Lenin: The Great Strategist of the Class War

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Introduction

INTRODUCTION

IF I were asked to tell in a few words what is the most pronounced feature of this pamphlet by A. Lozovsky on "Lenin; the Great Strategian of the Class-War," I should say this: It is a desire to extract from the experiences of Lenin's life as many lessons as is humanly possible for the advancement of the class struggle and for the promotion of the proletarian victory thruout the world.

A. Lozovsky has been prompted to write on Lenin, it seems to me, not merely by a desire to perpetuate Lenin's memory. No. Lenin's name will live in the world as long as toiling masses struggle against exploitation, and as long as oppressed nations and persecuted races tread the path of revolt against their masters in a fight for freedom and human equality. The motive that produced this little book is much more immediate, direct and practical than a mere wish to perpetuate the memory of a great leader. It is an earnest attempt to make Lenin in his death as nearly useful to the working class as he was in his life, and a study of this pamphlet will show that its author has acquitted himself of his task with more than ordinary excellence.

What is it that we are primarily interested in about Lenin? We, I mean those that are part and parcel of the labor movement and of the proletarian class struggle and that are fighting for the dawn of a new day. What do we want to know about Lenin and for what purpose?

Lenin was the founder of a great party, the Communist Party of Russia. He was the leader of the first successful proletarian revolution. He was for over six years the head of the first Workers' and Peasants' Government in the world. He was also the founder and recognized leader of the Communist International. For us, working class militants in the cause of labor, there is a world to learn from the experiences of Lenin as to how to educate, organize and arouse the masses to action against their capitalist exploiters. What we all want to know is, how did Lenin do it? What theories did he hold? What tactics did he pursue? What means did he employ? In short, what is the essence of Leninism?

Leninism is the theory and practice of working class struggle. It is the accumulated experience of the battling armies of the proletariat against capitalism reflected by the mind of a genius. It is the century-old hatred of the oppressed against the oppressors embodied in a man of iron will and a great, beautiful heart. It is the proletarian urge to power expressed, formulated and led by the greatest leader the working class ever had.

To understand thoroughly Lenin and Leninism one needs to be familiar with Russia, its history, the martyrdom of hundreds and thousands of Russian revolutionaries, and the long, bitter years of oppression suffered by the toiling masses of Russia. Lenin is inseparable from the class struggle of the Russian masses.

But his greatness and the importance of his work have gone far beyond the boundaries of his native land. At this moment there is not another name in the whole world which means so much for millions upon millions of human beings. It is as if the deepest longings and most intimate dreams of the oppressed in every corner of the globe, in "civilized" Europe as well as in backard Africa, as much in America, as in Asia, have gone forward into the endless spaces of the universe and have found their point of concentration, their unifying genius in the life and teachings of Lenin.

Was there ever a human being more truly international, more a leader of the people of all countries and all nations, than Lenin?

Take his attitude toward the late imperialist war. How did he look upon it? How did he react towards it?

He loved the Russian masses with all the great powers of his human soul. Is anyone in doubt about that? If one's understanding of the most deeply buried feelings of the masses is any test of one's love for them, then who in Russia's history has surpassed Lenin in such understanding? And if one's sympathy for the sufferings of the masses, sympathy of the purest kind, of a most intense and burning nature, is any sign of one's love and devotion to the masses, then who in the life of Russia is greater in this respect than Lenin?

And yet Lenin was one of the most consistent opponents of the idea of the workers defending "their" fatherland. He was unalterably opposed to the Russian masses shedding their blood for the greatness of Russia. Why? Because to him "Russia" was not an abstraction, but a real living thing. Because his great realistic mind was able to pierce through the glittering superficialities of patriotism and fatherland and to reach out after the substance of things. And in doing so he finally reached the truth that if the name Russia stands for the tens of millions of its toiling masses, if the greatness of Russia is the same as the well-being, peace and security of the workers and peasants, then the true way of serving the greatness of Russia was to combat the late war and to destroy those forces which were instrumental in bringing the war about.

This was the Lenin-way of being patriotic and loyal to one's nation and country.

As these lines are being written, new war clouds are becoming visible on the Far-Eastern horizon. The capitalists of Japan are preparing to resist the encroachment of the capitalists of America in the division of imperialist spoils in China. The capitalists of America are preparing to impose their will by the force of arms. What does it mean? It means that. we are drifting with progressively greater speed into a war with Japan. In fact, we are already engaged in war.

Look at what we are now doing in China. Ali the manoeuvres of our bankers and officials in China in support of one warring general against another, all the movements of our warships in the Chinese waters, are nothing else than war against the capitalists of Japan for more power and influence over China for the capitalists of America.

Again the air will be filled with "patriotism," love of country, loyalty to the fatherland, etc. Again the workers of the United States will be called upon by their masters to come to the defense of the honor, greatness and even freedom of America. The capitalist press of the country, these giant factories for the production of sham and camouflage to dope the working masses, will again start out on a systematic campaign to befog and befuddle the minds of the masses into the belief that "their" country is in danger of being attacked by a foreign enemy.

And when this begins to happen we shall be badly in need of some antidote to the poisonous influences of war propaganda. And what better means is there for such purpose than the wholesome, nourishing and sustaining food of Leninism?

When in trouble, go back to Lenin. When in doubt, consult Lenin. This should become the maxim of every worker and poor farmer in the United States. For there is no surer guide to what the oppressed masses must do to protect themselves against the conspiracies of the capitalists than the teachings and directions of Leninism.

Is it war that you are called upon to sacrifice your life for? If it is, here is what Lenin will tell you. First, inquire, ask questions. Who is it that calls you to war? For what purpose? In defense of whose interests?

And when you find, as you are bound to, that the war is championed by the capitalists, that you are called upon to defend the profits and power of your bosses and exploiters, that it is a war of imperialist robbery and plunder, you will say what Lenin said: Not a cent and not a man for the aggrandizement of our class-enemies! Instead of waging war for capitalism, we shall start war against capitalism, for the overthrow of the power of our bosses and for the establishment of our own rule.

And, then, you might ask some more questions. You might want to know how best to fight your economic battles, how to resist wage cuts, open shops drives, unemployment. You will find, for instance, that one of your main problems in the coming months will be how best to strengthen your unions, to rejuvenate them with a new spirit of militancy and hopefulness. What must you do? What can you do?

Turn to Lenin, he'll tell you. He has built a party and led a movement which already conquered for the toiling masses one sixth of the earth's surface. He ought to know how you do those things. Ask him and he'll tell you.

Then, if you go deep enough into the problems of the working class, you will strike the problem of all problems, the question of how you can do away with capitalism altogether. And you will want to know the best way, the surest road, the shortest cut to your final goal. And again we say, ask Lenin, study Leninism.

As with all knowledge that is really worth having, there is no royal or short road to the study of Leninism. Many books have been and will be written on Lenin and on Leninism, which is merely another name for the great art and science of the Social Revolution. Those working class militants, who are truly ambitions to serve their class against capitalism, will no doubt find the time and energy required for a thorough study of Leninism. And as a beginning or introduction to such a course of study we know of no better work than this pamphlet by A. Losovsky.

Losovsky's pamphlet should be carefully read and studied by every trade-union militant who is active in the labor movement. For there are few better ways of assimilating the experiences of great—one is temped to say the greatest—revolutionay leader and turning these experiences to good account in one's own immediate work, than by studying the life work of Lenin. And for this one would want no more efficient and kindlier guide than this little book.

When you are thru with the reading of it, you grasp, perhaps for the first time, the true stature of the Russian giant. His marvelous knowledge of economics and the social sciences generally, his great analytical mind, his almost superhuman sense for detecting the deep, quiet processes that are constantly taking place within the broad masses, his flexibility of mind, his burning hatred of capitalist oppression and his iron determination to fight the bloody thing to a finish—all these qualities of Lenin take living shape under the pen of Lozovsky, who has succeeded in presenting us with a most illuminating picture of the great Strategian of the Class Struggle.

We cannot all become Lenins, it is true, but many a workingman and workingwoman can succeed in approximating the great leader to one degree or another if sufficient effort is lent in that direction in a conscious and determined way.

Our class is badly in need of leaders—loyal, capable and efficient fighters in the proletarian struggle for power. Never in the history of society has an oppressed class struggling for freedom confronted an enemy as clever, tricky, resourceful, unscrupulous and brutal as is the ruling class of today, the capitalists. This fact imposes a duty upon every working class militant to study and learn the art and science of social revolution, to familiarize himelf with the tactics and methods of Leninism which have been proved to be the only way to the overthrow of capitalism and the complete liberation of the working class.

Alexander Bittelman

Chicago, September, 1924.

Lenin: The Great Strategist of the Class War

THERE are epochs in human history when single individuals incorporate the experiences and historical tasks of whole classes. History develops by curves and as the class struggle develops in intensity these individuals appear in the foreground and assume their greatest importance at a time when the social antagonisms reach their highest point.

Human history knows of many examples of gifted statesmen, thinkers, politicians and diplomats. But all of them up till now have been representatives of the feudal and capitalist classes. Only in the 19th century when the proletariat came to feel itself as a class do we find the reflection of its interests in the genius, Marx. Lenin is the direct successor of Marx.

When we consider closely Lenin's role in the labor movement of the last decades the first question that appears is, whether we Marxians ought not to revise our theory regarding the role of single individuals in history. For is it not a fact that Lenin has been a living illustration of the theory of the heroes and the masses and did he not, by the activities of his life, disprove the correctness of the materialist conception of history? We must consider this problem at the very outset in order to relieve ourselves of any false idealistic conceptions that we might entertain. The truth is that the real greatness of the genius of the most outstanding strategian of the class struggle can be correctly appreciated only from the point of view of the class whose leader he was.

The Marxians who enter the study of Lenin's role in history are under no necessity of abandoning their theory of the relation between heroes and masses. Quite the contrary. Only on the basis of the materialist conception of history, only thru a sober analysis of the forces in the class struggle, can we correctly appreciate the role which Lenin, the greatest thinker and revolutionist, has played in the international labor movement and in the international revolution.

LENIN was a Marxian dialectician. There are many people that know Marx very well but are incapable of deriving the political lessons and conclusions implied in theory. In this respect Lenin was totally different. He has taken the Marxian theory and methods and applied them in the practice of life. And with the help of his acute analytical mind he interpreted events in their dialectical development. Lenin was one of the foremost experts in the economic and philosophical theories of Marx. But as already said, he was not primarily a theoretician, but a practical Marxian and a political dialectician. The Hegelian dialectics which Marx had developed to its highest point were completely mastered by Lenin. He never reasoned abstractly. He despised pure rationalizing. He hated the free sway of "pure reasoning." He fought against philosophic charlatanism and always proved in action that the truth is concrete.

Just as Marx was manoeuvring with the general factors of economic life, so was Lenin maoeuvring with the concrete forces of the class struggle. In the colorful kaleidoscope of social relations and from the complexities of the everyday events of modern life he always managed to hit upon the fundamental and most important tendencies. He was never deceived by appearances. He was a man called upon to tread new paths. Always pursuing his own way, capable by means of his dialectics not only to explain but constantly to drive history forward, Lenin was a dialectician in politics and a Marxist in action. That is, he knew exactly how to make history in as masterly a fashion as Marx explained it.

LENIN joined the labor movement at its very dawn. The first spontaneous outbreaks of the class struggle in the '80s reverberated thru Russia with a resounding echo. The advancing Marxian movement thrust itself upon the beginnings of the industrial development of Russia, drawing into its ranks many elements of the radical intelligentsia. The first generation of revolutionary intellectuals (Plechanov, Vera Sassulitsch, and Deutsch) founded the group of "Liberation of Labor" which is the predecessor of the Russian Social-Democratic Party and of the Russian Communist Party. Lenin belonged to the second generation of Marxians. Together with many others he joined the labor movement, but while the others were merely passersby, utilizing it for their own purpose, Lenin remained and led the movement until his very end.

Lenin understood from the very outset the power of the new class. In his very first writings he discusses this matter and says: "The working class is the bearer of the revolution." The working class stands in the foreground and everything which hampers its development, which demoralizes its ranks, which stands in the way of its historical development, must be destroyed and removed. To say at that period that the working class was the bearer of the revolution meant to determine its historic role as against the conceptions of the old socialist school of the "Narodniki."

Lenin completely identified himself with the working class and became its spokesman. He knew as nobody else did how to keep away from the working class and from the then-developing working class party all alien elements. At present it is easier, of course, to see which of those elements were really alien to the labor movement. But to have known this 25 or 30 years ago was much more difficult. At that time there were no material advantages to be derived by people accepting the Marxian theory. On the contrary, they had to bring sacrifices, suffer persecutions, etc. Nevertheless some of these Marxians were nothing more than hangers-on to the labor movement. Chief among those was Peter Struve, formerly a Social-Democrat and later on a leader of the left-wing of the liberal movement, still later a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and at present a monarchist. One required a sharp theoretical mind, and an extraordinary instinct, to detect in the Marxian phraseology of the first work of Peter Struve the real weak spots.

Lenin possessed the ability to guard the working class theoretically and practically against the intrusion of alien elements. He also knew how to relieve the labor movement of those of them who succeeded in getting into it. Lenin knew the working class, he had faith in it, he grasped its historical importance and therefore understood how to maintain the integrity of the labor movement.

THE working class will win, but only in the event that it succeeds in creating a strongly united organization which is ideologically homogeneous. The working class canot be victorious without uniting the best, the most class consious ans revolutionary elements. Hence the role of the party as the guiding-force of the revolution. The party is not identical with the working class, but is its natural leader. The party leads the masses only inasmuch as it is organically united with the working class reacting to its everyday life. Without a party the working class cannot make a single step. Without a party the revolution is an empty phrase.

Theoretically this truth was recognized even by Lenin's predecessors, but it was he alone who understood how to translate into practice these theoretical propositions. The history of the Russian Social-Democracy and of the Russian Communist Party is organically bound up with the activities of Lenin. He was the organizer of the party, the educator of a whole generation of party workers and leaders, beginning with the time of underground groups up till the moment when the working class assumed power in the largest country in the world. It was because he understood that the working class cannot live without a party that he devoted his greatest attention to the building up of such a party.

It would be difficult to find another man in the history of parties whose life and activity was so intimately interwoven with the party as was Lenin's with the Russian Communist Party. He was its theoretician, its man of action, agitator, propagandist, organizer and leader. He was soldier and general, teacher and pupil, but never did he get the idea that: "The party, this is I," as his opponents used to reproach him. He realized that the power and greatness of the party depends upon its organic connection with the masses, its collaboration with the creative and progressive elements of the working class.

One can state without exaggeration that the Russian Communist Party was the creation of his spirit, the work of his hands. Such a party could be created by one who is perfectly clear as to what are the mutual relations between the party and the class. Lenin's slogan was: "The party above all." Why? Because the Party is the vanguard of the working class, and as such must know not only how to march forward but, if need be, to go against the spontaneous movements among the workers and at decisive moments powerfully to assume the offensive. The party is the organized consciousness of the class, a fact which distinguishes it from the unorganized elemental movements of the workers.

LENIN knew exactly the strong and weak sides of the labor movement. And for this reason he reacted so exceptionally critically to every theory built upon the backwardness and weaknesses of the working class. He possessed a sixth sense, the sense of anti-reformism. He smelled reformism from a distance. It was very difficult indeed in 1903 to have determined on the basis of differences of opinion regarding the first paragraph of the party constitution, who were the proletarian Girondists and who were the Jacobins. Nevertheless, Lenin determined this very definitely after the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. Thru the formulation of the famous paragraph one, he came to the creation of the Girondist wing of the Party. Since then he continuously criticized the right wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Party whose reformism became apparent to everyone only in 1905.

Thruout the first revolution, in the period preceding the late war, and particularly after the war, this anti-reformist sense of Lenin manifests itself in all his activities. He was deceived neither by revolutionary phrases nor by well-sounding resolutions. He exposed to the daylight the reformist theoreticians and men of action, despite all their attempts to conceal their real nature. He was primarily a man of experience and practical deeds, and it was in this sphere of life that he caused the defeat of the strategians of reformism. More than one half of his writings were devoted to the demoralizing activities of reformism, specifically to the Russian Mensheviks. Just as an archeologist determines the species of a pre-historic animal by the examination of a single bone, so Lenin was able to determine the reformist nature of his opponents by a single phrase in one or another of their articles.

Lenin would reach out after the substance of reformism, no matter under what masks it would make its appearance, and without any effort on his part would tear off the covering. In the attempt that was made before the first revolution to revise Marx, to connect him with Kant and similar philosophers, Lenin immediately recognized the intention to reject the revolution and a tendency to surrender Marxism to the ideology of the bourgeoisie. Lenin never considered reformism as an inner tendency in the working class. He considered reformism rather as a class enemy, operating within the labor movement and therefore more dangerous to it than the outside enemies.

Because of this attitude of Lenin;s, he has been charged with sectarianism and intolerance. But he continued to pursue his line of action with the greatest tenacity for details, proving that reformism is one of the greatest enemies of the labor movement, and that our theoretical struggle with the Mensheviks will eventually bring us to the sharpest conflicts with them. The Russian revolution has proved Lenin correct, thereby showing his extraordinary far-sightedness and sound instinct. In recent years reformism became the most powerful weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Due to reformism, the working class movement has suffered a series of defeats enabling the capitalist system to continue a while in existence.

LENIN conceived of the revolution as of something that was moving right upon us, and not as something lying in the far-off distance. Because of this he never tired of insisting that we must prepare ourselves daily for the revolution, even politically and technically. The political preparations consisted in training the masses for action thru everyday struggle. Lenin used to say: "The most important thing is to bring the masses in motion, thereby enabling them to accumulate experiences within a short period of time." The revolution confronts us directly with the problem of armed insurrection. And to speak of this without proper technical preparations, is merely to mouth empty phrases. He who wants the revolution must systematically prepare for it the broad masses, who will, in the process of preparation, create the necessary organs of the struggle.

The Mensheviks were fond of ridiculing the idea of technical preparations for an armed insurrection. According to their conception the center of gravity would lie in the sphere of propaganda, of arming the minds of the workers. To this Lenin's reply was: "He who refuses technically to prepare for the insurrection ultimately rejects the insurrection itself, and transforms the program of the revolution into an empty phrase."

Although Lenin knew quite well that revolutions are not made to order, that the success of a revolution demands certain deep-going historical changes, nevertheless he insisted that the problem of the revolution is not only political but also the technical organization of the revolutionary class. A party which does not prepare for the revolution must be considered a discussion club rather than the leader of a revolutionary class. No matter how difficult this problem is, yet all the progressive forces of the working class must be organized in order to solve this problem. Thus we see that for Lenin the revolution was always a concrete problem of the day which at times comes close to us and again moves back into the distance, depending upon the situation and the correlation of forces, but always remains the acute problem of the labor movement.

LENIN was a foremost statesman. What does this mean? According to his own definition a statesman is one who understands how to manoeuver with millions of people, who is capable of estimating correctly the mutual relations of social classes, who can detect the weak spots in his enemy's armor and who knows how to make effective the strongest side of his own class.

In this respect Lenin possessed extraordinary gifts. He knew above all how to determine the line of demarcation between classes and to create a concrete and practical program of action calculated to bring together the working class with its temporary ally, the peasantry. He based his judgment of political conditions, not on superficial appearances, not upon the so-called public opinion, but upon the deep processes that are taking place within the working class. His mind always pierced thru to the very vitals of a situation. He studied the make-up of social life in order to find for himself a starting point, and then he continued to base his activities on the dynamics of the class struggle.

These traits of Lenin's character made him the most dangerous to, and at the same time the most hated by, the class enemies of the proletariat, whom he always managed to hit at the softest spot. He was a realer politiker (of course, realistic not in the reformist sense, for whom realism means adaptation to the bourgeoisie) in the sense that he based his revolutionary activities on the correlation of forces in the class struggle. The reformists of all countries declared Lenin to be a Utopian, an "irrational" statesman, because he always busied himself with the problem of revolution, and themselves they consider realists because they advocate the idea of gradually transforming bourgeois society along the lines of evolution. But these "great realists" became tools in the hands of the bourgeois politicians after the war, while Lenin the "irrational statesman" became the most dangerous opponent of the bourgeoisie and the leader of millions of toilers who have risen against their m.asters.

Immediately after the October revolution Lenin was charged by all petty bourgeois socialists with being an adventurer. But this "adventurer" proved by his deeds which side the real power was on. The "realists" among the Social-Revolutionists and Mensheviks have simply missed the importance of the great change that has taken place in human life. They have even failed to notice that the masses have turned their backs on them. Lenin was the greatest statesman of our age. He has proven this standing at the helm of the greatest state in the world, by the exceptional flexibility of the Russian Communist Party, whose leader and creator he was.

A SOBER estimate of his own and his enemies' forces was always the starting point for Lenin's political activity. Only he can be termed a real statesman who is able fearlessly to look reality in the face, who coolly estimates the forces of the opposing class, who is not dealing in mere phrases and who is able mercilessly to expose and criticize the weak sides of his own class and his own organization. Also in this respect Lenin possessed an exceptionally strong sense for reality. He never succumbed to the hypnosis of fantastic figures and pompous proclamation.

When he came to Russia in 1917, the time when the Social-Revolutionists held full sway, Lenin remarked: "The power they hold is only imaginary. The Party of the Socialist Revolutionists is an empty shell." Although at that time millions upon millions of workers were following the lead of the party of the Chernovs and Kerenskys, yet he immediately perceived the instability of the influence of the Socialist Revolutionists.

Basing his opinion on the real situation, Lenin spoke in favor of the Brest-Litovsk treaty against the wish of the "public opinion" (at that time the liberal and reformist press was still in existence) and at first even against the leadership of the Russian Communist Party. Upon what did Lenin base his tactics? Upon those deep processes which have been developing within the broad masses. While these latter had been protesting against the peace treaty, the soldiers were leaving the front en masse. Lenin has defined the situation by a very laconic but significant expression: "The peasants have voted in favor of peace with their legs because they have been leaving the front." No amount of phraseology in favor of a revolutionary war could convince him to the contrary. He was asking his opponents: "Have you got at least one regiment, have you the support of any armed power, which could be put up against the fleeing, demoralized peasant masses? We cannot fight. We need a breathing space. No matter how short, it will be of advantage to us.'" History has proved that he was right.