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and success alike emphasizing his revolutionary
energy and initiative. . . .
During the course of years Lenin labored in
comparative obscurity, forging the concepts that
have become the thunderbolts of the Russian
Revolution. Lenin represented the minority, that
minority of revolutionary Socialism which in all
nations actively represents the Revolution and is
the hope of the proletariat. The world of Socialism—that is to say, the world comprised in
the petty bourgeois Socialism of the Second
International—rendered homage to clay idols, to
Karl Kautsky, to George Plekhanov, to Jules
Guesde, all of whom collapsed miserably under
the test of the revolutionary crisis produced by
the war. The world of petty bourgeois Socialism
invoked the German Social-Democracy, the
British Labor Party, the French Socialist Party,
the dominant Socialism in Russia, while it ignored, condemned or knew nothing of the Bolsheviki and other groups of the revolutionary
minority, the policy of which conquers in Russia,
and will conquer everywhere by means of the
New International of the final struggle and victory. But Lenin was not swerved from his course
by apparent failure, no more than he has been
swerved from his course by success. In these
years of preparation for the Revolution, in these
bitter years of momentary triumph of a Socialism essentially counter-revolutionary, Lenin developed the fundamentals of his policy, which his
revolutionary integrity and mastery of theory
convinced him were in accord with the fundamental facts and tendency of Capitalism and the
proletariat, and which would necessarily conquer
under the impulse of the universal crisis generated by Imperialism, which introduces the new
revolutionary epoch of the proletarian class
struggle.
The courage and initiative of the man, his
integrity and devotion to the fundamental tasks
of Socialism, his refusal to temporize with revolutionary consistency, policy and honor for the
sake of meretricious popularity, are marvels of
character and vision, an inspiration to the Socialist and the rebel.
It is impossible to chronicle here the achievements of Lenin. But there is one achievement,
I think, which is characteristic. I was discussing
Lenin with a comrade the other day, and he said:
"It rather tires me to read so much in which
Lenin repeatedly insists, as against Karl Kautsky,
that Marx said this or meant that. A man who has
accomplished what Lenin has in Russia doesn't
have to worry about Marx." But Marxism is \
the theoretical instrument of the proletarian 1
revolution; it is upon the basis of Marxism that \
Lenin builds. And a great achievement of Lenin V
is the restoration of Marxism to its real character as an instrument of revolutionary action. /
During the past twenty-five years, Marxism has
experienced a transformation, becoming the
means of interpreting history and a fetish 61
controversy, instead of a maker of history and
an instrument of revolutionary action. This degrading conception of Marxism was dominant in
the old International. The "Marxist," instead of
using Marxism to interpret new revolutionary
developments, used their atrophied Marxism as a
means of crushing new revolutionary ideas or
compressing them into the stultifying limits of
the old tactics, and justifying or explaining away
every abandonment of revolutionary Socialism
by the dominant petty bourgeois Socialism.
Lenin used Marx against these pseudo-Marxists,
insisted on making Marxism an instrument of
revolutionary action, built upon the basis of
Marxism and amplified its scope. Marx is again
the rebel, and not the slave of the Socialist
pedant. Lenin used Marxism to interpret the
new social alignments of imperialism, the new
forms of the class struggle, and to forge the concepts of theory and action corresponding to the
new revolutionary epoch.
Lenin's theoretical activity bulks large. His
Development of Capitalism in Russia is considered a master work, as is his Agrarian Problem, in Russia; his Imperialism: the Final Stage
of Capitalism, is a splendid analysis of the prevailing epoch, a brilliant unity of theory and
action in Socialist interpretation. Then there is
Lenin's pamphlet, The State and the Revolution,
a discussion of the determining problem of the
proletarian revolution; and his numerous pamphlets and other works issued during the Revolution, and which are classics of the application of
fundamental Socialism to the problems of immediate, dynamic action during a revolutionary
crisis. This theoretical work of Lenin will yet
become a source of inspiration in the coming
reconstruction of Socialism, supplemented by the
accomplishments of the proletarian revolution in
Russia.
It is not in any sense a concession to the
Carlylean theory of "the Great Man" to admit
.
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