September 25, 2025 • 29 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):
PostScript, Part three of two Tactics of Social Democracy by Lenin,
recorded for Librevax dot org by Christian Picot at Communist
Revolution dot Org PostScript, Part three. The vulgar bourgeois representation
(00:30):
of dictatorship and Marx's view of it. Marrng tells us
in his notes to Marx's articles from the new rhinish
Uzeitung of eighteen forty eight that he published, that one
of the reproaches leveled at this newspaper by bourgeois publications
was that it had allegedly demanded the immediate introduction of
(00:53):
a dictatorship as the sole means of achieving democracy. Marx Nachlass,
Volume three, page fifty three. From the vulgar bourgeois standpoint,
the terms dictatorship and democracy are mutually exclusive. Failing to
(01:13):
understand the theory of class struggle and accustomed to seeing
in the political arena the petty squabbling of the various
bourgeois circles and coteries, the bourgeois conceives dictatorship to mean
the annulment of all the liberties and guarantees of democracy,
tyranny of every kind, and every sort of abuse of
(01:36):
power in the personal interests of a dictator. In essence,
it is precisely this bourgeois view that is manifested in
the writings of our Martinov, who winds up his new
campaign in the New Escras by attributing the partiality of
the period and the proletary for the slogan of dictation
(02:00):
leadership to Lenin's passionate desire to try his luck Esqua
number one oh three, page three, Column two. In order
to explain to Martinov the meaning of the term class
dictatorship as distinct from personal dictatorship and the tasks of
(02:20):
a democratic dictatorship as distinct from those of a socialist dictatorship,
it would not be a miss to dwell on the
views of the New Rhinish Zaetung. Every provisional organization of
the state after a revolution, wrote the New Rhinish Zetung
on September fourteenth, eighteen forty eight, requires a dictatorship, and
(02:45):
an energetic dictatorship at that from the very beginning. We
have reproached Camphausen, the head of the Ministry after March eighth,
eighteen forty eight, for not acting dictatorially, for not having
immediately smashed up and eliminated the remnants of the old institutions.
(03:06):
And while Herr Camphausen was lulling himself with constitutional illusions,
the defeated party i e. The Party of Reaction, strengthened
its positions in the bureaucracy and in the army, and
here and there even began to venture upon open class struggle.
(03:28):
These words, marrying justly remarks, sum up in a few
propositions all that was propounded in detail in the New
Rhinish Zetung in long articles on the Camphausen ministry. What
do these words of Marx tell us That a provisional
revolutionary government must act dictatorially, a proposition which the ESCRA
(03:53):
was totally unable to grasp since it was fighting shy
of the slogan dictatorship, and that the task of such
a dictatorship is to destroy the remnants of the old institutions,
which is precisely what was clearly stated in the resolution
of the Third Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour
(04:14):
Party about the struggle against counter revolution, and what was
omitted in the resolution of the Conference, as we showed above. Thirdly,
and lastly, it follows from these words that Marx castigated
the bourgeois Democrats for entertaining constitutional illusions in a period
(04:37):
of revolution and open civil war. The meaning of these
words becomes particularly obvious from the article in the New
Rhinish Zetum of June sixth, eighteen forty eight. A constituent
National Assembly wrote, Marx must first of all be an active,
(04:58):
revolutionary active assembly. The Frankfurt Assembly, however, is busying itself
with school exercises in parliamentarism while allowing the government to act.
Let us assume that this learned assembly succeeds after mature
consideration in working out the best possible agenda and the
(05:20):
best possible constitution. But what is the use of the
best possible agenda and of the best possible constitution if
the German governments have in the meantime placed the bayonet
on the agenda. That is the meaning of the slogan dictatorship.
(05:40):
We can judge from this what Marxist attitude would have
been towards resolutions which call a decision to organize a
constituent assembly a decisive victory, or which invite us to
remain the party of extreme revolutionary opposition. Major questions in
(06:02):
the life of nations are settled only by force. The
reactionary classes themselves are usually the first to resort to violence,
to civil war. They are the first to place the
bayonet on the agenda, as the Russian autocracy has been
doing systematically and undeviatingly everywhere ever since January nine, and
(06:30):
since such a situation has arisen, since the bayonet has
really become the main point on the political agenda, since
insurrection has proved to be imperative and urgent, constitutional illusions
and school exercises in parliamentarism become only a screen for
(06:51):
the bourgeois betrayal of the revolution, a screen to conceal
the fact that the bourgeoisie is recoiling from the revolution.
It is therefore the slogan of dictatorship that the genuinely
revolutionary class must advance. On the question of the tasks
(07:12):
of this dictatorship, Marx wrote already in the New Rhinish
Zeitung of June sixth, eighteen forty eight, the National Assembly
should have acted dictatorially against the reactionary attempts of the
obsolete governments. The force of public opinion in its favor
(07:33):
would then have been so strong as to shatter all Bayonets.
But this Assembly bores the German people, instead of carrying
the people with it or being carried away by it.
In Marx's opinion, the National Assembly should have eliminated from
(07:54):
the regime actually existing in Germany everything that contradicted the
principle of the sovereignty of the people. Then it should
have consolidated the revolutionary ground on which it stands, in
order to make the sovereignty of the people won by
the revolution secure against all attacks. Thus, the tasks which
(08:18):
Mark set before a revolutionary government or dictatorship in eighteen
forty eight amounted in substance primarily to a democratic revolution,
defense against counter revolution, and the actual elimination of everything
that contradicted the sovereignty of the people. This is nothing
(08:40):
else than a revolutionary democratic dictatorship to proceed which classes,
in Marx's opinion, could and should have achieved. This task
actually to exercise to the full the principle of the
sovereignty of the people and to beat all the attacks
(09:01):
of the counter revolution. Mark speaks of the people, but
we know that he always ruthlessly combated the petty bourgeois
illusions about the unity of the people and the absence
of a class struggle within the people. In using the
(09:21):
word people, Marx did not thereby gloss over class distinctions,
but combined definite elements that were capable of carrying the
revolution to completion. After the victory of the Berlin Proletariat
on March eighteenth, wrote the New Rhinish Zeitung of June fourteenth,
(09:42):
eighteen forty eight, the results of the revolution proved to
be twofold quote. On the one hand, the arming of
the people, the right of association, the sovereignty of the
people actually attained. On the other hand, the preservation of
the monarchy and the Camphausen Hansman ministry i e. The
(10:07):
government of representatives of the big bourgeoisie. Thus the revolution
had two series of results which had inevitably to diverge.
The people had achieved victory, it had won liberties of
a decisive democratic nature, but the direct power passed not
(10:28):
into its hands but into those of the big bourgeoisie.
In a word, the revolution was not completed. The people
allowed the big bourgeois to form a ministry. The big
bourgeois immediately displayed their strivings by offering an alliance to
the old Prussian nobility. And bureaucracy. Arnim, Kanitz and Schwerin
(10:54):
joined the ministry. The upper bourgeoisie, ever, anti revolutionary, concluded
a defensive and offensive alliance with the reaction out of
fear of the people, that is to say, the workers
and the democratic bourgeoisie. Thus, not only a decision to
(11:19):
organize a constituent assembly, but even its actual convocation, is
insufficient for a decisive victory of the revolution. Even after
a partial victory in an armed struggle the victory of
the Berlin workers over the troops on March eighteenth, eighteen
forty eight, an incomplete revolution, a revolution that has not
(11:44):
been carried to completion is possible. On what, then, does
its completion depend. It depends on whose hands the immediate
rule passes into, whether into the hands of the Petrunkevich
and Radishevs, that is to say, the Camphausands and the Hansamans,
(12:07):
or into the hands of the people, i e. The
workers and the democratic bourgeoisie. In the first case, the
bourgeoisie will possess power, and the proletariat freedom of criticism,
freedom to remain the party of extreme revolutionary opposition. Immediately
(12:29):
after the victory, the bourgeoisie will conclude an alliance with
the reaction. This would inevitably happen in Russia too, if,
for example, the Saint Petersburg workers gained only a partial
victory in street fighting with the troops and left it
to Messrs Petrunkovich's and company to form a government. In
(12:53):
the second case, a revolutionary democratic dictatorship i e. The
complete victory of the revolution would be possible. It now
remains to define more precisely what marks really meant by
democratic bourgeoisie democratici Burgerschaft, which, together with the workers he
(13:16):
called the people, in contradistinction to the big bourgeoisie. A
clear answer to this question is supplied by the following
passage from an article in the New Rhinish Zeitung of
July twenty ninth, eighteen forty eight. The German Revolution of
eighteen forty eight is only a parody of the French
(13:38):
Revolution of seventeen eighty nine. On August fourth, seventeen eighty nine,
three weeks after the storming of the Bastille, the French
people in a single day prevailed over all the feudal burdens.
On July eleventh, eighteen forty eight, four months after the
(14:00):
March Barricades, the feudal burdens prevailed over the German people
teste girke com ansemano. The French bourgeoisie of seventeen eighty
nine did not for a moment leave its allies the
peasants in the lurch. It knew that the foundation of
(14:22):
its rule was the destruction of feudalism in the countryside,
the creation of a free land owning grunz besitzenden peasant class.
The German bourgeoisie of eighteen forty eight is without the
least compunction betraying the peasants, who are its most natural allies,
(14:44):
the flesh of its flesh, and without whom it is
powerless against the nobility, the continuance of feudal rights their
sanction under the guise of illusory redemption. Such a is
the result of the German Revolution of eighteen forty eight.
The mountain brought forth a mouse. This is a very
(15:10):
instructive passage. It gives us four important propositions. One the
incompleted German Revolution differs from the completed French Revolution in
that the German bourgeoisie betrayed not only democracy in general,
but also the peasantry in particular. Two. The foundation for
(15:34):
the full consummation of a democratic revolution is the creation
of a free class of peasants. Three. The creation of
such a class means the abolition of feudal burdens, the
destruction of feudalism, but does not yet mean a socialist revolution. Four.
(15:57):
The peasants are the most natural alley of the bourgeoisie,
that is to say, of the democratic bourgeoisie. Without them,
it is powerless against the reaction Making proper allowances for
concrete national peculiarities, and substituting serfdom for feudalism. All these
(16:20):
propositions can be fully applied to Russia in nineteen oh five.
There is no doubt that, by learning from the experience
of Germany, as elucidated by Marx, we cannot arrive at
any other slogan for a decisive victory of the revolution
than a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.
(16:44):
There is no doubt that the chief components of the
people whom Marks in eighteen forty eight, contrasted with the
resisting reactionaries and the treacherous bourgeoisie are the proletariat and
the peasantry. There is no doubt that in Russia too,
the liberal bourgeoisie and the gentlemen of the Uswubjenia League
(17:07):
are betraying and will continue to betray the peasantry i e.
Will confine themselves to a pseudo reform and taking the
side of the landlords in the decisive battle between them
and the peasantry. Only the proletariat is capable of supporting
(17:28):
the peasantry to the end in this struggle. There is
no doubt finally, that in Russia also the success of
the peasant struggle i e. The transfer of the whole
of the land to the peasantry will signify a complete
democratic revolution and constitute the social support of the revolution
(17:49):
carried to its completion. But it will by no means
be a socialist revolution or socialization that the ideologists of
the petty bourgeoisie the socialist revolutionaries talk about the success
of the peasant insurrection. The victory of the democratic revolution
(18:11):
will merely clear the way for a genuine and decisive
struggle for socialism on the basis of a democratic republic.
In this struggle, the peasantry as a land owning class
will play the same treacherous, vacillating part as is now
being played by the bourgeoisie in the struggle for democracy.
(18:34):
To forget this is to forget socialism, to deceive oneself
and others as to the real interests and tasks of
the proletariat. In order to leave no gaps in the
presentation of the views held by Marx in eighteen forty eight,
it is necessary to note one essential difference between German
(18:57):
social democracy of that time or the Communist Party of
the proletariat. To use the language of that period and
present day Russian social democracy. Here is what Maring says.
The new Rhinish Zeitung appeared in the political arena as
(19:17):
the organ of democracy. There is no mistaking the thread
that ran through all its articles, But in the direct
sense it championed the interests of the bourgeois revolution against
absolutism and feudalism more than the interests of the proletariat
against the bourgeoisie. Very little is to be found in
(19:40):
its columns about the separate working class movement during the
years of the revolution, although one should not forget that
along with it there appeared twice a week under the
editorship of mal and Schapper, a special organ of the
Cologne Workers League. At any rate, the present day reader
(20:01):
will be struck by the little attention the new Rhinish
Zetung paid to the German working class movement of its day,
Although its most capable mind, Stephen Bourne, was a pupil
of Marx and Engels in Paris and Brussels, and in
eighteen forty eight was the Berlin correspondent for their newspaper.
(20:23):
Bourne relates in his memoirs that Marx and Engels never
expressed a single word in disapproval of his agitation among
the workers. Nevertheless, it appears probable from subsequent declarations of
Engels that they were dissatisfied, at least with the methods
of this agitation. Their dissatisfaction was justified inasmuch as Boorne
(20:48):
was obliged to make many concessions to the as yet
totally undeveloped class consciousness of the proletariat in the greater
part of Germany, essions which do not stand the test
of criticism from the viewpoint of the Communist Manifesto. Their
dissatisfaction was unjustified inasmuch as Borne managed, nonetheless, to maintain
(21:14):
the agitation conducted by him on a relatively high plane.
Without doubt, Marx and Engels were historically and politically right
in thinking that the primary interest of the working class
was to push the bourgeois revolution forward as far as possible. Nevertheless,
(21:35):
a remarkable proof of how the elementary instinct of the
working class movement is able to correct the conceptions of
the greatest minds is provided by the fact that in
April eighteen forty nine they declared in favor of a
specific workers organization and decided to participate in the Worker's
(21:56):
Congress which was being prepared especially by the East Elba
Eastern Prussia proletariat. Thus, it was only in April eighteen
forty nine, after the Revolutionary newspaper had been appearing for
almost a year the New Rhinish Zetung began publication on
(22:18):
June one, eighteen forty eight, that Marx and Engels declared
in favor of a special workers organization. Until then they
were merely running an organ of democracy unconnected by any
organizational ties with an independent workers party. This fact, monstrous
(22:38):
and improbable as it may appear from our present day standpoint,
clearly shows us what an enormous difference there is between
the German Social Democratic Party of those days and the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of today. This fact shows
how much less the proletarian features of the movement the
(22:59):
pro militarian current within it, were in evidence in the
German Democratic Revolution because of the backwardness of Germany in
eighteen forty eight, both economically and politically, its disunity as
a state. This should not be forgotten in judging Marx's
repeated declarations during this period and somewhat later about the
(23:23):
need for organizing an independent proletarian party. Marx arrived at
this practical conclusion only as a result of the experience
of the Democratic Revolution almost a year later. So philistine,
so petty bourgeois was the whole atmosphere in Germany at
(23:44):
that time. To us, this conclusion is an old and
solid acquisition of half a century's experience of international social democracy,
an acquisition which we began to organize the soul Social
Democratic Labour Party. In our case, there can be no question,
(24:05):
for instance, of revolutionary proletarian newspapers being outside the Social
Democratic Party of the Proletariat, or of their appearing even
for a moment simply as organs of democracy. But the contrast,
which had hardly begun to reveal itself between Marx and
(24:26):
Stefan Bourn exists in our case in a form which
is more developed by reason of the more powerful manifestation
of the proletarian current in the democratic stream of our revolution.
Speaking of the probable dissatisfaction of Marx and Engels with
the agitation conducted by Stefan Bourne, Marring expresses himself too
(24:52):
mildly and too evasively. Here's what Engels wrote of Born
in eighteen eighty five in his preface to the Revelations
about the Cologne Communist Trial Zurich eighteen eighty five. The
members of the Communist League everywhere stood at the head
(25:14):
of the extreme democratic movement, proving thereby that the League
was an excellent school of revolutionary action. The compositor Stefan Bourne,
who had worked in Brussels and Paris as an active
member of the League, founded a worker's brotherhood Arbeita Verbruderun
(25:37):
in Berlin, which became fairly widespread and existed until eighteen fifty.
Born a very talented young man, who, however, was a
bit too much in a hurry to become a big
political figure, fraternized with the most miscellaneous ragtag and bob
(25:57):
tail in order to get a crowd together, and was
not at all the man who could bring into unity
the conflicting tendencies light into the chaos. Consequently, in the
official publications of the Association, the views represented in the
communist manifesto were mingled hodge podge with guild recollections and
(26:21):
guild aspirations, fragments of Louis Blanc and Prouden, protectionism, etc.
In short, they wanted to please everybody, in particular strikes,
trade unions and producers cooperatives were set going, and it
(26:41):
was forgotten that, above all it was a question of
first conquering by means of political victories, the field in
which alone such things could be realized on a lasting basis.
When afterwards the victories of the reaction made the leaders
of the Brotherhood realized the necessity of taking a direct
(27:03):
part in the revolutionary struggle, they were naturally left in
the lurch by the confused mass which they had grouped
around themselves. Bourne took part in the Dresden uprising in
May eighteen forty nine and had a lucky escape. But
in contrast to the great political movement of the proletariat,
(27:26):
the Worker's Brotherhood proved to be a pure, sounderbound, separate league,
which to a large extent existed only on paper and
played such a subordinate role that the reaction did not
find it necessary to suppress it until eighteen fifty, and
its surviving branches until several years later. Bourne, whose real
(27:50):
name was Boutenmilch, has not become a big political figure,
but a petty Swiss professor who no longer translate its
marks into guild language, but the meek rehnaan of his
own fulsome German. That is how angels judge the two
(28:11):
tactics of social democracy in the Democratic Revolution. Our new
escraists are also pushing towards economism, and with such unreasonable
zeal as to earn the praises of the monarchist bourgeoisie
for their seeing the light. They too collect around themselves
(28:32):
a motley crowd, flattering the economists demagogically attracting the undeveloped
masses by the slogans of initiative, democracy, autonomy, et cetera,
et cetera. Their labor unions, too, exist only on the
pages of the Klastakov new escra. Their slogans and resolutions
(28:58):
betray a similar fail to understand the tasks of the
great political movement of the proletariat. End PostScript, Part three
and of two Tactics of social Democracy in the Democratic
Revolution by Vladimir ilitch Lenin. This recording is in the
(29:26):
public domain.
PostScript, Part three of two Tactics of Social Democracy by Lenin,
recorded for Librevax dot org by Christian Picot at Communist
Revolution dot Org PostScript, Part three. The vulgar bourgeois representation
(00:30):
of dictatorship and Marx's view of it. Marrng tells us
in his notes to Marx's articles from the new rhinish
Uzeitung of eighteen forty eight that he published, that one
of the reproaches leveled at this newspaper by bourgeois publications
was that it had allegedly demanded the immediate introduction of
(00:53):
a dictatorship as the sole means of achieving democracy. Marx Nachlass,
Volume three, page fifty three. From the vulgar bourgeois standpoint,
the terms dictatorship and democracy are mutually exclusive. Failing to
(01:13):
understand the theory of class struggle and accustomed to seeing
in the political arena the petty squabbling of the various
bourgeois circles and coteries, the bourgeois conceives dictatorship to mean
the annulment of all the liberties and guarantees of democracy,
tyranny of every kind, and every sort of abuse of
(01:36):
power in the personal interests of a dictator. In essence,
it is precisely this bourgeois view that is manifested in
the writings of our Martinov, who winds up his new
campaign in the New Escras by attributing the partiality of
the period and the proletary for the slogan of dictation
(02:00):
leadership to Lenin's passionate desire to try his luck Esqua
number one oh three, page three, Column two. In order
to explain to Martinov the meaning of the term class
dictatorship as distinct from personal dictatorship and the tasks of
(02:20):
a democratic dictatorship as distinct from those of a socialist dictatorship,
it would not be a miss to dwell on the
views of the New Rhinish Zaetung. Every provisional organization of
the state after a revolution, wrote the New Rhinish Zetung
on September fourteenth, eighteen forty eight, requires a dictatorship, and
(02:45):
an energetic dictatorship at that from the very beginning. We
have reproached Camphausen, the head of the Ministry after March eighth,
eighteen forty eight, for not acting dictatorially, for not having
immediately smashed up and eliminated the remnants of the old institutions.
(03:06):
And while Herr Camphausen was lulling himself with constitutional illusions,
the defeated party i e. The Party of Reaction, strengthened
its positions in the bureaucracy and in the army, and
here and there even began to venture upon open class struggle.
(03:28):
These words, marrying justly remarks, sum up in a few
propositions all that was propounded in detail in the New
Rhinish Zetung in long articles on the Camphausen ministry. What
do these words of Marx tell us That a provisional
revolutionary government must act dictatorially, a proposition which the ESCRA
(03:53):
was totally unable to grasp since it was fighting shy
of the slogan dictatorship, and that the task of such
a dictatorship is to destroy the remnants of the old institutions,
which is precisely what was clearly stated in the resolution
of the Third Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour
(04:14):
Party about the struggle against counter revolution, and what was
omitted in the resolution of the Conference, as we showed above. Thirdly,
and lastly, it follows from these words that Marx castigated
the bourgeois Democrats for entertaining constitutional illusions in a period
(04:37):
of revolution and open civil war. The meaning of these
words becomes particularly obvious from the article in the New
Rhinish Zetum of June sixth, eighteen forty eight. A constituent
National Assembly wrote, Marx must first of all be an active,
(04:58):
revolutionary active assembly. The Frankfurt Assembly, however, is busying itself
with school exercises in parliamentarism while allowing the government to act.
Let us assume that this learned assembly succeeds after mature
consideration in working out the best possible agenda and the
(05:20):
best possible constitution. But what is the use of the
best possible agenda and of the best possible constitution if
the German governments have in the meantime placed the bayonet
on the agenda. That is the meaning of the slogan dictatorship.
(05:40):
We can judge from this what Marxist attitude would have
been towards resolutions which call a decision to organize a
constituent assembly a decisive victory, or which invite us to
remain the party of extreme revolutionary opposition. Major questions in
(06:02):
the life of nations are settled only by force. The
reactionary classes themselves are usually the first to resort to violence,
to civil war. They are the first to place the
bayonet on the agenda, as the Russian autocracy has been
doing systematically and undeviatingly everywhere ever since January nine, and
(06:30):
since such a situation has arisen, since the bayonet has
really become the main point on the political agenda, since
insurrection has proved to be imperative and urgent, constitutional illusions
and school exercises in parliamentarism become only a screen for
(06:51):
the bourgeois betrayal of the revolution, a screen to conceal
the fact that the bourgeoisie is recoiling from the revolution.
It is therefore the slogan of dictatorship that the genuinely
revolutionary class must advance. On the question of the tasks
(07:12):
of this dictatorship, Marx wrote already in the New Rhinish
Zeitung of June sixth, eighteen forty eight, the National Assembly
should have acted dictatorially against the reactionary attempts of the
obsolete governments. The force of public opinion in its favor
(07:33):
would then have been so strong as to shatter all Bayonets.
But this Assembly bores the German people, instead of carrying
the people with it or being carried away by it.
In Marx's opinion, the National Assembly should have eliminated from
(07:54):
the regime actually existing in Germany everything that contradicted the
principle of the sovereignty of the people. Then it should
have consolidated the revolutionary ground on which it stands, in
order to make the sovereignty of the people won by
the revolution secure against all attacks. Thus, the tasks which
(08:18):
Mark set before a revolutionary government or dictatorship in eighteen
forty eight amounted in substance primarily to a democratic revolution,
defense against counter revolution, and the actual elimination of everything
that contradicted the sovereignty of the people. This is nothing
(08:40):
else than a revolutionary democratic dictatorship to proceed which classes,
in Marx's opinion, could and should have achieved. This task
actually to exercise to the full the principle of the
sovereignty of the people and to beat all the attacks
(09:01):
of the counter revolution. Mark speaks of the people, but
we know that he always ruthlessly combated the petty bourgeois
illusions about the unity of the people and the absence
of a class struggle within the people. In using the
(09:21):
word people, Marx did not thereby gloss over class distinctions,
but combined definite elements that were capable of carrying the
revolution to completion. After the victory of the Berlin Proletariat
on March eighteenth, wrote the New Rhinish Zeitung of June fourteenth,
(09:42):
eighteen forty eight, the results of the revolution proved to
be twofold quote. On the one hand, the arming of
the people, the right of association, the sovereignty of the
people actually attained. On the other hand, the preservation of
the monarchy and the Camphausen Hansman ministry i e. The
(10:07):
government of representatives of the big bourgeoisie. Thus the revolution
had two series of results which had inevitably to diverge.
The people had achieved victory, it had won liberties of
a decisive democratic nature, but the direct power passed not
(10:28):
into its hands but into those of the big bourgeoisie.
In a word, the revolution was not completed. The people
allowed the big bourgeois to form a ministry. The big
bourgeois immediately displayed their strivings by offering an alliance to
the old Prussian nobility. And bureaucracy. Arnim, Kanitz and Schwerin
(10:54):
joined the ministry. The upper bourgeoisie, ever, anti revolutionary, concluded
a defensive and offensive alliance with the reaction out of
fear of the people, that is to say, the workers
and the democratic bourgeoisie. Thus, not only a decision to
(11:19):
organize a constituent assembly, but even its actual convocation, is
insufficient for a decisive victory of the revolution. Even after
a partial victory in an armed struggle the victory of
the Berlin workers over the troops on March eighteenth, eighteen
forty eight, an incomplete revolution, a revolution that has not
(11:44):
been carried to completion is possible. On what, then, does
its completion depend. It depends on whose hands the immediate
rule passes into, whether into the hands of the Petrunkevich
and Radishevs, that is to say, the Camphausands and the Hansamans,
(12:07):
or into the hands of the people, i e. The
workers and the democratic bourgeoisie. In the first case, the
bourgeoisie will possess power, and the proletariat freedom of criticism,
freedom to remain the party of extreme revolutionary opposition. Immediately
(12:29):
after the victory, the bourgeoisie will conclude an alliance with
the reaction. This would inevitably happen in Russia too, if,
for example, the Saint Petersburg workers gained only a partial
victory in street fighting with the troops and left it
to Messrs Petrunkovich's and company to form a government. In
(12:53):
the second case, a revolutionary democratic dictatorship i e. The
complete victory of the revolution would be possible. It now
remains to define more precisely what marks really meant by
democratic bourgeoisie democratici Burgerschaft, which, together with the workers he
(13:16):
called the people, in contradistinction to the big bourgeoisie. A
clear answer to this question is supplied by the following
passage from an article in the New Rhinish Zeitung of
July twenty ninth, eighteen forty eight. The German Revolution of
eighteen forty eight is only a parody of the French
(13:38):
Revolution of seventeen eighty nine. On August fourth, seventeen eighty nine,
three weeks after the storming of the Bastille, the French
people in a single day prevailed over all the feudal burdens.
On July eleventh, eighteen forty eight, four months after the
(14:00):
March Barricades, the feudal burdens prevailed over the German people
teste girke com ansemano. The French bourgeoisie of seventeen eighty
nine did not for a moment leave its allies the
peasants in the lurch. It knew that the foundation of
(14:22):
its rule was the destruction of feudalism in the countryside,
the creation of a free land owning grunz besitzenden peasant class.
The German bourgeoisie of eighteen forty eight is without the
least compunction betraying the peasants, who are its most natural allies,
(14:44):
the flesh of its flesh, and without whom it is
powerless against the nobility, the continuance of feudal rights their
sanction under the guise of illusory redemption. Such a is
the result of the German Revolution of eighteen forty eight.
The mountain brought forth a mouse. This is a very
(15:10):
instructive passage. It gives us four important propositions. One the
incompleted German Revolution differs from the completed French Revolution in
that the German bourgeoisie betrayed not only democracy in general,
but also the peasantry in particular. Two. The foundation for
(15:34):
the full consummation of a democratic revolution is the creation
of a free class of peasants. Three. The creation of
such a class means the abolition of feudal burdens, the
destruction of feudalism, but does not yet mean a socialist revolution. Four.
(15:57):
The peasants are the most natural alley of the bourgeoisie,
that is to say, of the democratic bourgeoisie. Without them,
it is powerless against the reaction Making proper allowances for
concrete national peculiarities, and substituting serfdom for feudalism. All these
(16:20):
propositions can be fully applied to Russia in nineteen oh five.
There is no doubt that, by learning from the experience
of Germany, as elucidated by Marx, we cannot arrive at
any other slogan for a decisive victory of the revolution
than a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.
(16:44):
There is no doubt that the chief components of the
people whom Marks in eighteen forty eight, contrasted with the
resisting reactionaries and the treacherous bourgeoisie are the proletariat and
the peasantry. There is no doubt that in Russia too,
the liberal bourgeoisie and the gentlemen of the Uswubjenia League
(17:07):
are betraying and will continue to betray the peasantry i e.
Will confine themselves to a pseudo reform and taking the
side of the landlords in the decisive battle between them
and the peasantry. Only the proletariat is capable of supporting
(17:28):
the peasantry to the end in this struggle. There is
no doubt finally, that in Russia also the success of
the peasant struggle i e. The transfer of the whole
of the land to the peasantry will signify a complete
democratic revolution and constitute the social support of the revolution
(17:49):
carried to its completion. But it will by no means
be a socialist revolution or socialization that the ideologists of
the petty bourgeoisie the socialist revolutionaries talk about the success
of the peasant insurrection. The victory of the democratic revolution
(18:11):
will merely clear the way for a genuine and decisive
struggle for socialism on the basis of a democratic republic.
In this struggle, the peasantry as a land owning class
will play the same treacherous, vacillating part as is now
being played by the bourgeoisie in the struggle for democracy.
(18:34):
To forget this is to forget socialism, to deceive oneself
and others as to the real interests and tasks of
the proletariat. In order to leave no gaps in the
presentation of the views held by Marx in eighteen forty eight,
it is necessary to note one essential difference between German
(18:57):
social democracy of that time or the Communist Party of
the proletariat. To use the language of that period and
present day Russian social democracy. Here is what Maring says.
The new Rhinish Zeitung appeared in the political arena as
(19:17):
the organ of democracy. There is no mistaking the thread
that ran through all its articles, But in the direct
sense it championed the interests of the bourgeois revolution against
absolutism and feudalism more than the interests of the proletariat
against the bourgeoisie. Very little is to be found in
(19:40):
its columns about the separate working class movement during the
years of the revolution, although one should not forget that
along with it there appeared twice a week under the
editorship of mal and Schapper, a special organ of the
Cologne Workers League. At any rate, the present day reader
(20:01):
will be struck by the little attention the new Rhinish
Zetung paid to the German working class movement of its day,
Although its most capable mind, Stephen Bourne, was a pupil
of Marx and Engels in Paris and Brussels, and in
eighteen forty eight was the Berlin correspondent for their newspaper.
(20:23):
Bourne relates in his memoirs that Marx and Engels never
expressed a single word in disapproval of his agitation among
the workers. Nevertheless, it appears probable from subsequent declarations of
Engels that they were dissatisfied, at least with the methods
of this agitation. Their dissatisfaction was justified inasmuch as Boorne
(20:48):
was obliged to make many concessions to the as yet
totally undeveloped class consciousness of the proletariat in the greater
part of Germany, essions which do not stand the test
of criticism from the viewpoint of the Communist Manifesto. Their
dissatisfaction was unjustified inasmuch as Borne managed, nonetheless, to maintain
(21:14):
the agitation conducted by him on a relatively high plane.
Without doubt, Marx and Engels were historically and politically right
in thinking that the primary interest of the working class
was to push the bourgeois revolution forward as far as possible. Nevertheless,
(21:35):
a remarkable proof of how the elementary instinct of the
working class movement is able to correct the conceptions of
the greatest minds is provided by the fact that in
April eighteen forty nine they declared in favor of a
specific workers organization and decided to participate in the Worker's
(21:56):
Congress which was being prepared especially by the East Elba
Eastern Prussia proletariat. Thus, it was only in April eighteen
forty nine, after the Revolutionary newspaper had been appearing for
almost a year the New Rhinish Zetung began publication on
(22:18):
June one, eighteen forty eight, that Marx and Engels declared
in favor of a special workers organization. Until then they
were merely running an organ of democracy unconnected by any
organizational ties with an independent workers party. This fact, monstrous
(22:38):
and improbable as it may appear from our present day standpoint,
clearly shows us what an enormous difference there is between
the German Social Democratic Party of those days and the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of today. This fact shows
how much less the proletarian features of the movement the
(22:59):
pro militarian current within it, were in evidence in the
German Democratic Revolution because of the backwardness of Germany in
eighteen forty eight, both economically and politically, its disunity as
a state. This should not be forgotten in judging Marx's
repeated declarations during this period and somewhat later about the
(23:23):
need for organizing an independent proletarian party. Marx arrived at
this practical conclusion only as a result of the experience
of the Democratic Revolution almost a year later. So philistine,
so petty bourgeois was the whole atmosphere in Germany at
(23:44):
that time. To us, this conclusion is an old and
solid acquisition of half a century's experience of international social democracy,
an acquisition which we began to organize the soul Social
Democratic Labour Party. In our case, there can be no question,
(24:05):
for instance, of revolutionary proletarian newspapers being outside the Social
Democratic Party of the Proletariat, or of their appearing even
for a moment simply as organs of democracy. But the contrast,
which had hardly begun to reveal itself between Marx and
(24:26):
Stefan Bourn exists in our case in a form which
is more developed by reason of the more powerful manifestation
of the proletarian current in the democratic stream of our revolution.
Speaking of the probable dissatisfaction of Marx and Engels with
the agitation conducted by Stefan Bourne, Marring expresses himself too
(24:52):
mildly and too evasively. Here's what Engels wrote of Born
in eighteen eighty five in his preface to the Revelations
about the Cologne Communist Trial Zurich eighteen eighty five. The
members of the Communist League everywhere stood at the head
(25:14):
of the extreme democratic movement, proving thereby that the League
was an excellent school of revolutionary action. The compositor Stefan Bourne,
who had worked in Brussels and Paris as an active
member of the League, founded a worker's brotherhood Arbeita Verbruderun
(25:37):
in Berlin, which became fairly widespread and existed until eighteen fifty.
Born a very talented young man, who, however, was a
bit too much in a hurry to become a big
political figure, fraternized with the most miscellaneous ragtag and bob
(25:57):
tail in order to get a crowd together, and was
not at all the man who could bring into unity
the conflicting tendencies light into the chaos. Consequently, in the
official publications of the Association, the views represented in the
communist manifesto were mingled hodge podge with guild recollections and
(26:21):
guild aspirations, fragments of Louis Blanc and Prouden, protectionism, etc.
In short, they wanted to please everybody, in particular strikes,
trade unions and producers cooperatives were set going, and it
(26:41):
was forgotten that, above all it was a question of
first conquering by means of political victories, the field in
which alone such things could be realized on a lasting basis.
When afterwards the victories of the reaction made the leaders
of the Brotherhood realized the necessity of taking a direct
(27:03):
part in the revolutionary struggle, they were naturally left in
the lurch by the confused mass which they had grouped
around themselves. Bourne took part in the Dresden uprising in
May eighteen forty nine and had a lucky escape. But
in contrast to the great political movement of the proletariat,
(27:26):
the Worker's Brotherhood proved to be a pure, sounderbound, separate league,
which to a large extent existed only on paper and
played such a subordinate role that the reaction did not
find it necessary to suppress it until eighteen fifty, and
its surviving branches until several years later. Bourne, whose real
(27:50):
name was Boutenmilch, has not become a big political figure,
but a petty Swiss professor who no longer translate its
marks into guild language, but the meek rehnaan of his
own fulsome German. That is how angels judge the two
(28:11):
tactics of social democracy in the Democratic Revolution. Our new
escraists are also pushing towards economism, and with such unreasonable
zeal as to earn the praises of the monarchist bourgeoisie
for their seeing the light. They too collect around themselves
(28:32):
a motley crowd, flattering the economists demagogically attracting the undeveloped
masses by the slogans of initiative, democracy, autonomy, et cetera,
et cetera. Their labor unions, too, exist only on the
pages of the Klastakov new escra. Their slogans and resolutions
(28:58):
betray a similar fail to understand the tasks of the
great political movement of the proletariat. End PostScript, Part three
and of two Tactics of social Democracy in the Democratic
Revolution by Vladimir ilitch Lenin. This recording is in the
(29:26):
public domain.
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