The Importance of Ideological and Political struggle in building Revolutionary Movement
- Subodh Mitra
We are here to celebrate the Great October Socialist Revolution. Hundred years ago in 1917 under the leadership of Bolshevik Party led by Com rade Lenin the people seized the power overthrowing the tsarist regime. The Bolshevik Party, Com. Lenin and the entire Central Committee had to encounter the external and internal conspiracies inside and outside the party before and after the revolution. So it was a very hard and long drawn struggle. As you know that Lenin started his carrier as a professional revolutionary as a Marxist just at the age of twenty years. And he actually not died. He was a victim of bullet injury. He finally died in the year 1924 at the age of 55 years only. So his life pan was shortened. A man of 55 years old had created a new hope for the entire working class of the world. While preparing for the revolution just before the First World War Lenin had told that there can be no revolution without a revolutionary party. So in his work, he had given a very strong importance to the building of a revolutionary party. The Bolshevik party was a product of the struggle for the party. The Bolshevik party was formed in 1912. In Russia, the struggle had to be waged against Narodism, revisionism, Trotskyism and socialist revolutionaries – all kinds of people who were actually the direct agents of imperialism.
Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 with the aim of developing the Communist Movement at the international level. In 1864, the Communist International was formed as a platform of working class movement. But even then Marx had to fight against the enemies within. In the Communist International, there were people who took the name of Marx every day. Bukharin used to tell that Marx was more than his father to him. But the same man said he hated the Jews. Marx happened to be a Jew. So Bukharin’ s struggle was to destroy Jews, ie., Marx and Engels. And he conspired. He had taken money from the imperialist powers. He purchased many workers in the head quarters and finally the First International had collapsed. In 1871, there was the Paris Commune. The workers held power for 71 days. This was the first time the workers had successfully seized the power. But because of inexperience, the absence of a Communist Party and strong revolutionary leadership it failed. After the collapse of the First International, the Second International came into being under the leadership of Engels. But this Second
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International, in the period of First World War during 1914-19, the line of peaceful transformation of society was brought to the fore under the leadership of Karl Kautsky. He said Marxism cannot be implemented; Marxism needs to be changed in view of the changed international situation. He said that the balance of powers had changed between the workers and imperialist powers. So there is no question of revolutionary change; the revolution can be brought and completed by peaceful means. His was the line when the First World War had begun in 1914. This was called Kautskyism. It influenced the German Communist party and the parties in various other countries, including Russia.
So Lenin was of the view that the revolution was not possible without waging the struggle against the revisionist ideas called Kautskyism. He had seen that Marx had said in the last para of the Communist Manifesto that the“ Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims” and their aims can be achieved only through a forcible overthrow of the existing order. No revolutionary change is possible in the society without the destruction of the existing order. Lenin had taken the lessons from the experiences of Paris Commune, 1905 Russian revolution and the February Revolution of Russia( 1914). He wrote three important works, like“ The Lessons of Revolution”;“ Fundamental Questions of Revolution” and“ Renegade Kautsky and Proletarian Revolution.” He had exposed Kautsky and called him a‘ social-imperialist.’ He said, Kautsky had actually betrayed the working class, acts as a reactionary and revisionist agent of imperialism. In these three ideological works Lenin had categorically said that without armed overthrow, without a party which is steeled, strong and capable to lead the working class and also without foiling this kind of conspiracy internally the revolution cannot be achieved. He also called for an ideological struggle against various ideas alien to Marxism. So, naturally, the revolution had advanced with this kind of struggle. In 1917 Lenin was in exile. Stalin was arrested. After the 1917 February Revolution, Lenin arrived Petrograd. Stalin came to know of this. He escaped from the custody while he was being taken by the tsarist army for the purpose of forcing him to serve in the army. He walked on foot in the severe cold atmosphere and reached Moscow. He met Lenin in Petrograd. This was the time when the revolutionary
Class Struggle