p Marxism-Leninism is an ever-living, developing and selfenriching doctrine. As the most advanced of revolutionary theories, it represents a balanced and consistent system of opinions of the working class and all the working people. This doctrine, distinguished as it is for its remarkable depth and integrity, embraces the sum total of knowledge from the problems of philosophic world outlook down to the problems of the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary struggle. Lenin wrote: "There is nothing resembling ‘sectarianism’ in Marxism, in the sense of its being a hidebound, petrified doctrine, a doctrine which arose away from the high road of the development of world civilisation.”  [167•* 

p The creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory has its inexhaustible source in the material and spiritual life of society itself with all its zigzags and contradictions. It is from the depths of society’s life, its historical and modern processes, that communist theory draws the life-giving juices for its development. Marxism initiated a new trend in theoretical thinking, and only "by following the path of Marxian theory we shall draw closer and closer to objective truth (without ever exhausting it); but by following any other path we shall arrive at nothing but confusion and lies”.  [167•** 

p But Marxism-Leninism must not be regarded as a catechism, a manual of dogmas, by studying which one can find the answers to all life’s questions. Therefore the Party has always opposed talmudism, scholasticism and doctrinairism. This notable aspect of its activities stems from the admirable traditions of the Leninist guard of professional 168 revolutionaries, who were not only brave, fearless and staunch fighters for the cause of the working class, but the most educated Marxists-Leninists, the most progressive and cultured people of their age. They should always serve as a model for the education and self-education of political maturity, militancy, high principles and a readiness to dedicate one’s life to the great revolutionary cause of the working masses.

p It was by following their noble example that the finest revolutionaries of the international communist movement were schooled and tempered in the struggle. Marxism- Leninism inspired them to great deeds.

p The present epoch demonstrates the great triumph of Marxism-Leninism, which has become the revolutionary banner of struggle of the world’s working classes. The mounting successes of this great doctrine, which has become the lodestar of labour’s millions, is the keynote of the whole twentieth century. It is in this teaching that the progressive forces of the world today find the answers to the most complex questions of social life.

p For Russia Marxist teaching had a special significance in that it fell to the lot and honour of the Russian working class to be the first in the world to put into practice the revolutionary ideas of Marxism and carry out its great liberative mission. Looking back at this epoch-making deed of the Russian proletariat we should never forget the main thing, namely, that this victory was an extremely hard and difficult one without equal in significance in the history of the liberation struggle. We shall never forget Lenin’s stirring words breathing the flame of the class struggle, full of hatred for the oppressors and boundless love for the fighters of the working-class cause. "Russia," he wrote, "achieved Marxism—the only correct revolutionary theory—through the agony she experienced in the course of half a century of unparalleled torment and sacrifice, of unparalleled revolutionary heroism, incredible energy, devoted searching, study, practical trial, disappointment, verification, and comparison with European experience.”  [168•* 

p The prolonged and valiant struggle took its death toll of thousands and thousands of staunch, talented and dedicated sons and daughters of the working class, the peasantry and the intelligentsia. But in place of the fallen new cohorts 169 rallied beneath the banner of Marxism-Leninism, gaining still more strength in the hurricane of revolutionary battles, and renewing their onset against the rotten bourgeoislandowner system with redoubled vigor. "Navigators of coming storms", to use a figure of speech of Herzen’s, were forged and hardened in fierce class battles.

p Russia’s revolutionary forces multiplied and grew immeasurably stronger after Lenin had created a genuinely Marxist party, a party of a new type—the Bolshevik Party. "As a current of political thought and as a political party," Lenin said, "Bolshevism has existed since 1903.”  [169•*  The Communist Party is a true Marxist party, which traces its origin to the International Workingmen’s Association founded by Marx and Engels over a century ago. Bolshevism stemmed from the firm base of Marxist theory. The strength of the C.P.S.U. lies in the fact that it has imbibed the immense theoretical and practical experience of the international communist and labour movement and has become the embodiment of true internationalism in the highest sense of that word. No wonder that Lenin, from the Party’s very inception, drew the attention of its members to the need for constantly mastering and developing the revolutionary theory of Marxism in its application to the Russian realities.

p Answering the question as to what special need there was for a revolutionary theory for the Communists of Russia, Lenin said: first, an historical role had fallen to the lot of the Marxist party in Russia—that of upholding the purity of Marxist revolutionary theory against the attacks of the West-European and Russian revisionists and opportunists, who tried to eviscerate Marxism of its life-giving revolutionary essence and adapt it to the service of bourgeois ideology; secondly, a particularly difficult role had fallen to the lot of the Marxist party in Russia—that of securing the victory of the proletariat not only over the autocracy— the bulwark of Black-Hundred reaction—but also over the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, which had teamed up with tsarism and all the reactionary forces within the country; thirdly, there had fallen to the lot of the Marxist party in Russia the great historical mission of leading the Russian proletariat in the bourgeois-democratic and socialist revolutions, securing the triumph of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and 170 paving the way for the development of the revolutionary movement of the working class of Europe and of the oppressed peoples of the colonial and dependent countries.

p Proceeding from the objective need for solving these gigantic problems, Lenin laid specially strong emphasis on the fact that "without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement", that the "role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory"  [170•*  There guidelines of Lenin’s formed the cornerstone of our Party’s activities at all stages of the struggle. The Party’s cherished aim was to carry out a revolutionary transformation of society and establish a new, socialist order. But the Party knew perfectly well that the new society could not come to take the place of the old, bourgeois-landowner society by way of evolution, of a spontaneous, random development.

p Formation of a socialist society is the product of revolutionary action, of the conscious, purposeful activities of the masses themselves guided by the Party. It is founded on a knowledge and correct application of the objective laws governing social development. Therefore, to attain the cherished goal there must always be the greatest degree of organisation, of the ideological and theoretical training of the communist vanguard, the leader of the masses in their revolutionary creative activities. The important thing to remember in our day too is that without Marxist-Leninist theory there can be no communist construction. Without this guiding theory the movement towards communism is condemned to the direct maladies and liable to be easily diverted from the true path with all ensuing consequences.

p At the same time Lenin never regarded theory apart from the great liberative struggle of the proletariat and of all the working people. In this he differed sharply from those theoreticians who had written stacks of books devoted to a study of socio-economic relationships, but had engaged in this science "for science’s sake", without advancing it an inch forward in the interests of the workers’ emancipation. Lenin, on the contrary, in his researches constantly sought answers to life’s pressing problems and immediately applied them in revolutionary practice.

p Science was for Lenin a motive force of the revolutionary 171 liberation movement. Translating the meaning of this, he invariably stressed that the true role of science consisted in a creative approach towards the explanation of all the phenomena of nature, social life and science itself; in substantiating transformative actions; in revolutionary daring and breadth of scientific generalisations; in a genuinely dialectical answer to the question of the relationships between science and life, between theory and practice. The strength of Lenin’s world outlook lies in his amazing scientific prevision, in the clarity of his scientific logic, in his consistent party-mindedness and uncompromising attitude towards every kind of dogmatism and sophistry, in his unremitting fight against all kinds of pseudo-science.

p In framing the revolutionary strategy and tactics of the Russian Marxists Lenin invariably leaned not only on a scientific analysis of the historical and socio-economic conditions in Russia, but on the experience of the revolutionary struggle of the international working class and all the oppressed peoples. He bequeathed to the international proletariat a priceless theoretical legacy; his ideas, impregnated with the spirit of internationalism, will be enshrined forever in the hearts of labouring humanity. The advance detachments of revolutionary fighters are guided by these ideas, and under their banner they are fighting and winning.

p Lenin creatively developed all the component parts of revolutionary theory—dialectical and historical materialism, economic science, scientific socialism. By a profound theoretical analysis he revealed Marxism as an integral world outlook, as a balanced philosophical system from which scientific communism derives logically and practically. In the conditions of the new epoch, the epoch of imperialism and socialist revolutions, he applied the Marxist dialectical method with brilliant scientific skill to an analysis of the objective laws governing social development, and to leadership of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, which found its most striking expression in the victory of the socialist revolution in Russia.

p Lenin created a balanced and consistent science of the revolutionary party of the proletariat and elaborated its ideological, theoretical, organisational and political principles. In a prolonged, tense and principled struggle with reformism of all stripes—Economism, Menshevism, liquidationism; with “Left” adventurism of all shades—Trotskyism, 172 anarcho-syndicalism and sectarianism, he upheld and developed the teaching concerning the party of the working class, its scientific strategy and tactics both in the bourgeois- democratic and the socialist revolution. All these scientific theses concerning the party of the working class hold good in the present stage of the communist movement despite the furious attacks against it on the part of the enemy.

p Lenin’s inestimable service to the movement was that he demonstrated the ways and means of strengthening the alliance between the working class and the peasantry and showed the decisive force in this alliance to be the Marxist workers’ party, without which the revolutionary movement was doomed to grope in the darkness. The idea of the party’s historical role and consolidation of the worker-peasant alliance form the keynote of all Lenin’s works. The strength of the proletariat in the historical movement is incomparably greater than its share in the general mass of the country’s population. This was the socio-economic basis which served Lenin as his point of departure in demonstrating the vanguard role of the Russian proletariat. This new rising class was the advanced, best organised and disciplined detachment of all the working and exploited population of Russia. It was this class that could and should take the lead in the country’s liberation movement. This new thesis of Lenin’s is especially important for the leadership of the national liberation movement in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

p The alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry is founded on their fundamental class interests, on their common aims and tasks in the liberation struggle. The alliance between these two friendly classes is a vital necessity, not only for the destruction of the old world and the abolition of bourgeois-landowner rule, but for the creation of a new social system, the most humane and most progressive system in the world. Both classes—the proletariat and the peasantry—are equally concerned in the vitality of this alliance. Therefore, in dealing with this question one must avoid a one-sided approach.

p The history of the liberation movement has shown that in the absence of an alliance with the peasantry the proletariat is unable to carry out its liberative mission, just as the peasantry on its own is unable to free itself from landowner and capitalist bondage. The point at issue is which 173 class in this alliance is to have the leading, guiding role. And here again Lenin drew upon the facts of history, his knowledge of life and the rich experience of the liberation struggle. And the facts of this struggle showed that only the working class, which had been through the school of industrial training, the school of proletarian solidarity, the school of class struggle, could be this guiding force. The role of advanced, best organised and steadfast champion of the interests of all the working and exploited people belonged to it by right.

p In the fight against Narodism, against the Socialist- Revolutionaries and Mensheviks the Russian Marxists made no little efforts to prove that despite its numerical superiority the Russian peasantry was unable, by reason of its socioeconomic disunity and political backwardness, to take the lead in the liberation movement. The peasantry from time immemorial had been fighting for its liberation from ageold slavery, but nowhere had it ever won a victory over its class enemies—the landowners, the landed gentry. The victories won in the early anti-feudal revolutions in the West were stolen by the bourgeoisie. The peasantry, though an active revolutionary force, did not act on its own here, but under the leadership of the bourgeoisie. In these alliances with the bourgeoisie after victory over the gentry and landowners, the peasantry always found itself cheated by its ally and dragged into still harsher servitude. • Life itself suggested that the peasantry could find its really faithful ally and true leader only in the working class, which could not free itself unless it destroyed the very foundations of exploitation—private property, including landowner and capitalist ownership of the land, which was at the root of the peasantry’s grievous plight. Obviously, the fruits of victory secured by this alliance of the working people over their common enemy—the landowners and capitalists—would be garnered not by one of the victors, but by the proletariat and the peasantry together. In this connection mention should be made of three characteristic features in the history of the revolutionary struggle of the working class and the peasantry in Russia, which predetermined their success in the struggle for power, for the victory of socialism.

p The first of these was that the political moulding of the Russian proletariat, the growth of its class consciousness and 174 its revolutionary toughening took place under the direct leadership of the Marxist party. Armed with the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism, this party headed the workers’ movement in Russia from the moment it came into being. It was able to identify the workers’ movement with socialism, to paralyse the anti-Marxist trend in the labour movement, to rally the Russian proletariat behind it, and train and temper it in the flame of the class struggle. This in turn had decisive importance for the trade union movement in Russia, which, unlike that in many countries of Europe, developed under the direct leadership of the revolutionary party.

p The second characteristic feature was that from the very beginning of the mass revolutionary struggle, the working class of Russia was able to arouse and win over to its side the broad masses of the peasantry, thereby securing the active support of the revolutionary movement of the peasantry for its struggle for power, for socialism. In the history of the international labour movement Russia was the first country in which the working class acted as the hegemonic force of the revolution, as leader of the peasantry, and in which the Marxist-Leninist idea of an alliance between the working class and the peasantry was first put into practice. This circumstance, in turn, was an important prerequisite for the peasantry taking the path of co-operation, the path of socialism.

p The third feature was that from the very beginning of its activities the Party was able to enlist the best, progressive forces of the intelligentsia to the service of the working class and the peasantry. Taking into account that socialism as a social system and the socialist ideology as a revolutionary outlook derive from science, and not from a spontaneous labour movement, our Party wisely solved the very difficult problem of rallying the progressive-minded intellectuals to the liberative banner of Marxism-Leninism. Events have shown that the labour movement cannot do without an intellectual force, without a progressive, revolutionary intelligentsia. It is pleasing to note that our Soviet intelligentsia are cherishing these revolutionary traditions and are now going with the Party hand in hand.

p Lenin dealt in detail with the question of a new type of state—the state of the Soviets of workers’ and peasants’ deputies, leaning on the political and moral might of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This teaching was the 175 greatest achievement of creative Marxism. Lenin made hay of the reformist concepts of the Social-Democrats, who saw the possibility of the proletariat’s basic interests being realised within the framework of a bourgeois parliamentary republic. Our Party rendered a great service in that it was the first in the history of the international labour movement to put into practice the Marxist-Leninist teaching concerning the dictatorship of the proletariat and to set up a really popular, socialist state.

p The crown of Lenin’s teaching and an outstanding achievement of social thought was the theory of socialist revolution which demonstrated the possibility of socialism winning initially in one or several countries. This theory was brilliantly exemplified in the October Socialist Revolution, which paved for humanity the high road towards a new era—the era of socialism. Lenin’s teaching concerning the gradual fallingaway of the weak links in the imperialist chain is confirmed by the entire course of historical development. Today there is no longer a single, unbroken chain of imperialism. Many links have dropped away from it, forming the world socialist system, which is now the decisive factor in human history.

p Lenin elaborated the most important problems of social development, created a coherent theory on the agrarian and national questions, which he knitted into a single knot with the proletariat’s revolutionary struggle for power, for socialism. He was the architect of the world’s first multinational socialist state—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and laid the theoretical and practical foundations for its development. And all that we are accomplishing is the result of the activities of the Party of a new type. Yes, this is where we must place special emphasis on its unfading grandeur, its merited glory and unrivalled worth.

p The genius of Lenin was exemplified also in the scientifically grounded plan for the construction of socialism in our country which he bequeathed to the Party. The political foundation of this plan was the teaching concerning the consolidation of the alliance between the working class and the peasantry and of friendship among the peoples as a mighty force of the new social order, a teaching about the leading and organising role of the Party within the system of the Soviet socialist state. His teaching concerning the industrialisation of the country, the socialist remodelling of agriculture, and the carrying-out of a cultural revolution, 176 which guaranteed the complete victory of socialism in a single country formed the economic foundation of the plan for the construction of socialism. The C.P.S.U. is proud of the fact that it not only carried out Lenin’s designs, but contributed to the elaboration of the scientific theory concerning the construction of socialism. Lenin’s steadfast disciples not only kept his flag flying, but raised it still higher. They braved the attacks of the numerous enemies of Leninism, and carried the banner forward, hoisting it on the pedestal of triumphant socialism in the U.S.S.R.

Lenin’s plan for building socialism and its realisation in the U.S.S.R. are of tremendous international significance. Lenin discovered the general laws governing the transition from capitalism to socialism, defined the essential nature of this historical process and foresaw the inevitability of new social relationships prevailing on an international scale. The historical experience of the Soviet Union and all the countries who are building socialism, for all its concrete specific features in each country, has brilliantly demonstrated the profound validity of Lenin’s ideas.