen upsurge in revolutionary struggle leaving Communists unprepared, to prevent a communist party forfeiting its ability to control events at a sudden change in the class struggle, Lenin advised Communists constantly to prepare themselves and the working class for imminent battles for socialist victory, carefully to study the situation at home and abroad, the balance of class forces and the popular mood. Without that it would be impossible to find the specific national approach of each country to overthrowing the bourgeoisie. In his work ``Left-Wing'' Communism—An Infantile Disorder, Lenin wrote of Britain: "We cannot tell—no one can tell in advance—how soon a real proletarian revolution will flare up there, and what immediate cause will most serve to rouse, kindle, and impel into the struggle the very wide masses, who are still dormant. Hence, it is our duty to carry on _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 97.
43 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION all our preparatory work in such a way as to be 'well shod on all four feet' (as the late Plekhanov, when he was a Marxist and revolutionary, was fond of saying). It is possible that the breach will be forced, the ice broken, by a parliamentary crisis, or by a crisis arising from colonial and imperialist contradictions, which are hopelessly entangled and are becoming increasingly painful and acute, or perhaps by some third cause, etc. Let us not forget that in the French bourgeois republic, for example, in a situation which, from both the international and the national viewpoints, was a hundred times less revolutionary than it is today, such an 'unexpected' and 'petty' cause as one of the many thousands of fraudulent machinations of the reactionary military caste (the Dreyfus case) was enough to bring the people to the brink of civil war!"^^1^^An imperialist-provoked war may be one reason for a revolutionary explosion. Lenin, however, never associated a proletarian victory anywhere merely with imperialist wars. Leninism by no means rejects the possibility of the proletariat being triumphant in peace time when no war exists between states: "The fact that both world wars which were started by the imperialists, ended in socialist revolutions by no means implies that the way to social revolution goes necessarily through world war, especially now that there exists a powerful world system of socialism. Marxists-- Leninists have never considered that the way to social revolution lies through wars between = states."^^2^^
Revolution cannot be accelerated, nor made to order, nor pushed on from outside. It is caused by a complex set of objective circumstances which the Marxist party must take into consideration. Lenin took up the cudgels with the Trotskyists who favoured the idea of encouraging revolution from without. Lenin wrote in 1918: "Of course, there are people who believe that revolution can break out in a foreign country to order, by agreement. These people are either mad or they are provocateurs. We have experienced two revolutions during the past twelve years. We know that revolutions _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., pp. 97--98.
~^^2^^ The Struggle for Peace, Democracy and Socialism, Moscow, 1961, p. 73,
44 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION cannot be made to order, or by agreement; they break out when tens of millions of people come to the conclusion that it is impossible to live in the old way any = longer."^^1^^Whoever, like the Trotskyists, ignores that warning can cause tremendous harm to the international communist movement.
It is the common people who make revolution. They are led by revolutionary parties. History does not forgive them if they are too late or too precipitous in choosing the moment for beginning revolution. The correct choice of time is crucial for the triumph of revolution, for to be late or too early will inevitably spell failure. The common people and the revolutionary parties may have to pay a very high price in making the wrong choice.
Communists can only raise the people to socialist revolution when that revolution is ripe, when a revolutionary situation exists and when there are both objective and subjective conditions for a proletarian victory.
For the revolution to be successful, most working people must be aware of the need for revolution and be prepared to follow the Communists in a selfless and heroic battle to overturn bourgeois domination and establish workers' power. Such a revolutionary fervour of the majority of working people is an invariable condition of the revolution's maturity.
Reactionary forces see support among Right- and ``Left''-- wing opportunists who are sometimes more reliable than frank apologists for the bourgeoisie. A persistent fight on two fronts in the labour movement to bring Marxist-Leninist ideas to fruition is therefore an important earnest of success for the socialist revolution.
Lenin regarded the fight against opportunism as a preparatory school for victory over the bourgeoisie, indicating that parasitical and moribund capitalism could remain in its decaying state for a comparatively long time if the labour movement were not to cure itself of its opportunist malady. Lenin termed opportunists the best defenders of the bourgeoisie, better than the bourgeoisie themselves, showing that without their treacherous role in the labour movement the imperialist bourgeoisie could not hold on to power.
_-_-_~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 480.
45 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONHe wrote that the fight against opportunists and revisionists in the labour movement would have to have "reached a certain stage. This 'certain' stage will be different in different countries and in different circumstances; it can be correctly gauged only by thoughtful, experienced and knowledgeable political leaders of the proletariat in each particular country".^^1^^ Without that, the proletariat cannot gain political power.
Another necessary condition for a successful socialist revolution is to isolate from the bourgeoisie the "middle sections"—i.e., the peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie, the office workers and the intellectuals.
Proletarian revolution, therefore, will only possess all the necessary conditions for victory when the exploited will refuse to go on living in the old way and when the ruling classes are incapable of running society, stumble into crisis and are in a state of frustration, decay and degradation, when there is a party able to take command of the revolution, when it is followed by the majority of the people, when it has gained the upper hand over Right- and ``Left''-wing opportunism and revisionism in the labour movement, and when the "middle sections" have abandoned the bourgeoisie. Lenin wrote that victory is assured when all these conditions are present and when the right moment is chosen for the proletariat to seize power.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 3. Theory of Socialist RevolutionLenin often referred to the proposition of Marx and Engels that Marxism was not a dogma but a guide to action. Revolutionary theory was provided to study the laws of social development and the experience of class struggle and is therefore bound to develop in step with society and the changing conditions and forms of class struggle. Lenin was the keenest advocate of a creative approach to theory and regarded it necessary to bring it up to date with the shifting historical situation.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Ibid., Vol. 31, p. 52.
46 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONThe Leninist theory of socialist revolution, as all of Marxism-Leninism, is today being developed in full accord with Lenin's behests by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on the basis of the rich experience of revolutionary change in the USSR and other socialist states and of the contemporary liberation movement. The theory is further enriched by contributions from the fraternal communist and workers' parties, and by the world communist movement as a whole.
Decisions taken by the CPSU congresses, conferences and the plenary meetings of its Central Committee, its leading bodies, vividly illustrate the creative development of the theory. It was developed further in the Programme adopted at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU. The latest developments in the revolutionary struggle were analysed in the documents of the 23rd and 24th CPSU congresses. Along with other communist and workers' parties, the CPSU has been active in formulating major documents for the contemporary international communist movement, such as the Declaration of the Meeting of Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries in 1957, the Statement of the Meeting of Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties in 1960 and the documents of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969.
These documents sum up and develop the notions of the Leninist theory of socialist revolution on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the economic and political situation in the worlds of socialism and capitalism, the correlation of class forces within the capitalist states and throughout the world, and the recent experience of class struggle: they refer to the complete and final victory of socialism, the general laws and specific characteristics of proletarian revolution and socialist change; the major forces of the contemporary world revolutionary process; the world socialist community as the bastion and vanguard of the world-wide revolutionary movement; the further deepening of the general crisis of capitalism and the widening social basis of the contemporary liberation struggle and the great importance of unity of all anti-- imperialist forces; the correlation of the struggle for democracy and the struggle for socialism; the unity of national and international tasks of the working class; the defence of socialism as the international duty of Communists and working 47 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION people in all countries; the multiplicity of forms of socialist revolution; the use by the working class of parliament in the interests of a successful socialist revolution; the present-day tactics and strategy of the communist parties; the growing of national liberation revolutions into socialist revolutions; the non-capitalist path of development; the link between the fight for peace and the fight for socialism; and the possibility today of excluding wars from social life.
A major contribution to the theory of socialist revolution has been made by the collective efforts of the international communist movement on the Leninist proposition concerning the general laws and characteristics of socialist revolution. Socialist revolutions in different countries naturally have both their own peculiarities and general principal laws; the conditions of class struggle in various capitalist states have much basically in common, yet a great deal exists that is specific and unique to that particular country. While the common conditions engender major laws of socialist revolution with a universal character, the specific characteristics give rise to a variety of forms, order and rates of proletarian revolution and socialist change.
The common features of the transition of individual countries from capitalism to socialism are engendered by a certain social homogeneity of the countries undertaking this transition, similar class structure and similar conditions of proletarian emancipation; this applies equally to the nature of the basic contradictions (between social production and the private capitalist form of appropriation, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie), which have to be resolved by socialist revolution.
The common features of revolution and socialist construction that apply to all countries making the transition from capitalism to socialism have been clearly defined by the CPSU and the fraternal parties in the socialist states. These general features were formulated in the Declaration of the Meeting of Representatives of the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries in 1957 as follows: ''. . . Guidance of the working masses by the working class, the core of which is the Marxist-Leninist party, in effecting a proletarian revolution in one form or another and establishing one form or another of the dictatorship of the proletariat; 48 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION the alliance of the working class and the bulk of the peasantry and other sections of the working people; the abolition of capitalist ownership and the establishment of public ownership of the basic means of production; gradual socialist reconstruction of agriculture; planned development of the national economy aimed at building socialism and communism, at raising the standard of living of the working people; the carrying out of the socialist revolution in the sphere of ideology and culture and the creation of a numerous intelligentsia devoted to the working class, the working people and the cause of socialism; the abolition of national oppression and the establishment of equality and fraternal friendship among peoples; defence of the achievements of socialism against attacks by external and internal enemies; solidarity of the working class of the country concerned with the working class of other countries, that is, proletarian = internationalism."^^1^^
The experience of all who have had a socialist revolution has shown that the forms of dismantling the bourgeois state and replacing it by a socialist state can differ, as can the rate of this process. The working class cannot carry through socialist changes and safeguard the gains of socialist revolution from internal and external enemies without creating their proletarian state, a powerful weapon of proletarian dictatorship.
In advocating a creative application of the general laws, communist and workers' parties caution against attempts to eradicate modifications in the policy and tactics of a revolutionary proletariat, thus ignoring the specific conditions of liberation struggle in different countries. They refer to Lenin who said that Communists must be skilful and correct in applying the principles of Marxism to specific circumstances. Guided by these precepts, they regard as vital the need to seek ways and means of adapting the general principles of proletarian revolution and socialist construction to the unique international and internal conditions in each country.
The general laws manifest themselves differently in each socialist country, depending primarily on the specific conditions of class struggle in that country. This specific nature may be characterised by the following principal features: the _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Struggle for Peace, Democracy and Socialism, p. 14.
49 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION attained stage of revolutionary change; the economic and political level of development (it cannot be the same because of the uneven economic and political development of capitalist states); the nature of state power (although the essence of the bourgeois state invariably lies in the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the revolutionary proletariat is keenly interested in the particular form that the bourgeoisie uses to exercise its dictatorship—a republic, a military or police dictatorship, a constitutional monarchy or a fascist despotism, and also in the strength of the military and bureaucratic state apparatus) ; the class structure and balance of class forces within the country (the economic structure and relative proportion of the various classes and parties, the character of their relationships and their influence on the common people); the historical traditions of the people (primarily revolutionary and parliamentary, the attachment of peasants to private property, the influence of religion among the population and the authority of the Church) and the political experience they have accumulated; the national characteristics of the country (the national and ethnic composition of the population, the nature of national and ethnic relations, the presence of colonial vestiges); the degree of organisation and political maturity of the proletariat, its concentration at large factories and in the major economic centres; the strength and degree of resistance of the bourgeoisie, its ability to manoeuvre and deceive the people, its hold up on them; the international situation (favourable or unfavourable international forces and events in regard to the socialist revolution); the proximity of the country to major strongholds of reaction or to international bases of the liberation movement; the natural conditions of the country (for example, fertility of its land, availability of natural resources, its geographical location).All these factors are bound to add much that is specific to the process of maturation, the rate and forms of implementation of the socialist revolution and socialist change.
Communist parties regard it as a matter of overriding importance to make the most circumspect study of the specific characteristics of the proletarian revolutionary struggle in their own countries. Otherwise it is impossible to plan the correct strategy and tactics of proletarian revolution and 4 --- 1386 50 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION correctly to guide the class struggle, in so far as each communist party is formed, develops and operates on the national soil of its own country. It can only become the leading national political force and administer the state if it takes the strictest account in its revolutionary activity of the national conditions of class struggle in its country and, in accordance with these conditions, works out ways and means of implementing the general principles of transition to socialism.
Communists equally reject both ignoring specific characteristics and exaggerating their importance. While to ignore them dooms a party to sectarian isolation from the people and a dogmatic divorcement from life, an exaggeration of the role of a country's uniqueness inevitably leads to a revisionist renunciation of the general principles of proletarian revolution, national narrow-mindedness, to nationalism, to departure from the principle of the unity of socialist internationalism and socialist patriotism, and to nationalistic deviations. Historical events have shown that success comes to those communist parties which combine an unwavering faith in the general Marxist-Leninist principles of proletarian revolution with an understanding of national characteristics and skilful consideration of them in revolutionary struggle.
The question of extending the social base of the contemporary liberation struggle, a question dealt with in the decisions of the 20th, 23rd and 24th congresses of the CPSU, in the Party Programme, the documents of fraternal parties and the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969 has undoubtedly enriched the Leninist theory of socialist revolution.
The 24th Congress of the CPSU demonstrated the presence today of a broad social basis for world-wide socialist revolution. The congress was attended by more than 100 delegations of communist and workers' parties, and national-- democratic and socialist parties from 90 countries. History has never known such a representative forum of world revolutionary and progressive forces which illustrated so vividly the mounting militant unity of the various streams of the contemporary revolutionary liberation movement.
One of the paramount tenets of Marxism-Leninism is the thesis that the common people are the real makers of history. Lenin wrote that "the only effective force that compels 51 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION change is popular revolutionary = energy..."^^1^^. The activity of communist and workers' parties is imbued with profound faith in the vast revolutionary power of the. working class and the huge revolutionary potential of the peasants and all other groups of working people. Communist parties see their main task as awakening the creative energies of the working people, stimulating the fullest and most effective manifestation of popular revolutionary energy, encouraging the widest popular upsurge of the liberation struggle, injecting organisation and purposefulness into this struggle, forming the people into revolutionary armies and guiding them by the shortest path to the great goal of destroying all forms of exploitation and human oppression and implementing the ideals of scientific communism.
Success of the revolutionary struggle primarily depends on the degree of popular participation in it. The question of the social basis for socialist revolution and of the classes and social groups interested in socialist change is therefore bound to have prime significance.
After analysing the correlation of class forces internationally and in the capitalist states, the CPSU and fraternal parties have come to the conclusion that the working class can today conduct a fight for peace, democracy and socialism that involves wider sections of the population than ever before; the social base of the contemporary revolutionary process has grown considerably. In referring to the widening social base one may talk broadly of the social forces of the entire world revolutionary movement and, narrowly, of the social base of socialist revolution in individual states.
The conditions of revolutionary struggle both throughout the world and in individual countries are changing substantially because of the on-going world revolutionary process, the successes of the socialist states, the upsurge in the labour movement in capitalist countries, the disintegration of the imperialist colonial system and the active participation of ex-colonies in the liberation struggle, the identification of the struggle for democracy with that for socialism and the deepening of capitalism's general crisis.
_-_-_^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 213.
__PRINTERS_P_51_COMMENT__ 4* 52 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONMore and more previously passive social groups are today joining the active political struggle at a time of a rapid entrenchment of socialism, the scientific and technological revolution, the increasing class struggle in the capitalist states and the strong popular movement and national liberation wars that are unprecedented in scope. The revolutionary movement is drawing more and more workers, many millions of peasants, the urban middle classes, intellectuals and students. The vast changes in the balance of class forces internationally are encouraging a growth in communist influence among the workers and the successful formation of a political army to do battle for socialism.
At the same time, the monopoly bourgeoisie is being isolated and is losing its hold over the people; this cannot but facilitate the impending victory of the workers. As was stated at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969, "the convergence of interests of the working class, farmers, urban middle strata and intellectuals as well as their growing co-operation reduce the social foundations of monopoly power, sharpen its internal contradictions and promote the mobilisation of broad masses of people for the struggle against monopolies and = imperialism."^^1^^
Social and economic inequality is growing. Monopoly oppression is becoming increasingly unbearable for all sections of the population—the working class, the peasants, the intellectuals and the urban petty bourgeoisie. The Party Programme stated that "all the main sections of a nation have a vital interest in abolishing the unlimited power of the monopolies. This makes it possible to unite all the democratic movements opposing the oppression of the finance oligarchy in a mighty anti-monopoly = torrent."^^2^^
The mounting antagonism between a small band of monopolists and the rest of the population is further extending the mass base of the liberation struggle. There therefore arise unprecedentedly favourable conditions for the revolutionary proletariat to increase its influence in society, for the tactics of the wide anti-imperialist front to be implemented successfully, for the widest sections of the population to be united _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, Moscow 1969, pp. 25--26.
~^^2^^ The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1961, p. 483.
53 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION around it and for a political army of fighters for socialism to be formed.The inference of the CPSU and other communist parties from the widening social base of the contemporary revolutionary struggle has great significance for Marxist-Leninist theory and for communist activity. This proposition is continually being enriched by communist and workers' parties in regard to the contemporary conditions of the class struggle. In taking account of the broader mass base of socialist revolution, the communist parties of a number of capitalist states advocate winning over the majority of the population, not simply the majority of working people.
In order to consolidate the revolutionary forces in their battle against imperialism, it is very important to heal the split in the working class in capitalist states and to form a united labour front. In emphasising the great importance of working-class unity, the above-mentioned International Meeting declared itself "in favour of co-operation with the Socialists and Social-Democrats to establish an advanced democratic regime today and to build a socialist society in the = future."^^1^^ This co-operation can only be effective if socialists renounce the policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie and fight effectively for peace, democracy and socialism.
This does not mean playing down the leading role of the communist party in proletarian dictatorship. History shows that the communist party and socialist and other parties can co-operate in the fight for socialist revolution and construction, with the Marxist-Leninist parties playing a leading role.
The Leninist notion of different political forms of transition from capitalism to socialism has also been further elaborated in the decisions of the GPSU congresses, Party Programme and in a number of documents of fraternal communist parties.
The vitality of this idea has been confirmed by the experience of the socialist countries. The revolutionary creativity of the working class has produced such political forms of socialist reconstruction of society as the Soviets and the _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, Moscow 1969, p. 24.
54 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION people's democracies. The Mongolian People's Republic differs substantially from many other, especially European, people's democracies, in so far as it bypassed the capitalist stage of development and completed a transition from feudalism directly to socialism after the victory of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution.Another important proposition is that made by the CPSU that the forms of transition of countries to socialism will be increasingly varied in future. This proposition has been adopted by the world communist movement and incorporated in the programme documents of the international meetings of communist and workers' parties. The Cuban revolution bears witness to the veracity of this proposition, inasmuch as it produced a new form of transition to socialism that greatly differed from both the Soviets and the people's democracies. Peoples who have won their political independence and started out on a non-capitalist path of development will also indisputably make a new contribution to the forms of transition to socialism.
The idea of different forms of transition to socialism applies equally to peaceful and non-peaceful ways in which the working class may fight to attain power as well as to combinations of the two. No matter what the form of transition from capitalism to socialism may be, its essence remains that of socialist revolution and the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship.
The collective ideas of the world communist movement have made an important contribution to the Leninist theory of socialist revolution in working out the strategy and tactics for communist and workers' parties that are relevant to the present day.
The Soviet and fraternal communist parties have always devoted prime attention to the science of how the working class can lead the revolutionary struggle and work out a correct strategic policy and tactical forms of class struggle. The importance of strategy and tactics however is immeasurably increasing at the present time. New forces, new sections of the working class, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals are being drawn into the revolutionary movement. There are no longer any oppressed peoples who are not conducting a liberation struggle. The sphere of practical 55 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ GENESIS OF THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION application of Leninist strategy and tactics is therefore being extended. Revolutionary developments insistently demand better strategy and tactics on the basis of drawing on the experience of revolutionary struggle, the development of strategic and tactical principles to the extent that changes have occurred in the correlation of class forces both internationally and within individual states.
In line with the new requirements of the liberation movement, communist parties have enriched their strategy and tactics with the following important considerations: that it is possible to avert world war, to have peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems, to combine the fight for democracy with the fight for socialism, to employ tactics of broad anti-monopoly alliances, of a national anti-imperialist front, etc. The communist parties use these propositions today in working out their policy. The contemporary strategy and tactics of the world communist movement are primarily aimed at resolving the tasks of the age, using favourable conditions for fortifying and closely consolidating the three basic revolutionary forces of this day and age—the socialist system, the international working class and the national liberation movement—for new impressive victories in the battle against imperialism and for peace, democracy and socialism.
Being true to Marxism-Leninism, the Communists of the socialist states envisage their fundamental strategic tasks as strengthening the socialist community, improving their economies and, on their basis, making it as easy as possible for the revolutionary proletariat to triumph throughout the world. The communist parties in the capitalist states accredit the central place in their activity to the problem of the international solidarity of all revolutionary forces, the struggle against monopoly domination and imperialism, the creation of a broad anti-monopoly front and uniting on that basis the widest groups in the population, using every possibility for fighting for socialism. The main principles of the strategy and tactics of the fraternal communist parties fighting for national liberation and those who have already gained political independence are as follows: victory of the anti-- imperialist, anti-feudal and democratic revolution, the unification of all anti-imperialist forces in a broad national and 56 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION democratic front, and a policy of non-capitalist development on the way to socialism.
Marxists-Leninists consider it an invariable condition of strategic and tactical success to strengthen in every way the unity of the international communist movement and its national detachments on the unshakeable foundation of MarxismLeninism and proletarian internationalism.
The 24th Congress of the CPSU demonstrated the party's loyalty to Marxism-Leninism and its consistent internationalism. As L. I. Brezhnev said at the Congress, the Central Committee of the CPSU is accountable not only to its own party but also to all communist parties and the world workers' movement. There can be no doubt that foreign communist parties are completely appreciative of this fact. All the foreign delegations present expressed their approval of the activity of the CPSU, stressed its leading role in the world revolutionary process and gratefully acknowledged its support for the revolutionary liberation movement throughout the world. In spite of the malicious contentions of the Maoists that the CPSU had departed from the principles of proletarian internationalism and Marxism-Leninism, the delegates of the fraternal parties stressed in their speeches that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the most consistent champion of Marxist-Leninist philosophy and proletarian internationalism.
__RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ [57] __NUMERIC_LVL1__ CHAPTER II __ALPHA_LVL1__ OBJECTIVE PLUS SUBJECTIVE FACTORSA major difference between the Marxist-Leninist theory of revolution and any type of non-Marxist conception is that the former regards social revolution as a natural and necessary consequence of the development of class society.
The well-known British historian Arnold Toynbee begins his article devoted to the fiftieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution "Looking Back Fifty Years" with the following characteristic phrase: "Revolutions, like wars, are abnormal disturbances of the course of = life."^^1^^ Toynbee does not accept the objective need for socialist revolution in Russia; he sees it merely as a means of overcoming age-old backwardness for a country that had rubbed shoulders with more advanced states of the West. Applying his favourite ploy of historical parallel, he writes, "Lenin's mission has been a continuation of Peter's mission, and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was a resumption of the revolution that had been started by Peter at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth = centuries".^^2^^
This unscientific method of investigation that rejects the law-governed process of social revolution makes it impossible to understand the whole raison d'etre of revolution, and especially a revolution that heralds a new era in world history; such an unscientific approach divorces revolution from the natural course of human history.
_-_-_~^^1^^ A. T- Toynbee, The Impact of the Russian Revolution 1917--1967, London, O.U.P., 1967, p. 1.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 7.
58 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONAs opposed to the bourgeois philosophy of history which sees social revolutions as an aberration of the ``normal'' path of social development, Marxism regards revolutions as vital turning-points in history. This scientific approach stems primarily from a recognition of the objective cause of social revolution.
The principal reason for revolution lies in the development and intensification of conflict between the productive forces and relations of production, between the requirements for economic and social progress and a society's social, political and legal superstructure, conflicts which are independent of people's will and consciousness. At the same time, revolution takes place and can only resolve its tasks successfully when objective conditions that make it necessary radically to reform society are combined with the activity of people and classes fighting to implement these reforms.
This question of the relationship between the two facets of revolution—objective and subjective—is central to the Marxist-Leninist theory of revolution, particularly the theory of socialist revolution. It has to be correctly resolved in order to explain the conditions in which revolution arises, is successful or fails, for the revolutionary party to work out a correct line of action and successfully to guide the revolutionary reconstruction of society.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ 1. Marx and Lenin:The attitude of Marxism-Leninism to the relationship between objective and subjective conditions of revolution is to be found in the very fundamentals of a Marxist understanding of history. According to the materialist view of history, all history is the result of the practical activity of people who, whether they are aware of it or not, create it in the given historical circumstances, not in circumstances of their own choosing. The sum total of these circumstances, irrespective of the will or mind of the subject of historical action, comprises the objective conditions for people's actions. Since this human action is of a conscious nature, it acts as a subjective factor in history. The subjective factor includes the 59 __NOTE__ (set-register ?R (concat "\n\n__RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__\n" "OBJECTIVE PLUS SUBJECTIVE FACTORS\n\n")) __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ OBJECTIVE PLUS SUBJECTIVE FACTORS level of consciousness, conscious actions, organisation, the will and energy of people, classes and parties fighting to resolve certain historical tasks or, conversely, trying to oppose their resolution.
Both objective and subjective conditions are formed historically and are not ready-made. Furthermore, the maturation of the conditions necessary for resolving certain historical tasks does not take place evenly. Thus, objective conditions for revolution mature quicker than do subjective conditions and therefore do not always lead to revolution or, particularly, to its triumph. Lenin wrote that "it would be a mistake to think that the revolutionary classes are invariably strong enough to effect a revolution whenever such a revolution has fully matured by virtue of the conditions of social and economic development. No, human society is not constituted so rationally or so 'conveniently' for progressive elements. A revolution may be ripe, and yet the forces of its creators may prove insufficient to carry it = out."^^1^^
What role do the objective and subjective conditions play in carrying out social changes that have matured? Objective conditions play the main role in so far as they point, first, to the very need for resolving the various historical tasks and, consequently, to directions of people's activity and, second, to the actual opportunities for resolving these tasks. Objective conditions determine ultimately also the development of the subjective factor, since the latter is a reflection of living conditions and the requirements for the development of the various social forces. The subjective factor, however, possesses a relative independence and may be out of step with the objective conditions.
If no objective conditions for revolution exist, no revolutionary efforts can provoke revolution and no revolutionary ardour will change society. If, on the other hand, objective conditions for revolution do exist, its fate wholly (or almost wholly) depends upon the subjective factor which then becomes decisive. Thus, the subjective factor may play a decisive part, although it can only do so when the objective conditions for changing society have matured. Whether it is possible to realise the potential created by objective _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 9, p. 368.
60 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ LENINIST THEORY OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION conditions depends on the subjective factor; it is of major significance in so far as it accelerates or decelerates historical development.One must also bear in mind that the results of people's activity—whether it be deliberate or spontaneous—always become part of the objective conditions of further social development. After reading Hegel's Science of Logic, Lenin noted that "the thought of the ideal passing into the real is profound: very important for = history".^^1^^
Lenin underlined the importance of this idea in opposing vulgar materialism that reduced the importance of the subjective factor and its role in social development. Vulgar materialism lies behind the opportunist theories of " spontaneity" which present social development as automatic and a fate-ordained process. This is particularly typical of Rightwing opportunism which dooms the party to be in the rear of spontaneous development. Lenin often criticised the passive at