WORLD HISTORY

VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN

If the Bolshevik revolution is the most significant political event of the 20th century,
then Lenin must for good or ill be regarded as the centurys most significant political
leader. Not only in the scholarly circles of the former Soviet Union but even among
many non-communist scholars, he has been regarded as both the greatest revolutionary
states men in history, as well as the greatest revolutionary thinkers since Marx. In the
second half of the 19th century, political debate in the capitals of Europe often revolved
around the question of Marxian socialism. There were differing points of view on
whether socialism should be rejected, accepted or blended with capitalism to give the
state a softer face. But socialism and communism, which took over world
consciousness after 1917, were essentially two different things.
Leninism or Marxism-Leninism is an adaptation of Marxism developed by Vladimir
Lenin. It formed the ideological foundation for the world communist movement
centering on the Soviet Union. In the twentieth century, all nations calling themselves
communist and communist parties in other nations were founded on Marxist-Leninist
principles.
The core ideological features of Marxism-Leninism include the belief that a
revolutionary proletarian class would not emerge automatically from capitalism. Instead,
there was the need for a professional revolutionary vanguard party to lead the working
class in the violent overthrow of capitalism, to be followed by a dictatorship of the
proletariat as the first stage of moving toward communism. Marxism-Leninism also
maintained that workers in the most advanced capitalist countries had not opted for
revolution because capitalism had moved to a new stage through the exportation of
capital to colonies, which allowed capitalists to exploit such colonies and enrich markets
and "bribe" workers in developed countries with higher wages. Marxism-Leninism,
therefore, saw the developing world as the frontline in the struggle against imperialism.
As those markets were cut off through national liberation, capitalism would implode in
the developed world and communist revolution would occur there as well. Whether
Leninist concepts represented a contribution to or a corruption of Marxist thought has
been debated, but their influence on the subsequent development of communism in the
Soviet Union and elsewhere has been of fundamental importance.
In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels defined
communists as the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class
parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others. This
conception was fundamental to Leninist thought. Lenin saw the Communist Party as a
highly committed intellectual elite who (1) had a scientific understanding of history and
society in the light of Marxist principles, (2) were committed to ending capitalism and
instituting socialism in its place, (3) were bent on forcing through this transition after
having achieved political power, and (4) were committed to attaining this power by any
means possible, including violence and revolution if necessary. Lenins emphasis upon
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action by a small, deeply committed group stemmed both from the need for efficiency
and discretion in the revolutionary movement and from an authoritarian bent that was
present in all of his political thought. The authoritarian aspect of Leninism appeared also
in its insistence upon the need for a proletarian dictatorship following the seizure of
power, a dictatorship that in practice was exercised not by the workers but by the
leaders of the Communist Party.
Most Communist parties today continue to regard Marxism-Leninism as their basic
ideology, although many have modified it to adapt to new political conditions. However,
several parties, especially those previously associated with Eurocommunism, have
distanced themselves from Leninism and in many cases omitted it from their official
documents. Some have started identifying themselves as "Marxist and Leninist" rather
than "Marxist-Leninist."

STALINIST TOTALITARIAN
Stalin believed that under his totalitarian regime, all political activities must be
controlled. He wanted complete and unchallenged power for himself and was totally
intolerant of criticism. Already, by this time, his principal opponent, Trotsky, had left
the country to live in exile. He was murdered in Mexico by Stalins agent. Over the next
four years, hundreds of communist party officials were arrested and put through show
trials where plaint judges routinely condemned them to death. Many of the Bolsheviks,
who had stood alongside Lenin during the 1917 coup cum-revolution, like Zinoviev,
Kamenev, Bukharin and Radek, alongside with most of the top officers of the Army,
were killed. Between December 1934 and February 1935, more than 6,500 people were
shot and many more were exiled to Siberia or deported to Central Asian Republics.

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But, the great terror (1936-38), known in soviet history as Ezhovshchina, unleashed
repression on a scale unknown in human history. Historians estimate that during the
great terror at least 6 million people were arrested, jailed, sent to Siberia or deported to
central Asia. There were, in addition, 3 million executions. Another 2 million died in the
camps. Of course, revisionists claim that these figures are inflated.
Stalins totalitarianism influenced the new constitution which he introduced in 1936.
There was an illusion of democracy in it. Everyone was allowed to vote by secret
ballot to choose members of a national assembly known as the Supreme Soviet. But
this body met for only 2 weeks in a year when it elected a small group known as the
Presidium. The Supreme Soviet also elected the union of soviet commissars, a small
group of ministers in which Stalin was the Secretary.
Stalin expected the writers, artists and musicians of the USSR to glorify him. The
famous writer, Maxim Gorky, went to the Solovetski islands, where one of the worst
Stalinist concentration camps existed, and returned to write books praising the camp
and its authorities. But one of his significant failures was the inability to suppress the
influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Though he deployed harsh measures to
harass the church, murdering priests and religious persons at random, the great masses
of soviet people remained faithful to god. In the central Asian republics, he suppressed
the largely Islamic population, burnt down mosques and destroyed the traces of a
civilization which was centuries-old. Yet, the peoples faith did not waver. Education,
like everything else, was closely watched by the secret police, and although it was
compulsory and free, it tended to deteriorate into indoctrination; but at least literacy
increased, which along with the improvement in social services, was an unprecedented
achievement.
Historians have failed to agree about the extent of Stalins achievement, or indeed
whether he achieved any more with his brutality than he could have done using less
drastic methods. Stalins defenders, who included many soviet historians, argued that
the situation was so desperate that only the pressures of brute force could have
produced such a rapid industrialization, together with the necessary food. The
opposing view is that Stalins policies, though superficially successful, actually
weakened Russia: ridiculously high targets for industrial production placed
unnecessary pressure on the workers and led to sloppy work and poor quality products;
the brutal enforcement of collectivization of vastly reduced the amount of meat
available and made peasants so bitter that in the Ukraine the German invaders were
welcomed. The purges slowed economic progress by removing many of the most
experienced men, and almost caused military defeat during the first few months of the
war by depriving the army of all its experienced generals. In fact Russia won the war in
spite of Stalin, not because of him.
Whichever view one accepts, a final point to bear in mind is that many Marxists, both
inside and outside Russia, feel that Stalin betrayed the idealism of Marx and Lenin.
Russian historian Roy Medvedev thinks that Stalin deserves no credit at all. Instead of a
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new classes of society in which everybody was free and equal, ordinary workers and
peasants were just as exploited as they had been under the Tsars. The party had taken
the place of the capitalists, and enjoyed all the privileges- the best houses, country
retreats and cars. Instead of Marxism, socialism, and the dictatorship of the
proletariat, there was merely Stalinism and the dictatorship of Stalin.

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