p By N. V. TROPKIN

p The strategy and tactics of Leninism is a major branch of the great Marxist-Leninist teaching on the transformation of the world along communist lines. By generalising the experience of the world communist and labour movement, this science helps the Communist and Workers’ Parties to form the political armies struggling for social liberation and to guide their revolutionary activities.

p Marx and Engels lived when capitalism was on its rise and when socialist revolution was not inevitable in practice and preparation of the proletariat for the great revolutionary battles of the future was not an immediate task. During the lifetime of Marx and Engels, it was not clear that there was a variety of ways and means by which the working class could attain political power. The proletariat had not yet accumulated sufficient experience and factual material to make a science of political strategy and tactics. For this reason Marx and Engels could advance only a limited number of ideas on strategy and tactics: those concerning the dovetailing of the current tasks of the working-class movement with its ultimate goals, uninterrupted revolution, the combination of the proletariat’s struggle for socialism with peasant war, the national and international unity of the proletariat, armed uprising, working-class support for progressive demands voiced by the petty bourgeoisie, temporary alliances between the revolutionary proletariat and petty- bourgeois parties, the need to allow for the peculiarities of given countries, etc. But these major ideas of the founders of Marxism provided the starting points for working out the strategy and tactics of Leninism.

p After the death of Marx and Engels the world labour movement came under the sway of the opportunist leaders of the 164 Second International, who tried to supplant Marxist ideas on strategy and tactics by various illusions of their own. The strategy and tactics taught by these leaders boiled down to parliamentarism, which they treated as the sole form of struggle, i.e., to unprincipled submission to the bourgeoisie and to the deception of the working class with revolutionary phrases.

p At the turn of the century, when the early, pre-monopoly capitalism had been replaced by monopoly capitalism—that is, imperialism—the conditions of the working-class struggle changed radically. The socialist revolution then became an urgent matter. The working people led by the revolutionary proletariat developed a gigantic struggle for democracy and socialism. Under these conditions Marxists were confronted with the crucial task of reviving the strategic and tactical ideas of Marx and Engels and developing them further with reference to the new historical conditions. This was done by Lenin, the great continuer of the cause of Marx and Engels. Lenin brilliantly synthesised the experience of the world proletarian movement in general and that of the Russian Bolshevik Party in particular. He integrated basic strategic and tactical tenets into a single harmonious system and elaborated the science of the guidance of the proletarian class struggle. The Bolshevik Party led by Lenin provided brilliant examples of applying this science in practice that have become classic examples of skilful strategic and tactical guidance.

p The importance of correct strategy and tactics has increased enormously in the era of the breakdown of capitalism, the era of the world socialist revolution, of great revolutionary upheavals and national liberation wars unparalleled in scope and mass following. And the sphere to which strategy and tactics apply in practice logically expands as more and more sections of the working people are drawn into active struggle.

p Strategy and tactics cover the subjective aspect of the workers’ movement, that is, the conscious and organised struggle of the working class for its own interests and the interests of all working people. This applies above all to the leadership given to the labour movement by a Marxist-Leninist party. But, of course, unless such a party exists, strategy and tactics as a science cannot be applied at all. Equally, the growth of a revolutionary party’s influence among the working people and the consolidation of its leading role cannot but extend the sphere of application of Leninist strategy and tactics.

Strategy and tactics do not bear directly on the objective conditions of the working-class movement, i.e., on the processes 165 of social development which take place regardless of the will of the revolutionary proletariat and its party. However, they must be strictly based on the objective conditions-on the concrete historical situation and the alignment of class forces in particular countries and the world at large. Leninism firmly rejects all subjectivism; it is guided solely by the pressing needs of society’s material life, the vital interests of the working masses.