Democratization of
Lenin
Biography
b.Vladimir Ilich Ulanov , Apr 22 1870 (new
style)
middle class family in the Volga River valley
radicalized by his brother Aleksandr
1889 becomes a Marxist
1891 law degree from St. Petersburg Univ
1893 expert in Marxism – moves to
Petersburg
1895 arrested as a “subversive”
exiled to Siberia for about 5 years
1900-1917 lives in W Europe but becomes
leader of
Russian Social Democrats
1917 smuggled into Russia (w/German
help/finance)
orchestrates the October Revolution
(November, new style)
a coup d’etat
Why the Need for Revolution “from above”
because he didn’t
believe in “spontaneity”
natural evolution to socialism as Marx
predicted
Difference between Lenins
Bolsheviks (or larger faction of the Social Democrats) and the Mensheviks (the
smaller faction); the Mensheviks were more true
to Marx’s expectation that workers would revolt on
their own after capitalism was fully developed and after “natural” processes of
emiseration, organizing, consciousness-raising;
the Bolsheviks felt that revolution should be fomented even if the conditions
Marx expected were not present in Russia
For Lenin, history showed that if events are left to their “natural” progression – they often yield undesirable results
For Lenin, the end justifies the means
revolution, coup, dictatorship – all warranted to bring about goal of communism
Therefore, need the Communist Party as the
“vanguard of the proletariat”
Highly disciplined, militaristic zealots to preside over
the transition to communism – protracted process
Dictatorship of the proletariat justified based on his critique of the “bourgeois state” and “bourgeois democracy”
For Lenin, the end justifies the means
revolution, coup, dictatorship – all warranted to bring about goal of communism
Dictatorship of the proletariat justified based on his critique of the “bourgeois state” and “bourgeois democracy”
Lenin on the State
From a lecture on the state delivered at
Reprinted in On Historical Materialism.
1972.
the doctrine of the state serves to justify social
privilege, the existence of exploitation, the existence of capitalism
form of government not important – republic, monarchy,
etc. just a ruse – neither one is truly
democratic
because “the landowner cannot be the equal of the worker, or the hungry man the equal of the full man” (643)
there was a time when there was no state. It appears
wherever and whenever a division of society into classes appears, whenever
exploiters and exploited appear.
pre-state societies?? communal;
no private property; no class division; no class exploitation?
not according to Engels On the
Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
patriarchy
State depends on FORCE, COERCION
is this true? evidence
to support this?
He uses the fact that state must use
coercion to maintain itself as evidence that it is the manifestation of/or the
means of maintaining class oppression
To overthrow the state, therefore, requires
more than just revolution as a short term event
Rather – need dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism as a longer term stage creating the conditions for communism
i.e. taking over the means of production, gradually abolishing class divisions as private property is eliminated, people educated, workers consciousness raised
The petty bourgeoisie (small proprietors)
This class in particular
need the guidance of the
proletariat
**because it is swayed by
arguments of capitalists about freedom, democracy, etc.
Uses
nowhere is freedom, democracy, equality more
valued but government more nakedly an instrument of the bourgeoisie
Congress/elections – shams, puppets,
marionettes
examples? evidence
of this?
Think about –
why would/would not Marxist-Leninism be appealing to East European peasants?
what about Marx’s or Lenin’s ideas resonates
with their value system and their own economic and political experiences?