On the Revolutionary Theory and Practice of Leninism
Part 1: What is Leninism?
Probably no body of political work has ever had a greater impact on world developments than the theory and practice of Leninism. Emerging from the revolutionary struggles in Russia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Leninism became the theory guiding revolutionary movements in every corner of the globe, remaining so long after Lenin's death in 1923. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the former peoples' democracies in Eastern Europe during the 1989 to 1991 period, the international bourgeoisie initiated a widespread campaign to discredit Leninism by attributing to it that collapse. This is a rather interesting phenomenon. If Leninism was such a complete failure in overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialism, then why would the capitalists and their ideologues not embrace it with open arms, promote it as the be-all and end-all of revolutionary theory and encourage all young revolutionaries to embark on this "erroneous" path, as they have with so many other suspect theories on revolutionary struggle? Over the next several issues, Modern Communism will be examining what it is about Leninism that still terrifies the bourgeoisie and what makes it as valid today as it was over 80 years ago.
One of the hallmarks of bourgeois political discourse is to avoid, at all costs, any discussion of actual politics and to divert everything into a debate about the alleged crimes of their opponents. Lenin was not the first nor the last revolutionary leader to be accused of committing such crimes, and there are many individuals, both on the "Right" and on the "Left", who have been only too eager to reduce the discussion of politics to this level. They are also past masters at personalizing politics, character assassination and misrepresenting, misquoting and concocting positions which they attribute to Marx, Lenin and others in an attempt to discredit them and their theories. This series will endeavour to refute such claims by elaborating the actual theory and practice of Leninism and the contributions made by Lenin to social science.
It has been said that Leninism is the application of Marxism to the specific problems of the Russian revolution, but this is only partially correct. Lenin, of course, did apply Marxism to Russian conditions, and very successfully, at that. However, if that were all that he had done, then Leninism would have remained a purely Russian phenomenon, which it certainly has not.
Others have claimed that Leninism marks the revival of the revolutionary aspects of Marxism from the mid-19th century, as opposed to the later Marxism which had supposedly become reformist and non-revolutionary. There is also an element of truth in this claim, not in the sense that there is actually any such division within the writings of Marx, but in the sense that following the death of Marx and Engels various "Marxist" leaders of the Second International attempted to strip Marxism of its revolutionary content. But if Lenin merely defended and restored Marxism, then why differentiate between the two?
In reality, Lenin did far more than apply Marxism to the conditions existing in Russia and also did far more than defend the revolutionary essence of Marxism from the opportunism of the leaders of the Second International. Lenin also took a step forward and further developed the theories of Marxism under the new conditions of capitalism that began to emerge in the last decade of the 19th century. Marx and Engels had pursued their revolutionary activities during the final days of laissez-faire or pre-monopoly capitalism, when the new form of capitalism - imperialism - did not yet exist. However, Lenin pursued his activities during the period of developed imperialism, the period in which the revolution of the working class had become a practical necessity. Furthermore, his activities included leading the first successful working class revolution.
In other words, in the course of analyzing the new situation in the world and solving the problems of organizing socialist revolution during the era of imperialism, Lenin made major contributions to the theories of Marxism, not just in terms of the Russian revolution, but in terms of the entire international revolutionary movement. So, in answer to the question, "What is Leninism?", Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. In future issues, we will elaborate on some of the specific contributions to social science made by V.I.Lenin.