Marxism

Leninism as a Social-Political Doctrine of the 20th Century

The subjective, revolutionary-class aspect of Marxism was represented by V. Lenin and the Bolsheviks. It was Lenin, or V. I. Ulyanov, who asserted that socialism could be realized in Russia without the sufficient development of capitalism and prior to the formation of a substantial working class.

1. Plekhanov insisted that a social revolution should be awaited, and after 1905, he categorically opposed a socialist revolution through the seizure of power. Lenin, however, was unwilling to wait. Plekhanov maintained that the liberation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves. For Lenin, the liberation of the working class became the task of an underground organization, and his work, "What Is to Be Done?" served as the theoretical justification for this activity. Plekhanov was more a bookish revolutionary than a practical actor. Thus, in Russia, an encounter occurred between intellectual theory and revolutionary will, reflected in the conflict between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.

The essence of communism, according to its creator—Marx—can be expressed in a single proposition: the abolition of private property. In the future, if anything is to hold genuine value among the entire theoretical legacy of Marxism, it will likely be Marx's "Capital," as a potential analysis of capitalist production in the 19th century. Today, however, this work offers little to illuminate the current state of affairs. Its reception may be akin to that of any historical artifact in the study of economic doctrines, regarded as a fragment of preserved history.

The Marxist-Bolsheviks revealed a more distinct Russian tradition than the Marxist-Mensheviks. Ulyanov-Lenin had a profound understanding of:

1. the psyche of the Muscovites,
2. the mechanics of Moscow’s history,
3. the roots of Russian culture, and
4. the nature of power.

Bolshevik Marxism was intertwined, on one hand, with Stenka Razin as an embodiment of "Russian freedom," and on the other, with the age-old tradition of Russian despotism—from the Russian tsars to the general secretaries. "The Russian revolution, being fundamentally a disintegration of the empire, found in the Bolsheviks a substitute for the imperial machine's servants." Leninism represents the triumph of revolutionary will. But what is revolutionarity, and why did it prevail?

Revolutionarity is defined not by the radicalism of its goals nor by the character of the means employed in the struggle. "Revolutionarity," in the opinion of M. Berdyaev, "is the totality and integrity concerning any act of life. A revolutionary is one who, in every act performed, relates it to the whole, to the entire society, subordinating it to a central and integral idea. For the revolutionary, there are no isolated spheres; he does not permit fragmentation and does not accept the autonomy of thought in relation to action, nor the autonomy of action in relation to thought. The revolutionary possesses an integral worldview in which theory and practice are organically united. Totality in everything is a defining characteristic of the revolutionary attitude toward life." Revolutionarity never allows for private property or private life, the separation of civil society from the rule of law, or the division of state power.

Marxism marked the collapse of the Russian intelligentsia, an acknowledgment of its weakness and tragedy. The tragedy of the intelligentsia lay in the fact that the intellectual theory represented by the theorist and propagandist of Marxism, G. V. Plekhanov, was crushed by the revolutionary will embodied in the figure of the leader-dictator—Lenin.

The latter executed the revolution in the name of Marx, but not according to Marx. Such a revolution could only unfold in Russia. Lenin insisted on the originality of the Russian revolution; he constructed the theory and tactics of the Russian revolution and realized them in a Nechaevian spirit.

Lenin was not a theorist of Marxism like G. Plekhanov, but rather a theorist and organizer of revolution. Almost all of his work constituted a theory and practice of revolution. Of all Marxism, Lenin was most intrigued by one theme—the theme of seizing power and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. He read extensively, but he acquired knowledge for a specific purpose, for struggle and action. Lenin's theoretical legacy is vast (the fifth and final edition of his works comprises 55 volumes), but two works stand out in which he embodies revolutionary will: "What Is to Be Done?" (1902) and "The State and Revolution" (1917), often referred to as the "Bible of the state coup."

In theory, Lenin battled against heresies and various deviations. For him, good was everything that served the revolution, while evil was anything that obstructed it. Lenin was utterly devoted to the idea of communism. However, this obsession with a singular idea led to a horrific narrowing and simplification of his consciousness, to moral degeneration, and the application of criminal means in the struggle. Lenin was an absolutist; he believed in absolute truth, which for him was a tool for revolution and the organization of dictatorship.