Lenin - Great October Socialist Revolution
- Madhu
The Great October Socialist Revolution was
victorious in Russia 46 years after the 1871 Paris
Commune.
Those who hail the October Socialist Revolution
as great revolution today include the Communist
Revolutionaries, those who embraced reformism and
anarchism and those socialists of different varieties
apart from the vast millions of working class,
oppressed and toiling people in the world.
There are cynics, deserters and turn-coats of
Communist Movement who seek to undermine,
denigrate or negate the significance of October
Socialist Revolution on the plea that, after all, this
revolution had suffered a setback at the end.
Some say: Yes, we must hail whatever the
Russian Communists, Bolsheviks guided by Lenin had
done to lead the Russian Socialist Revolution to
victory and to defend it from the internal and external
enemies. This revolution was correct and needed in
the conditions that existed in Russia at the time. But it
is difficult and almost impossible to do in India as the
Bolsheviks had done in Russia as the concrete
conditions are totally different today. Of course, they
do not say this in such clear words. The anarchists
say: The seizure of power in Russia by revolutionary
means and the defence of Socialist Revolution were
indeed commendable. But they remain silent or avoid
the answer to the question: Are the tactics and
methods adopted by the Russian Bolsheviks to make
the people conscious, steel, train and move in millions
for revolutionary action are valid and applicable for
our revolution?
The concrete conditions of Countries and
historical contexts may differ. So no revolution can be
a carbon copy of another revolution. No revolution
can mechanically transplant the experiences of
another country. This is what Lenin said. At the same
time, learning from one another is a must. We must
learn from the revolutions of other Countries as well
as from our own past and present. It is necessary to
avoid the recurrence of same mistakes and deepen
our own understanding and ability to apply Marxism
and revolutionary experiences to our practice.
Lenin was at the helm of revolution from the
beginning to the victorious socialist revolution. He
prepared the Russian proletariat for the most difficult
and herculean responsibility of leading the Russian
revolution. It was, indeed, a miracle. He trained,
steeled and equipped the proletariat ideologically,
November - 2017
politically, organisationally and in the course of class
struggle, revolutionary upheavals along a thorny,
bumpy, circuitous, and long road of revolution. It is a
rich and inexhaustible treasure house of revolutionary
experiences.
Early Period
Before the revolution, the peasants in Russia were
like serfs oppressed by feudalism and the tsarist
autocracy. The capitalist development was weak and
backward. The workers had no political rights. The
tsarist Russia was a prison house for numerous small,
non-Russian nations.
The working class movement, in the early days,
championed the demands like wages, working hours,
political rights and the redemptions, fines and various
forms of repression. The Northern Union of Russian
Workers (1878) even declared the “overthrow of the
(then) existing economic and political system as its
ultimate aim” and “winning the political liberty and
political rights for the people as its immediate aim”.
The tsarist regime sought to brutally crush the workers
strikes. Yet, the workers waged many a heroic strikes
and battles. But these struggles were unequal to face
the mighty autocratic state. A political party was need
of the hour.
Narodniks and Emancipation of Labour Group
(ECG) were two kinds of political forces in the scene.
Narodniks were the petty bourgeoisie
revolutionaries. They held the view that capitalism
cannot develop in Russia and, if at all it develops, it
will only be an ‘accidental’. Feudalism and the tsarist
autocracy can be overthrown and Socialism can be
brought in Russia only by the peasant revolts led by
the intellectuals. It is not the classes and class
struggles, but the “outstanding individuals and heroes”
who create History and the “mobs” would blindly follow
them. The development of proletariat in Russia will
be a “historical misfortune” and proletarianism will be
an “ulcer”. Narodniks went to villages in the guise of
peasants and incited the peasants to revolt. They
assassinated tsar-Alexander-II. But they could achieve
nothing. The experience of Narodniks had shown that
the methods of individual terrorism, individual heroism
and individual assassinations are futile and disastrous
for revolution. The tsarist Govt. could easily crush the
Narodniks. The remaining Narodniks abandoned the
revolution, compromised with the tsarist regime and
began supporting the kulaks in the later years. Yet,
the influence of Narodism lasted for long among the
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