revolutionary-minded intelligentsia. Marxism could spread only by defeating it.
The Emancipation of Labour Group( ELG) formed by Plekhanov was the first Marxist group in Russia. It had done a tremendous work to disseminate Marxist ideas in Russia. Plekhanov had done lot of ideological work to expose Narodism in the light of Marxism.
The Social Democrats in the early period were in the form of groups and circles. They had no or scant connections with the mass working class movement. As Lenin said, the Social Democratic Movement, at the time, was“ like an infant still unborn but already developing in its mother’ s womb, the Social Democratic Movement was in the process of foetal development.”
Plekhanov and ELG led by him were based on the ideology of Marxism. But they failed to realise that the proletariat must lead the peasants in revolution and it can lead the revolution against tsardom to victory only by developing a stable alliance with the peasants.
Lenin was just 20 years old when he entered the political scene as a Marxist. He encountered the arrests, exiles and other forms of repression at his tender age. Through his work, he became popular as a Marxist intellectual, organiser and leader. The need of the time was to lay a basis for a Proletarian Party. Lenin’ s Struggle for the Proletarian Party
For Lenin, it was a three-pronged struggle. i) carry on the struggle against the petty bourgeois ideology and politics as well as against all wrong and incorrect ideas paraded in the name of Marxism; ii) Study the concrete conditions as well as revolutionary experiences and develop the strategy, tactics for revolution and iii) Build the party of Proletariat capable of leading the democratic and socialist revolutions to victory. Lenin’ s struggle in these spheres was interrelated, inseparable and influenced each other.
In 1895, Lenin amalgamated 20 Marxist circles and formed a League of Struggle for the Emancipation of Working Class. This brought a serious turn in the working class movement. Lenin guided the League not to confine to a few intellectuals but to go extensively among the workers and move them into class and political struggles. The League had, in reality, moved the millions into struggles. In no time, the League had emerged as an important force in the Russian political life. It combined the economic and political struggles against tsardom. The League became a first body that brought a fusion between socialism and working class movement. It made an extensive socialist propaganda. Inspired by the work of the League, many organisations had come up in different places and under various names. Lenin said, the League of Struggle was“ the first real rudiment of a revolutionary party which was backed by the working class-movement”. 4
The legal Marxists advocated the subordination of working class movement to the interests of bourgeoisie on an absurd plea that the working class was not“ cultured enough”. Lenin had rejected it. He asserted: i) all the Marxists must unite into a single party; ii) the proletariat must unite with the peasantry and rally other toiling people and the world proletariat to advance the strugg le for Socialism and Communism.
Some in Russia argued that the bourgeois must lead the democratic revolution as, in essence, it was a Bourgeois Revolution. Lenin had strongly opposed this view. He criticised this view basing on Marxism, concrete analysis of concrete conditions of Russia; the experiences of revolutions, including the French Revolution of 1871. He proved that the Bourgeois had lost the interest and capacity to lead a Democratic Revolution and it betrays its own self. Therefore, it is suicidal to leave the leadership of democratic revolution to bourgeois. It only results in the failure of this revolution. Lenin asserted that the proletariat must and can lead this revolution consistently, thoroughly and to victory and firmly advance it to a Socialist Revolution.
Likewise, what sort of party was needed in Russia was an exceptionally serious question. Should it be a loose, hotchpotch, free lancing, debating and friendship society like party that works, at best, for some reforms and so weak to collapse at the knock by the enemy and bend before the sops or tantrums thrown by the enemy; OR a party based on Marxism, a well knit, well disciplined party based the principles of Democratic Centralism, a party which is fully dedicated to the task of forging a stable alliance with the peasants and uniting with other revolutionary classes; a party which is prepared to and capable enough to utilise all the opportunities, swims against all difficulties and adapts itself to all situations and keeping itself always linked with the masses of people. Lenin has done a stupendous ideological and political work to clarify the issues, fight wrong ideas and remove ideological confusions in the working class movement.
During 1901-04, Russia was in the thick of a revolutionary turmoil. In the face of severe economic crisis, closures of thousands of factories threw lakhs of workers out of jobs. The slogan“ down with tsarism” reverberated everywhere. On May Day in 1901, the workers fought pitched battles in the streets with the tsarist army with stones and iron rods. The tsarist repression against workers evoked not fear but widest sympathy for the striking workers among the people. The workers and peasants moved into action in several places. Railway workers plunged into strikes in thousands. Several workers died in firings. Yet,
Class Struggle