September 25, 2025 • 33 mins
Amidst the turmoil of the failed 1905 revolution in Russia, Lenin provides a critical analysis of the Bolshevik political program and tactics, contrasting them with the erratic and subservient factions within the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. Join us as we explore this insightful examination of revolutionary strategy and political clarity. (Summary by Christian Pecaut) This edition was edited by George Hanna.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen of two Tactics of Social Democracy by Lenin,
recorded for LibriVox dot org by Christian Picot at Communist
Revolution dot Org. Chapter thirteen conclusion, dare we win people
(00:29):
who are superficially acquainted with the state of affairs in
Russian social democracy or who judge as mere onlookers without
knowing the whole history of our internal party struggle since
the days of economism. Very often also dismiss the disagreements
on tactics which have now become crystallized, especially after the
(00:51):
Third Congress, with the simple argument that there are two natural,
inevitable and quite reconcilable trends in every social democratic movement.
One side, they say, lays special emphasis on the ordinary
current everyday work, on the necessity of developing propaganda and agitation,
(01:14):
of preparing forces, deepening the movement, et cetera, while the
other side lays emphasis on the militant general political revolutionary
tasks of the movement, points to the necessity of armed insurrection,
advances the slogans for a revolutionary democratic dictatorship for a
(01:36):
provisional revolutionary government. Neither one side nor the other should exaggerate,
they say. Extremes are bad both here and there and
generally speaking everywhere in the world, etc. Et cetera. The
cheap truisms of worldly and political in quotation marks wisdom,
(02:03):
which such arguments undoubtedly contain, too often cover up a
failure to understand the urgent and acute needs of the party.
Take the differences on tactics that now exist among the
Russian Social Democrats. Of course, the special emphasis laid on
the everyday routine aspect of the work, such as we
(02:25):
observe in the new escrised arguments about tactics, could not
in itself present any danger and could not give rise
to any divergence of opinion regarding tactical slogans. But the
moment you compare the resolutions of the Third Congress of
the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party with the resolutions of
(02:47):
the Conference, this divergence becomes strikingly obvious. What then, is
the trouble? The trouble is that, in the first place,
it is not enough to point out a distractly to
the two currents in the movement and to the harmfulness
of extremes. One must know concretely what the given movement
(03:08):
is suffering from at the given time, What constitutes the
real political danger to the party at the present time. Secondly,
one must know what real political forces are profiting by
this or that tactical slogan, or perhaps by the absence
of this or that slogan. To listen to the new Eschrists,
(03:32):
one would arrive at the conclusion that the Social Democratic
Party is threatened with the danger of throwing overboard propaganda
and agitation, the economic struggle and criticism of bourgeois democracy,
of becoming inordinately absorbed in military preparations, armed attacks, the
(03:52):
seizure of power, etc. Actually, however, real danger is threatening
the party from an entirely different quarter. Anyone who is
at all closely familiar with the state of the movement,
anyone who follows it carefully and thoughtfully, cannot fail to
see the ridiculous side of the new escras fears. The
(04:18):
entire work of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party has
already been fully molded into firm, immutable forms which absolutely
guarantee that our main attention will be fixed on propaganda
and agitation, impromptu and mass meetings, on the distribution of
leaflets and pamphlets, assisting in the economic struggle, and championing
(04:42):
the slogans of that struggle. There is not a single
party committee, not a single district committee, not a single
central delegates meeting, or a single factory group where ninety
nine percent of all the attention, energy and time are
not always and constantly devoted to these functions which have
(05:04):
become firmly established ever since the middle of the nineties.
Only those who are entirely unfamiliar with the movement are
ignorant of this. Only very naive or ill informed people
can be taken in by the new Eschrist's repetition of
stale truths when it is done with an air of
(05:26):
great importance. The fact is that not only is no
excessive zeal displayed among us with regard to the tasks
of insurrection, to the general political slogans, and to the
matter of leading the entire popular revolution, but on the contrary,
it is backwardness in this very respect that stands out
(05:49):
most strikingly, constitutes our weakest spot and a real danger
to the movement, which may degenerate, and in some places
is degenerating from one that is revolutionary in deeds into
one that is revolutionary in words. Among the many, many
(06:09):
hundreds of organizations, groups and circles that are conducting the
work of the party. You will not find a single
one which has not, from its very inception, conducted the
kind of everyday work about which the wise crackers of
the New Escra now talk with the air of people
who have discovered new truths. On the other hand, you
(06:32):
will find only an insignificant percentage of groups and circles
that have understood the tasks and armed insurrection entails, which
have begun to carry them out, and have realized the
necessity of leading the entire popular revolution against Czarism, the
necessity of advancing for that purpose certain definite progressive slogans
(06:53):
and no other. We are incredibly behind in our progressive
and genuine life many revolutionary tasks. In very many instances
we have not even become conscious of them. Here and
there we have failed to notice the strengthening of revolutionary
bourgeois democracy, owing to our backwardness in this respect. But
(07:17):
the writers in the New Escra, turning their backs on
the course of events and on the requirements of the times,
keep repeating insistently, don't forget the old, don't let yourselves
be carried away by the new. This is the principal
and unvarying like motif of all the important resolutions of
(07:37):
the Conference, whereas in the Congress resolutions you just as
unvaryingly read while confirming the old and without stopping to
chew it over and over, for the very reason that
it is old and has already been settled and recorded
in literature. In resolutions and by experience, we put forward
(07:59):
a new task, draw attention to it, issue a new slogan,
and demand that the genuinely revolutionary social democrats immediately set
to work to put it into effect. That is how
matters really stand with regard to the question of the
two trends in social democratic tactics. The revolutionary period has
(08:23):
called forth new tasks which only the totally blind can
fail to see, and some social democrats unhesitatingly recognize these
tasks and place them on the order of the day,
declaring the armed insurrection brooks no delay. Prepare yourselves for
it immediately and energetically, remember that it is indispensable for
(08:48):
a decisive victory. Issue the slogans of a republic, of
a provisional revolutionary government, of a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of
the proletariat, and the peasant. Others, however, draw back mark time,
write prefaces instead of giving slogans, instead of pointing to
(09:11):
the new while confirming the old. They chew this old
tediously and at great length, inventing pretexts to avoid the new,
Unable to determine the conditions for a decisive victory or
to issue the slogans which alone are in line with
the striving to attain complete victory. The political result of
(09:36):
this qustism stares us in the face. The fable about
a wapprochement between the majority of the Russian Social Democratic
Labour Party and the revolutionary bourgeois democracy remains a fable
which has not been confirmed by a single political fact,
by a single important resolution of the Bolsheviks, or a
(10:00):
single act of the Third Congress of the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party. On the other hand, the opportunist monarchist bourgeoisie,
as represented by the Aswabjenia, has long been welcoming the
trends of the principles of new escraism, and now it
(10:21):
is actually running its mill with their grist is, adopting
their catchwords and ideas directed against secrecy and riots, against
exaggerating the technical side of the revolution against openly proclaiming
the slogan of armed insurrection, against the revolutionism of extreme demands, etc.
(10:45):
Et cetera. The resolution of a whole conference of Menshevik
social democrats in the Caucasus, and the endorsement of that
resolution by the editors of the New ESCRA sums it
all up politically in an unmistakable way. Let the bourgeoisie recoil.
(11:06):
If the proletariat takes part in a revolutionary democratic dictatorship.
This puts it in a nutshell. This gives the finishing
touch to the transformation of the proletariat into an appendage
of the monarchist bourgeoisie. The political meeting of the faustism
of the New ESCRA is thereby proved, in fact, not
(11:29):
by a casual declaration of some individual, but by a
resolution especially endorsed by a whole trend. Anyone who ponders
over these facts will understand the real significance of the
stock reference to the two sides and the two trends
in the social democratic movement. For a study of these
(11:51):
trends on a large scale, take Bernsteinism. The Bernstinians have
been dinning into our ears in exactly the same way
that it is they who understand the true needs of
the proletariat, the tasks connected with the growth of its forces,
with rendering the entire activity more profound, with preparing the
(12:13):
elements of a new society, with propaganda and agitation. Bernstein says,
we demand a frank recognition of what is thus sanctifying
a movement without final aims, sanctifying defensive tactics, only preaching
(12:34):
the tactics of fear lest the bourgeoisie recoil. The Bernstinians
also raised an outcry against the Jacobinism of the revolutionary
social democrats, against the publicists who fail to understand the
initiative of the workers, etc. Etc. In reality, as everyone knows,
(12:59):
the revolutiontionary social Democrats have never even thought of abandoning
the everyday petty work, the mustering of forces, etc. Et cetera.
All they demanded was a clear understanding of the final aim,
a clear presentation of the revolutionary tasks. They wanted to
(13:19):
raise the semi proletarian and semi petty bourgeois strata to
the revolutionary level of the proletariat, not to reduce this
level to that of opportunist considerations. Such as lest the
bourgeoisie recoil. Perhaps the most vivid expression of this rift
between the intellectual opportunist wing and the proletarian revolutionary wing
(13:44):
of the party was the question dufen wissingen, Dare we win?
Is it permissible for us to win? Would it not
be dangerous for us to win? Ought we to win?
This question, which seems so strange at first sight, was raised, however,
(14:05):
and had to be raised because the opportunists were afraid
of victory, were frightening the proletariat away from it, were
predicting that trouble would come of it, were ridiculing the
slogans that straightforwardly called for it. The same fundamental division
into an intellectual opportunist and proletarian revolutionary trend exists also
(14:30):
among us, with the very material difference, however, that here
we are faced with the question of a democratic revolution
and not a socialist revolution. The question dare we win,
which seems so absurd at first sight, has been raised
among us also. It was raised by Martinov in his
(14:53):
two Dictatorships, in which he prophesied dire misfortune if we
prepare well for and carry out an insurrection quite successfully.
The question has been raised in all the new Escras
literature dealing with a provisional revolutionary government, and all the
time persistent, though futile efforts have been made to liken
(15:17):
Mileran's participation in a bourgeois opportunist government to Varland's participation
in a petty bourgeois revolutionary government. It is embodied in
a resolution lest the bourgeoisie recoil. And although Kautski, for instance,
now tries to wax ironical and says that our dispute
(15:41):
about a provisional revolutionary government is like dividing the skin
of a bear before the bear has been killed, this
irony only proves that even clever and revolutionary social democrats
are liable to put their foot in it when they
talk about something they know of only by hearsay. German
(16:02):
social democracy is not yet so near to killing its
bear carrying out a socialist revolution, but the dispute as
to whether we dare kill the bear was of enormous
importance from the point of view of principles and practical politics.
Russian social democrats are not yet so near to being
(16:24):
strong enough to kill their bear to carry out a
democratic revolution, but the question as to whether we dare kill.
It is of extreme importance for the whole future of
Russia and for the future of Russian social democracy. An
army cannot be energetically and successfully mustered and led unless
(16:47):
we are sure that we dare win. Take our old economists.
They too, howled that their opponents were conspirators ekkabins see
the Rabocha Diello, especially number ten and Martinev's speech in
the debate on the program at the Second Congress, that
(17:10):
by plunging into politics, they were divorcing themselves from the masses,
that they were losing sight of the fundamentals of the
working class movement, ignoring the initiative of the workers, etc. Etc.
In reality, these supporters of the initiative of the workers
were opportunist intellectuals who tried to foist on the workers
(17:33):
their own narrow and philistine conception of the tasks of
the proletariat. In reality, the opponents of economism, as everyone
can see from the old eskra did not neglect or
push into the background any of the aspects of social
democratic work, nor did they in the least forget the
(17:55):
economic struggle. But they were able at the same time
to present the urgent and immediate political tasks in their
full scope, and they oppose the transformation of the Worker's
Party into an economic appendage of the liberal bourgeoisie. The
economists had learned by Wrote that politics are based on economics,
(18:19):
and understood this to mean that the political struggle should
be reduced to the level of the economic struggle. The
new escraists have learned by Rote that the economic basis
of the democratic revolution is the bourgeois revolution, and understood
this to mean that the democratic aims of the proletariat
(18:42):
should be degraded to the level of bourgeois moderation, to
the limits beyond which the bourgeoisie will recoil. On the
pretext of rendering their work more profound, on the pretext
of rousing the initiative of the workers and pursuing a
purely class policy, the economists were actually delivering the working
(19:06):
class into the hands of the liberal bourgeois politicians, i e.
Were leading the party along a path which objectively meant
exactly that. On the same pretexts, the new escrists are
actually betraying the interests of the proletariat in the democratic
revolution to the bourgeoisie. I e. Are leading the party
(19:30):
along a path which objectively means exactly that the economists
thought that leadership in the political struggle was no concern
of the social democrats, but properly the business of the liberals.
The new Escriists think that the active conduct of the
democratic revolution is no concern of the social democrats, but
(19:54):
properly the business of the democratic bourgeoisie. For they are
if the proletariat takes the leading and pre eminent part,
it will diminish the sweep of the revolution. In short,
the new Escrists are the epigonies of economism, not only
(20:15):
in their origin at the Second Party Congress, but also
in the manner in which they now present the tactical
tasks of the proletariat in the Democratic Revolution. They too
constitute an intellectual opportunist wing of the party. In the
sphere of organization. They made their debut with the anarchist
(20:37):
individualism of intellectuals and finished with disorganization as a process,
fixing in the rules adopted by the Conference the separation
of the party's publishing activities from the party organization, an
indirect and practically four stage system of elections, a system
(20:59):
of b Uonapartist plebiscites instead of democratic representation, and finally,
the principle of agreements between the part and the whole.
In party tactics, they continued to slide down the same
inclined plane. In the plan of the zemptzvoh campaign, they
(21:22):
declared that speeches to zempsphoists were the highest type of demonstration.
Finding only two active forces on the political scene on
the eve of January ninth, the government and the democratic bourgeoisie,
they made the pressing problem of arming more profound by
(21:45):
substituting for the direct and practical slogan of an appeal
to arm, the slogan armed the people with a burning
desire to arm themselves. The tasks connected with an armed insurrection,
with the establishment of a provisional government, and with a
revolutionary democratic dictatorship have now been distorted and blunted by
(22:08):
them in their official resolutions. Lest the bourgeoisie recoil, this
final cord of their last resolution throws a glaring light
on the question of where their path is leading the party.
The Democratic revolution in Russia is a bourgeois revolution by
(22:30):
reason of its social and economic content, but a mere
repetition of this correct Marxian proposition is not enough. It
must be properly understood and properly applied in political slogans.
In general, all political liberties that are founded on present
day i e. Capitalist relations of production are bourgeois liberties.
(22:57):
The demand for liberty expresses primarily the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Its representatives were the first to raise this demand. Its
supporters have everywhere used the liberty they acquired like masters,
reducing it to moderate and meticulous bourgeois doses, combining it
(23:19):
with the most subtle methods of suppressing the revolutionary proletariat
in peaceful times and with brutally cruel methods in stormy times.
But only the rebel narodniks, the anarchists, and the economists
could deduce from this that the struggle for liberty should
(23:39):
be rejected or disparaged. These intellectual, philistine doctrines could be
foisted on the proletariat only for a time, and against
its will. The proletariat always realized instinctively that it needed
political liberty, needed it more than anyone else, Despite the
(24:01):
fact that its immediate effect would be to strengthen and
to organize the bourgeoisie. The proletariat expects to find its
salvation not by avoiding the class struggle, but by developing it,
by widening it, increasing its consciousness, its organization, and determination.
(24:24):
Whoever it degrades the tasks of the political struggle transforms
the social democrat from a tribune of the people into
a trade union secretary. Whoever it degrades the proletarian tasks
in a democratic bourgeois revolution transforms the social democrat from
(24:45):
a leader of the people's revolution into a leader of
a free labor union. Yes, the people's revolution. Social democracy
has fought, and is quite right lightly fighting against the
bourgeois democratic abuse of the word people. It demands that
(25:07):
this word shall not be used to cover up failure
to understand the class antagonisms within the people. It insists
categorically on the need for complete class independence for the
party of the proletariat. But it divides the people into classes.
Not in order that the advanced class may become shut
(25:29):
up within itself, confine itself to narrow aims and emasculate
its activity for fear that the economic rulers of the
world will recoil, but in order that the advanced class,
which does not suffer from the half heartedness, vacillation, and
indecision of the intermediate classes, may with all the greater
(25:52):
energy and enthusiasm fight for the cause of the whole
of the people, at the head of the whole of
the people. That is what the present day new Eschrists
so often fail to understand, and why they substitute for
active political slogans in the democratic Revolution a mere pedantic
(26:14):
repetition of the word class parsed in all genders and cases.
The democratic revolution is a bourgeois revolution, the slogan of
a black redistribution, or land and liberty. This most widespread
slogan of the peasant masses, downtrodden and ignorant, yet passionately
(26:39):
yearning for light and happiness, is a bourgeois slogan. But
we Marxists should know that there is not, nor can
there be, any other path to real freedom for the
proletariat and the peasantry than the path of bourgeois freedom
and bourgeois progress. We must not forget that there is not,
(27:03):
nor can there be, at the present time, any other
means of bringing socialism nearer than complete political liberty, than
a democratic republic, than the revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the
proletariat and the peasantry, as the representatives of the advanced
(27:23):
and only revolutionary class. Revolutionary without reservations, doubts, or looking back,
we must present to the whole of the people as widely,
as boldly, and with the utmost initiative possible, the tasks
of the democratic Revolution. To degrade these tasks in theory
(27:46):
means making a travesty of Marxism, distorting it in philistine fashion,
while in practical politics it means delivering the cause of
the revolution into the hands of the bourgeoisie, which will
will inevitably recoil from the task of consistently carrying out
the revolution. The difficulties that lie on the road to
(28:09):
the complete victory of the revolution are very great. No
one will be able to blame the representatives of the
proletariat if, having done everything in their power, their efforts
are defeated by the resistance of the reaction, the treachery
of the bourgeoisie, and the ignorance of the masses. But everybody,
(28:31):
and the class conscious proletariat above all, will condemn social
democracy if it curtails the revolutionary energy of the democratic
revolution and dampens revolutionary ardor because it is afraid to win,
because it is actuated by the consideration lest the bourgeoisie recoil.
(28:55):
Revolutions are the locomotives of history, said Marx. Revolutions are
the festivals of the oppressed and the exploited. At no
other time are the masses of the people in a
position to come forward so actively as creators of a
new social order as at a time of revolution. At
(29:17):
such times, the people are capable of performing miracles if
judged by the narrow, philistine scale of gradual progress. But
the leaders of the revolutionary parties must also make their
aims more comprehensive and bold at such a time, so
that their slogans shall always be in advance of the
(29:39):
revolutionary initiative of the masses. Serve as a beacon, reveal
to them our democratic and socialist ideal in all its
magnitude and splendor, and show them the shortest and most
direct route to complete, absolute and decisive victory. Let Us
(29:59):
leave to the opists of the aswobgenia bourgeoisie the task
of inventing roundabout circuitous paths of compromise out of fear
of the revolution and of the direct path. If we
are compelled by force to drag ourselves along such paths,
we shall be able to fulfill our duty in petty,
(30:22):
everyday work also. But let ruthless struggle first decide the
choice of the path. We shall be traders too and
betrayers of the revolution if we do not use this
festive energy of the masses and their revolutionary ardor to
wage a ruthless and self sacrificing struggle for the direct
(30:44):
and decisive path. Let the bourgeois opportunists contemplate the future
reaction with craven fear. The workers will not be frightened
either by the thought that the reaction promises to be
terrible or by the thought that the bourgeoisie proposes to recoil.
(31:06):
The workers are not looking forward to striking bargains, are
not asking for stops. They're striving to crush the reactionary
forces without mercy, i e. To set up the revolutionary
democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. Of course,
(31:27):
greater dangers threaten the ship of our party in stormy
times than in periods of the smooth sailing of liberal progress,
which means the painfully slow, sweating of the working class
by its exploiters. Of course, the tasks of the revolutionary
democratic dictatorship are a thousand times more difficult and more
(31:52):
complicated than the tasks of an extreme opposition or of
the exclusively parliamentary st struggle. But whoever can deliberately prefer
smooth sailing and the path of safe opposition in the
present revolutionary situation had better abandon social democratic work for
(32:13):
a while, had better wait until the revolution is over,
until the festive days have passed, when humdrum everyday life
starts again, and his narrow routine standards no longer strike
such an abominably discordant note, or constitute such an ugly
distortion of the tasks of the advanced class at the
(32:39):
head of the whole of the people, and particularly of
the peasantry, for complete freedom, for a consistent democratic revolution,
for a republic at the head of all the toilers
and the exploited, for socialism. Such must, in practice be
the policy of the revolutionary proletariat. Such is the class slogan,
(33:02):
which must permeate and determine the solution of every tactical problem,
every practical step of the workers party during the revolution.
End of chapter thirteen. This recording is in the public
domain
Chapter thirteen of two Tactics of Social Democracy by Lenin,
recorded for LibriVox dot org by Christian Picot at Communist
Revolution dot Org. Chapter thirteen conclusion, dare we win people
(00:29):
who are superficially acquainted with the state of affairs in
Russian social democracy or who judge as mere onlookers without
knowing the whole history of our internal party struggle since
the days of economism. Very often also dismiss the disagreements
on tactics which have now become crystallized, especially after the
(00:51):
Third Congress, with the simple argument that there are two natural,
inevitable and quite reconcilable trends in every social democratic movement.
One side, they say, lays special emphasis on the ordinary
current everyday work, on the necessity of developing propaganda and agitation,
(01:14):
of preparing forces, deepening the movement, et cetera, while the
other side lays emphasis on the militant general political revolutionary
tasks of the movement, points to the necessity of armed insurrection,
advances the slogans for a revolutionary democratic dictatorship for a
(01:36):
provisional revolutionary government. Neither one side nor the other should exaggerate,
they say. Extremes are bad both here and there and
generally speaking everywhere in the world, etc. Et cetera. The
cheap truisms of worldly and political in quotation marks wisdom,
(02:03):
which such arguments undoubtedly contain, too often cover up a
failure to understand the urgent and acute needs of the party.
Take the differences on tactics that now exist among the
Russian Social Democrats. Of course, the special emphasis laid on
the everyday routine aspect of the work, such as we
(02:25):
observe in the new escrised arguments about tactics, could not
in itself present any danger and could not give rise
to any divergence of opinion regarding tactical slogans. But the
moment you compare the resolutions of the Third Congress of
the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party with the resolutions of
(02:47):
the Conference, this divergence becomes strikingly obvious. What then, is
the trouble? The trouble is that, in the first place,
it is not enough to point out a distractly to
the two currents in the movement and to the harmfulness
of extremes. One must know concretely what the given movement
(03:08):
is suffering from at the given time, What constitutes the
real political danger to the party at the present time. Secondly,
one must know what real political forces are profiting by
this or that tactical slogan, or perhaps by the absence
of this or that slogan. To listen to the new Eschrists,
(03:32):
one would arrive at the conclusion that the Social Democratic
Party is threatened with the danger of throwing overboard propaganda
and agitation, the economic struggle and criticism of bourgeois democracy,
of becoming inordinately absorbed in military preparations, armed attacks, the
(03:52):
seizure of power, etc. Actually, however, real danger is threatening
the party from an entirely different quarter. Anyone who is
at all closely familiar with the state of the movement,
anyone who follows it carefully and thoughtfully, cannot fail to
see the ridiculous side of the new escras fears. The
(04:18):
entire work of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party has
already been fully molded into firm, immutable forms which absolutely
guarantee that our main attention will be fixed on propaganda
and agitation, impromptu and mass meetings, on the distribution of
leaflets and pamphlets, assisting in the economic struggle, and championing
(04:42):
the slogans of that struggle. There is not a single
party committee, not a single district committee, not a single
central delegates meeting, or a single factory group where ninety
nine percent of all the attention, energy and time are
not always and constantly devoted to these functions which have
(05:04):
become firmly established ever since the middle of the nineties.
Only those who are entirely unfamiliar with the movement are
ignorant of this. Only very naive or ill informed people
can be taken in by the new Eschrist's repetition of
stale truths when it is done with an air of
(05:26):
great importance. The fact is that not only is no
excessive zeal displayed among us with regard to the tasks
of insurrection, to the general political slogans, and to the
matter of leading the entire popular revolution, but on the contrary,
it is backwardness in this very respect that stands out
(05:49):
most strikingly, constitutes our weakest spot and a real danger
to the movement, which may degenerate, and in some places
is degenerating from one that is revolutionary in deeds into
one that is revolutionary in words. Among the many, many
(06:09):
hundreds of organizations, groups and circles that are conducting the
work of the party. You will not find a single
one which has not, from its very inception, conducted the
kind of everyday work about which the wise crackers of
the New Escra now talk with the air of people
who have discovered new truths. On the other hand, you
(06:32):
will find only an insignificant percentage of groups and circles
that have understood the tasks and armed insurrection entails, which
have begun to carry them out, and have realized the
necessity of leading the entire popular revolution against Czarism, the
necessity of advancing for that purpose certain definite progressive slogans
(06:53):
and no other. We are incredibly behind in our progressive
and genuine life many revolutionary tasks. In very many instances
we have not even become conscious of them. Here and
there we have failed to notice the strengthening of revolutionary
bourgeois democracy, owing to our backwardness in this respect. But
(07:17):
the writers in the New Escra, turning their backs on
the course of events and on the requirements of the times,
keep repeating insistently, don't forget the old, don't let yourselves
be carried away by the new. This is the principal
and unvarying like motif of all the important resolutions of
(07:37):
the Conference, whereas in the Congress resolutions you just as
unvaryingly read while confirming the old and without stopping to
chew it over and over, for the very reason that
it is old and has already been settled and recorded
in literature. In resolutions and by experience, we put forward
(07:59):
a new task, draw attention to it, issue a new slogan,
and demand that the genuinely revolutionary social democrats immediately set
to work to put it into effect. That is how
matters really stand with regard to the question of the
two trends in social democratic tactics. The revolutionary period has
(08:23):
called forth new tasks which only the totally blind can
fail to see, and some social democrats unhesitatingly recognize these
tasks and place them on the order of the day,
declaring the armed insurrection brooks no delay. Prepare yourselves for
it immediately and energetically, remember that it is indispensable for
(08:48):
a decisive victory. Issue the slogans of a republic, of
a provisional revolutionary government, of a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of
the proletariat, and the peasant. Others, however, draw back mark time,
write prefaces instead of giving slogans, instead of pointing to
(09:11):
the new while confirming the old. They chew this old
tediously and at great length, inventing pretexts to avoid the new,
Unable to determine the conditions for a decisive victory or
to issue the slogans which alone are in line with
the striving to attain complete victory. The political result of
(09:36):
this qustism stares us in the face. The fable about
a wapprochement between the majority of the Russian Social Democratic
Labour Party and the revolutionary bourgeois democracy remains a fable
which has not been confirmed by a single political fact,
by a single important resolution of the Bolsheviks, or a
(10:00):
single act of the Third Congress of the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party. On the other hand, the opportunist monarchist bourgeoisie,
as represented by the Aswabjenia, has long been welcoming the
trends of the principles of new escraism, and now it
(10:21):
is actually running its mill with their grist is, adopting
their catchwords and ideas directed against secrecy and riots, against
exaggerating the technical side of the revolution against openly proclaiming
the slogan of armed insurrection, against the revolutionism of extreme demands, etc.
(10:45):
Et cetera. The resolution of a whole conference of Menshevik
social democrats in the Caucasus, and the endorsement of that
resolution by the editors of the New ESCRA sums it
all up politically in an unmistakable way. Let the bourgeoisie recoil.
(11:06):
If the proletariat takes part in a revolutionary democratic dictatorship.
This puts it in a nutshell. This gives the finishing
touch to the transformation of the proletariat into an appendage
of the monarchist bourgeoisie. The political meeting of the faustism
of the New ESCRA is thereby proved, in fact, not
(11:29):
by a casual declaration of some individual, but by a
resolution especially endorsed by a whole trend. Anyone who ponders
over these facts will understand the real significance of the
stock reference to the two sides and the two trends
in the social democratic movement. For a study of these
(11:51):
trends on a large scale, take Bernsteinism. The Bernstinians have
been dinning into our ears in exactly the same way
that it is they who understand the true needs of
the proletariat, the tasks connected with the growth of its forces,
with rendering the entire activity more profound, with preparing the
(12:13):
elements of a new society, with propaganda and agitation. Bernstein says,
we demand a frank recognition of what is thus sanctifying
a movement without final aims, sanctifying defensive tactics, only preaching
(12:34):
the tactics of fear lest the bourgeoisie recoil. The Bernstinians
also raised an outcry against the Jacobinism of the revolutionary
social democrats, against the publicists who fail to understand the
initiative of the workers, etc. Etc. In reality, as everyone knows,
(12:59):
the revolutiontionary social Democrats have never even thought of abandoning
the everyday petty work, the mustering of forces, etc. Et cetera.
All they demanded was a clear understanding of the final aim,
a clear presentation of the revolutionary tasks. They wanted to
(13:19):
raise the semi proletarian and semi petty bourgeois strata to
the revolutionary level of the proletariat, not to reduce this
level to that of opportunist considerations. Such as lest the
bourgeoisie recoil. Perhaps the most vivid expression of this rift
between the intellectual opportunist wing and the proletarian revolutionary wing
(13:44):
of the party was the question dufen wissingen, Dare we win?
Is it permissible for us to win? Would it not
be dangerous for us to win? Ought we to win?
This question, which seems so strange at first sight, was raised, however,
(14:05):
and had to be raised because the opportunists were afraid
of victory, were frightening the proletariat away from it, were
predicting that trouble would come of it, were ridiculing the
slogans that straightforwardly called for it. The same fundamental division
into an intellectual opportunist and proletarian revolutionary trend exists also
(14:30):
among us, with the very material difference, however, that here
we are faced with the question of a democratic revolution
and not a socialist revolution. The question dare we win,
which seems so absurd at first sight, has been raised
among us also. It was raised by Martinov in his
(14:53):
two Dictatorships, in which he prophesied dire misfortune if we
prepare well for and carry out an insurrection quite successfully.
The question has been raised in all the new Escras
literature dealing with a provisional revolutionary government, and all the
time persistent, though futile efforts have been made to liken
(15:17):
Mileran's participation in a bourgeois opportunist government to Varland's participation
in a petty bourgeois revolutionary government. It is embodied in
a resolution lest the bourgeoisie recoil. And although Kautski, for instance,
now tries to wax ironical and says that our dispute
(15:41):
about a provisional revolutionary government is like dividing the skin
of a bear before the bear has been killed, this
irony only proves that even clever and revolutionary social democrats
are liable to put their foot in it when they
talk about something they know of only by hearsay. German
(16:02):
social democracy is not yet so near to killing its
bear carrying out a socialist revolution, but the dispute as
to whether we dare kill the bear was of enormous
importance from the point of view of principles and practical politics.
Russian social democrats are not yet so near to being
(16:24):
strong enough to kill their bear to carry out a
democratic revolution, but the question as to whether we dare kill.
It is of extreme importance for the whole future of
Russia and for the future of Russian social democracy. An
army cannot be energetically and successfully mustered and led unless
(16:47):
we are sure that we dare win. Take our old economists.
They too, howled that their opponents were conspirators ekkabins see
the Rabocha Diello, especially number ten and Martinev's speech in
the debate on the program at the Second Congress, that
(17:10):
by plunging into politics, they were divorcing themselves from the masses,
that they were losing sight of the fundamentals of the
working class movement, ignoring the initiative of the workers, etc. Etc.
In reality, these supporters of the initiative of the workers
were opportunist intellectuals who tried to foist on the workers
(17:33):
their own narrow and philistine conception of the tasks of
the proletariat. In reality, the opponents of economism, as everyone
can see from the old eskra did not neglect or
push into the background any of the aspects of social
democratic work, nor did they in the least forget the
(17:55):
economic struggle. But they were able at the same time
to present the urgent and immediate political tasks in their
full scope, and they oppose the transformation of the Worker's
Party into an economic appendage of the liberal bourgeoisie. The
economists had learned by Wrote that politics are based on economics,
(18:19):
and understood this to mean that the political struggle should
be reduced to the level of the economic struggle. The
new escraists have learned by Rote that the economic basis
of the democratic revolution is the bourgeois revolution, and understood
this to mean that the democratic aims of the proletariat
(18:42):
should be degraded to the level of bourgeois moderation, to
the limits beyond which the bourgeoisie will recoil. On the
pretext of rendering their work more profound, on the pretext
of rousing the initiative of the workers and pursuing a
purely class policy, the economists were actually delivering the working
(19:06):
class into the hands of the liberal bourgeois politicians, i e.
Were leading the party along a path which objectively meant
exactly that. On the same pretexts, the new escrists are
actually betraying the interests of the proletariat in the democratic
revolution to the bourgeoisie. I e. Are leading the party
(19:30):
along a path which objectively means exactly that the economists
thought that leadership in the political struggle was no concern
of the social democrats, but properly the business of the liberals.
The new Escriists think that the active conduct of the
democratic revolution is no concern of the social democrats, but
(19:54):
properly the business of the democratic bourgeoisie. For they are
if the proletariat takes the leading and pre eminent part,
it will diminish the sweep of the revolution. In short,
the new Escrists are the epigonies of economism, not only
(20:15):
in their origin at the Second Party Congress, but also
in the manner in which they now present the tactical
tasks of the proletariat in the Democratic Revolution. They too
constitute an intellectual opportunist wing of the party. In the
sphere of organization. They made their debut with the anarchist
(20:37):
individualism of intellectuals and finished with disorganization as a process,
fixing in the rules adopted by the Conference the separation
of the party's publishing activities from the party organization, an
indirect and practically four stage system of elections, a system
(20:59):
of b Uonapartist plebiscites instead of democratic representation, and finally,
the principle of agreements between the part and the whole.
In party tactics, they continued to slide down the same
inclined plane. In the plan of the zemptzvoh campaign, they
(21:22):
declared that speeches to zempsphoists were the highest type of demonstration.
Finding only two active forces on the political scene on
the eve of January ninth, the government and the democratic bourgeoisie,
they made the pressing problem of arming more profound by
(21:45):
substituting for the direct and practical slogan of an appeal
to arm, the slogan armed the people with a burning
desire to arm themselves. The tasks connected with an armed insurrection,
with the establishment of a provisional government, and with a
revolutionary democratic dictatorship have now been distorted and blunted by
(22:08):
them in their official resolutions. Lest the bourgeoisie recoil, this
final cord of their last resolution throws a glaring light
on the question of where their path is leading the party.
The Democratic revolution in Russia is a bourgeois revolution by
(22:30):
reason of its social and economic content, but a mere
repetition of this correct Marxian proposition is not enough. It
must be properly understood and properly applied in political slogans.
In general, all political liberties that are founded on present
day i e. Capitalist relations of production are bourgeois liberties.
(22:57):
The demand for liberty expresses primarily the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Its representatives were the first to raise this demand. Its
supporters have everywhere used the liberty they acquired like masters,
reducing it to moderate and meticulous bourgeois doses, combining it
(23:19):
with the most subtle methods of suppressing the revolutionary proletariat
in peaceful times and with brutally cruel methods in stormy times.
But only the rebel narodniks, the anarchists, and the economists
could deduce from this that the struggle for liberty should
(23:39):
be rejected or disparaged. These intellectual, philistine doctrines could be
foisted on the proletariat only for a time, and against
its will. The proletariat always realized instinctively that it needed
political liberty, needed it more than anyone else, Despite the
(24:01):
fact that its immediate effect would be to strengthen and
to organize the bourgeoisie. The proletariat expects to find its
salvation not by avoiding the class struggle, but by developing it,
by widening it, increasing its consciousness, its organization, and determination.
(24:24):
Whoever it degrades the tasks of the political struggle transforms
the social democrat from a tribune of the people into
a trade union secretary. Whoever it degrades the proletarian tasks
in a democratic bourgeois revolution transforms the social democrat from
(24:45):
a leader of the people's revolution into a leader of
a free labor union. Yes, the people's revolution. Social democracy
has fought, and is quite right lightly fighting against the
bourgeois democratic abuse of the word people. It demands that
(25:07):
this word shall not be used to cover up failure
to understand the class antagonisms within the people. It insists
categorically on the need for complete class independence for the
party of the proletariat. But it divides the people into classes.
Not in order that the advanced class may become shut
(25:29):
up within itself, confine itself to narrow aims and emasculate
its activity for fear that the economic rulers of the
world will recoil, but in order that the advanced class,
which does not suffer from the half heartedness, vacillation, and
indecision of the intermediate classes, may with all the greater
(25:52):
energy and enthusiasm fight for the cause of the whole
of the people, at the head of the whole of
the people. That is what the present day new Eschrists
so often fail to understand, and why they substitute for
active political slogans in the democratic Revolution a mere pedantic
(26:14):
repetition of the word class parsed in all genders and cases.
The democratic revolution is a bourgeois revolution, the slogan of
a black redistribution, or land and liberty. This most widespread
slogan of the peasant masses, downtrodden and ignorant, yet passionately
(26:39):
yearning for light and happiness, is a bourgeois slogan. But
we Marxists should know that there is not, nor can
there be, any other path to real freedom for the
proletariat and the peasantry than the path of bourgeois freedom
and bourgeois progress. We must not forget that there is not,
(27:03):
nor can there be, at the present time, any other
means of bringing socialism nearer than complete political liberty, than
a democratic republic, than the revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the
proletariat and the peasantry, as the representatives of the advanced
(27:23):
and only revolutionary class. Revolutionary without reservations, doubts, or looking back,
we must present to the whole of the people as widely,
as boldly, and with the utmost initiative possible, the tasks
of the democratic Revolution. To degrade these tasks in theory
(27:46):
means making a travesty of Marxism, distorting it in philistine fashion,
while in practical politics it means delivering the cause of
the revolution into the hands of the bourgeoisie, which will
will inevitably recoil from the task of consistently carrying out
the revolution. The difficulties that lie on the road to
(28:09):
the complete victory of the revolution are very great. No
one will be able to blame the representatives of the
proletariat if, having done everything in their power, their efforts
are defeated by the resistance of the reaction, the treachery
of the bourgeoisie, and the ignorance of the masses. But everybody,
(28:31):
and the class conscious proletariat above all, will condemn social
democracy if it curtails the revolutionary energy of the democratic
revolution and dampens revolutionary ardor because it is afraid to win,
because it is actuated by the consideration lest the bourgeoisie recoil.
(28:55):
Revolutions are the locomotives of history, said Marx. Revolutions are
the festivals of the oppressed and the exploited. At no
other time are the masses of the people in a
position to come forward so actively as creators of a
new social order as at a time of revolution. At
(29:17):
such times, the people are capable of performing miracles if
judged by the narrow, philistine scale of gradual progress. But
the leaders of the revolutionary parties must also make their
aims more comprehensive and bold at such a time, so
that their slogans shall always be in advance of the
(29:39):
revolutionary initiative of the masses. Serve as a beacon, reveal
to them our democratic and socialist ideal in all its
magnitude and splendor, and show them the shortest and most
direct route to complete, absolute and decisive victory. Let Us
(29:59):
leave to the opists of the aswobgenia bourgeoisie the task
of inventing roundabout circuitous paths of compromise out of fear
of the revolution and of the direct path. If we
are compelled by force to drag ourselves along such paths,
we shall be able to fulfill our duty in petty,
(30:22):
everyday work also. But let ruthless struggle first decide the
choice of the path. We shall be traders too and
betrayers of the revolution if we do not use this
festive energy of the masses and their revolutionary ardor to
wage a ruthless and self sacrificing struggle for the direct
(30:44):
and decisive path. Let the bourgeois opportunists contemplate the future
reaction with craven fear. The workers will not be frightened
either by the thought that the reaction promises to be
terrible or by the thought that the bourgeoisie proposes to recoil.
(31:06):
The workers are not looking forward to striking bargains, are
not asking for stops. They're striving to crush the reactionary
forces without mercy, i e. To set up the revolutionary
democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. Of course,
(31:27):
greater dangers threaten the ship of our party in stormy
times than in periods of the smooth sailing of liberal progress,
which means the painfully slow, sweating of the working class
by its exploiters. Of course, the tasks of the revolutionary
democratic dictatorship are a thousand times more difficult and more
(31:52):
complicated than the tasks of an extreme opposition or of
the exclusively parliamentary st struggle. But whoever can deliberately prefer
smooth sailing and the path of safe opposition in the
present revolutionary situation had better abandon social democratic work for
(32:13):
a while, had better wait until the revolution is over,
until the festive days have passed, when humdrum everyday life
starts again, and his narrow routine standards no longer strike
such an abominably discordant note, or constitute such an ugly
distortion of the tasks of the advanced class at the
(32:39):
head of the whole of the people, and particularly of
the peasantry, for complete freedom, for a consistent democratic revolution,
for a republic at the head of all the toilers
and the exploited, for socialism. Such must, in practice be
the policy of the revolutionary proletariat. Such is the class slogan,
(33:02):
which must permeate and determine the solution of every tactical problem,
every practical step of the workers party during the revolution.
End of chapter thirteen. This recording is in the public
domain
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