Lenin on Revolutionary Situations

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chlamor
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Lenin on Revolutionary Situations

Post by chlamor » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:36 am

The following excerpt is from Section II to The Collapse of the Second International by V.I. Lenin. It was first written and published in 1915. The title refers to the great schism which occured in the Second Socialist International, a powerful transnational organization representing virtually all of the Socialist (and mostly Marxist) Parties in the world. With the coming of WWI in 1914, the great majority of the leadership in those parties chose to support their "own" capitalists in the prosecution of the Great War. A small minority, later to become the genisis of the modern Communist movement, decried treason in the worker's movement ("social chauvinism") and adopted the revolutionary path.

Much of this was already predictable in 1912, when the future internationalist section adopted an anti-war Manifesto[/b] in Basle, Switzerland. The Manifesto declared:

"(1) that war will create an economic and political crisis; (2) that the workers will regard their participation in war as a crime, and as criminal any “shooting each other down for the profit of the capitalists, for the sake of dynastic honour and of diplomatic secret treaties”, and that war evokes “indignation and revolt” in the workers; (3) that it is the duty of socialists to take advantage of this crisis and of the workers’ temper so as to “rouse the people and hasten the downfall of capitalism"; (4) that all “governments” without exception can start a war only at “their own peril"; (5) that governments “are afraid of a proletarian revolution”; (6) that governments “should remember” the Paris Commune (i.e., civil war), the 1905 Revolution in Russia, etc."

This pamphlet was an elaboration of various issues that emerged from those events.


- anaxarchos

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/ ... 1pp74h-212

To the Marxist it is indisputable that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the “upper classes”, a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for “the lower classes not to want” to live in the old way; it is also necessary that “the upper classes should be unable” to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in “peace time”, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the “upper classes” themselves into independent historical action.

Without these objective changes, which are independent of the will, not only of individual groups and parties but even of individual classes, a revolution, as a general rule, is impossible. The totality of all these objective changes is called a revolutionary situation. Such a situation existed in 1905 in Russia, and in all revolutionary periods in the West; it also existed in Germany in the sixties of the last century, and in Russia in 1859-61 and 1879-80, although no revolution occurred in these instances. Why was that? It was because it is not every revolutionary situation that gives rise to a revolution; revolution arises only out of a situation in which the above-mentioned objective changes are accompanied by a subjective change, namely, the ability of the revolutionary class to take revolutionary mass action strong enough to break (or dislocate) the old government, which never, not even in a period of crisis, “falls”, if it is not toppled over.

Such are the Marxist views on revolution, views that have been developed many, many times, have been accepted as indisputable by all Marxists, and for us, Russians, were corroborated in a particularly striking fashion by the experience of 1905. What, then, did the Basle Manifesto assume in this respect in 1912, and what took place in 1914-15?

It assumed that a revolutionary situation, which it briefly described as “an economic and political crisis”, would arise. Has such a situation arisen? Undoubtedly, it has. The social-chauvinist Lensch, who defends chauvinism more candidly, publicly and honestly than the hypocrites Cunow, Kautsky, Plekhanov and Co. do, has gone so far as to say: “What we are passing through is a kind of revolution” (p. 6 of his pamphlet, German Social-Democracy and the War, Berlin, 1915). A political crisis exists; no govornment is sure of the morrow, not one is secure against the danger of financial collapse, loss of territory, expulsion from its country (in the way the Belgian Government was expelled). All governments are sleeping on a volcano; all are themselves calling for the masses to display initiative and heroism. The entire political regime of Europe has been shaken, and hardly anybody will deny that we have entered (and are entering ever deeper—I write this on the day of Italy’s declaration of war) a period of immense political upheavals. When, two months after the declaration of war, Kautsky wrote (October 2, 1914, in Die Neue Zeit ) that “never is government so strong, never are parties so weak as at the outbreak of a war”, this was a sample of the falsification of historical science which Kautsky has perpetrated to please the Südekums and other opportunists. In the first place, never do governments stand in such need of agreement with all the parties of the ruling classes, or of the “peaceful” submission of the oppressed classes to that rule, as in the time of war. Secondly, even though “at the beginning of a war”, and especially in a country that expects a speedy victory, the government seems all powerful, nobody in the world has ever linked expectations of a revolutionary situation exclusively with the “beginning” of a war, and still less has anybody ever identified the “seeming” with the actual.

It was generally known, seen and admitted that a European war would be more severe than any war in the past. This is being borne out in ever greater measure by the experience of the war. The conflagration is spreading; the political foundations of Europe are being shaken more and more; the sufferings of the masses are appalling, the efforts of governments, the bourgeoisie and the opportunists to hush up these sufferings proving ever more futile. The war profits being obtained by certain groups of capitalists are monstrously high, and contradictions are growing extremely acute. The smouldering indignation of the masses, the vague yearning of society’s downtrodden and ignorant strata for a kindly (“democratic”) peace, the beginning of discontent among the “lower classes" — all these are facts. The longer the war drags on and the more acute it becomes, the more the governments themselves foster — and must foster — the activity of the masses, whom they call upon to make extraordinary effort and self-sacrifice. The experience of the war, like the experience of any crisis in history, of any great calamity and any sudden turn in human life, stuns and breaks some people, but enlighten and tempers others. Taken by and large, and considering the history of the world as a whole, the number and strength of the second kind of people have — with the exception of individual cases of the decline and fall of one state or another — proved greater than those of the former kind.

Far from “immediately” ending all these sufferings and all this enhancement of contradictions, the conclusion of peace will, in many respects, make those sufferings more keenly and immediately felt by the most backward masses of the population.

In a word, a revolutionary situation obtains in most of the advanced countries and the Great Powers of Europe. In this respect, the prediction of the Basle Manifesto has been fully confirmed. To deny this truth, directly or indirectly, or to ignore it, as Cunow, Plekhanov, Kautsky and Co. have done, means telling a big lie, deceiving the working class, and serving the bourgeoisie. In Sotsial-Demokrat (Nos. 34, 40 and 41)[1] we cited facts which prove that those who fear revolution — petty-bourgeois Christian parsons, the General Staffs and millionaires’ newspapers — are compelled to admit that symptoms of a revolutionary situation exist in Europe.

Will this situation last long; how much more acute will it become? Will it lead to revolution? This is something we do not know, and nobody can know. The answer can be provided only by the experience gained during the development of revolutionary sentiment and the transition to revolutionary action by the advanced c]ass, the proletariat. There can be no talk in this connection about “illusions” or their repudiation, since no socialist has ever guaranteed that this war (and not the next one), that today’s revolutionary situation (and not tomorrow’s) will produce a revolution. What we are discussing is the indisputable and fundamental duty of all socialists — that of revealing to the masses the existence of a revolutionary situation, explaining its scope and depth, arousing the proletariat’s revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary determination, helping it to go over to revolutionary action, and forming, for that purpose, organisations suited to the revolutionary situation.

No influential or responsible socialist has ever dared to feel doubt that this is the duty of the socialist parties. Without spreading or harbouring the least “illusions”, the Basle Manifesto spoke specifically of this duty of the socialists — to rouse and to stir up the people (and not to lull them with chauvinism, as Plekhanov, Axelrod and Kautsky have done), to take advantage of the crisis so as to hasten the downfall of capitalism, and to be guided by the examples of the Commune and of October-December 1905. The present parties’ failure to perform that duty meant their treachery, political death, renunciation of their own role and desertion to the side of the bourgeoisie.

=================

To be serious for a second...

Listen to what blindpig just said. Two years before World War I begins - and if you have ever read period documentation, NOBODY knows that war is coming, though the tensions are understood - the Basle (or Basel) Manifesto has not only laid out the war, it's character (largest yet - world war), the resulting split in the Second International, and the creation of a "revolutionary situation".

Three years later, in 1915, Lenin is able to talk authoritatively about that revolutionary situation and to directly refute the leading Marxist "lights of his era such as Karl Kautsky. Instead of dimming revolutionary prospects, he is able to see not only the reversal of direction but the intensification of the revolutionary situation with the coming of peace. We are still almost 3 years away from the Russian Revolution, from the wholesale mutiny of the French Army, and we are still more than four years away from revolution in Germany and the 1919 spark which sets Europe ablaze.

Not only did these guys understand what was coming but they were acting, working, mobilizing for events as if they had already occurred.

This was the real power of the "science" at the time... it magnified 10 by 10,000.


- anaxarxhos

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Re: Lenin on Revolutionary Situations

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 05, 2022 2:14 pm

Shushensky prisoner
No. 11/75.XI.2022

Started at the end of the 19th century. the struggle of the Russian Marxists for a society without oppressors and the oppressed could not yet shake the power of the landowners and capitalists. Without a party and organized support from the advanced part of the population, to storm the autocracy would be a waste of the few available forces. Therefore, the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, under the leadership of Ulyanov, is working to create a future revolutionary vanguard, which, against the backdrop of the rise of the proletarian movement, doubles the attention of the tsarist secret police.

“It has been noticed ... an increase in unrest among the workers in some factories and factories in St. Petersburg, expressed in repeated strikes and strikes. The circumstances of the latter made it possible to conclude that they were taking place not without external influence on the part of persons engaged in criminal propaganda among the workers in the capital. As a result, special surveillance and search measures were taken, which revealed the actual existence in St. Petersburg of a special circle of “Social Democrats”, consisting of both intelligent people, mostly young students, and the workers propagandized by them ”(from the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs I.L. Goremykin ).

The gendarmes vigilantly watch the members of the "Union", and on the night of December 8-9, 1895, the police take into custody 57 St. Petersburg Marxists, including Vladimir Ilyich. The future leader of the world proletariat treated his "first walker" philosophically. He knew that the path he had chosen would sooner or later lead to the “state house”.

“We are walking in a tight group along a steep and difficult path, holding hands tightly. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we almost always have to go under their fire. We united according to a freely accepted decision, precisely in order to fight enemies and not stumble into the neighboring swamp, whose inhabitants from the very beginning reproached us for the fact that we stood out in a special group and chose the path of struggle, and not the path of reconciliation ”(V .I. Lenin).

The fate of the "political" in the Russian Empire was decided personally by the sovereign. After 14 months of solitary confinement in the House of Preliminary Detention on Shpalernaya, Vladimir Ilyich is assigned a three-year exile to Eastern Siberia. In comparison with a prison cell, this opens up much more freedom of action for Ulyanov. Indestructible optimism, colossal working capacity, support of family and comrades helped to take full advantage of it. In particular, the authorities granted the mother's request for her son's trip to the place of exile at her own expense.

“... St. Petersburg acquaintances insisted very much on the need for this in order to save his remarkable strength. A.M. Kalmykova even offered funds for this. Mother refused to help, passing A.M. Kalmykova, that let that money go to the more needy, for example, Krzhizhanovsky, and she will be able to send Vladimir Ilyich at her own expense ”(A.I. Ulyanova-Elizarova).

Vladimir's journey into exile by train to Krasnoyarsk, by steamboat to Minusinsk, and by cart to Shushenskoye ran across the country and took four months.

“...“ The Great Siberian Road ”(great not only in its length, but also in the boundless robbery of government money by the builders, in the boundless exploitation of the workers who built it) opened Siberia ...” (V.I. Lenin).

Prison and exile help Ulyanov and his comrades in the Union to rethink their activities, to feel from their own experience that the struggle for communism is not a fleeting, outburst of heroism, but daily and dangerous work. That professional revolutionaries, if they want to achieve their goals, are obliged to emerge victorious from the intellectual duel with the ruling class, to surpass it, first of all organizationally. A firm understanding of what needed to be done allowed Vladimir to show an extraordinary grasp of the leader and organizer of the proletarian movement, even under police supervision.

“... Starting from Tula, at every stop I see a young man of small stature, rather thin, with a small wedge-shaped beard, very lively and agile, who keeps quarreling with the railway authorities, pointing out the terrible overcrowding of the train, and demands to hitch another car. Indeed, the train was overloaded. But, of course, according to the custom of that time, the railway authorities did not pay any attention to the protests and statements of passengers.

So we arrived in Samara, where the train then stood for an hour. Here, on the platform, a more stormy scene played out, gathering a crowd of passengers. The same short passenger ardently argued to the stationmaster, head of traffic, gendarme and train compiler who stood in front of him the need to attach another car in order to relieve some of the crowding. The argument was very heated. The crowd of passengers surrounding them supported the just demand. Finally, the authorities whispered something among themselves, and the head of the station, turning to the compiler of the trains, said:

- Well, to hell with him! Attach the wagon.

Everyone calmed down, and I, knowing well the procedures of our railways, thought: “ This passenger must be an outstanding person if he could get the authorities to give in and agree to attach another car ” ”(V.M. Krutovsky).

Social Democrat, member of the medical department under the governor of Eastern Siberia, Dr. V.M. Krutovsky suggested that Ulyanov file a petition about his illness and for an examination of his state of health. The governor ordered that the petition be granted, and with the help of Krutovsky, tuberculosis was “discovered” in Lenin. This meant that when choosing a place of exile, Ilyich’s chances of serving his sentence in the southern part of the province seriously increased.

“I am very pleased with my appointment (if the rumor is justified - and I don’t think it was erroneous), because Minusinsk and its district are the best in this area both in terms of the excellent climate and the cheapness of life” (V.I. Lenin).

The village of Shushenskoye in the Yenisei province is a reference place of exile. Remote from the Great Siberian Highway and the Trans-Siberian Railway under construction, Shusha regularly provided shelter to the special settlers of the Russian Empire. At various times, on the edge of the Minusinsk Basin, the Decembrists, Petrashevists, Narodnaya Volya, participants in the Polish uprisings, and now Marxists found their refuge.

“The village is large, with several streets, rather dirty, dusty - everything is as it should be. It stands in the steppe - there are no gardens and no vegetation at all. The village is surrounded by ... manure, which is not taken out to the fields here, but thrown right behind the village, so that in order to leave the village, one must always almost go through a certain amount of manure ”(V.I. Lenin).

Having settled into a new place, Ulyanov continues to fight. Despite the greater freedom of action in comparison with a solitary cell, the "idiocy of village life" and the forced distance from the "theater of revolutionary actions" leave a certain imprint on his mood. Confidence in the rightness of one's cause, communication with comrades and ... the expectation of Nadezhda helps to hold on.

“I was allowed to go to Shushenskoye under the condition of getting married. According to the laws of that time, only wives could accompany their husbands into exile. When I lived in Shushenskoye, two months later an official piece of paper came with a proposal to get married or go to Ufa. We laughed and got married. We were husband and wife and wanted to live and work together” (N.K. Krupskaya).

On August 12, 1896, Krupskaya was arrested in the case of the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Before leaving for Siberia, Vladimir meets with her mother, and sends a letter to Nadezhda "chemistry", in which he declares his love. After a six-month imprisonment, Nadezhda Konstantinovna is sentenced to a three-year exile in the Ufa province and immediately petitions to be sent to Shushenskoye. Having received permission to change the place of exile, the future wife of the leader, together with her mother, goes to Siberia, bringing the groom a cart of books and a kerosene lamp with a green shade.

“I brought Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov with me to Siberia. Vladimir Ilyich laid them down beside his bed, next to Hegel, and read them over and over in the evenings. Most of all he loved Pushkin. But he appreciated not only the form. For example, he loved Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?... I was surprised how attentively he read this novel and what subtle touches that are in this novel, he noted. However, he loved the whole appearance of Chernyshevsky, and in his Siberian album there were two cards of this writer, one inscribed by Ilyich's hand - the year of birth and death. In Ilyich's album there were also cards of Emile Zola, and of the Russians - Herzen and Pisarev. Pisarev Vladimir Ilyich read and loved a lot in his time. I remember that in Siberia we also had Goethe's Faust in German and a volume of Heine's poems” (N.K. Krupskaya).

The tsarist government allocates eight rubles a month for the maintenance of one "political" "in remote places of Siberia" (today it is about a little more than 5,000 rubles), which allows you to rent housing and pay for food. But this amount is not enough for outerwear, which is extremely necessary in the conditions of the Siberian winter: a simple zipun made of camel hair costs seven rubles, a sheepskin coat (Vladimir Ilyich buys this in Krasnoyarsk) - about 20 rubles.

“The cheapness in this Shushenskoye was amazing. For example, Vladimir Ilyich for his "salary" - an eight-ruble allowance - had a clean room, feeding, washing and mending linen - and it was believed that he was paying dearly. True, lunch and dinner were rather simple - one week for Vladimir Ilyich they killed a ram, which they fed him day after day, until he ate it; when she eats, they buy meat for a week, a worker in the yard in a trough where fodder is prepared for livestock, chop the purchased meat into cutlets for Vladimir Ilyich, also for a whole week. But there was plenty of milk and shaneg ... ”(N.K. Krupskaya).

With the arrival of the Krupskys, the life of the exiled Ulyanov acquires family comfort and greater order. Elizaveta Vasilievna Krupskaya greatly helps the couple of revolutionaries in solving everyday issues. Accompanying her daughter everywhere, both in exile and in emigration, she rolls up her sleeves and organizes a “revolutionary rear”: she cooks, does laundry, cleans.

“In general, our present life is reminiscent of a “formal” dacha life, only we don’t have our own economy. Well, yes, they feed us well, give us plenty of milk to drink, and we all prosper here. I'm still not used to Volodya's now healthy appearance. In St. Petersburg, I was used to seeing him always in a rather sick state ”(N.K. Krupskaya).

The obligation to marry, like all other agreements, Ulyanov strictly fulfills. From childhood, he perceives the discrepancy between words and deeds as meanness and weakness, considering the inability to keep a word as the reason for the weakening of the will and the decomposition of the personality. Therefore, he excludes any possibility of non-fulfillment of the promised, making this unacceptable for himself. This develops the habit of paying close attention to words, for whatever he says must be done.

“Honesty in politics is the result of strength, hypocrisy is the result of weakness” (V.I. Lenin).

The sacrament of marriage is consecrated on July 10, 1898 in the Peter and Paul rural church. The groom in a shabby brown suit, the bride in a light blouse and dark skirt, a couple of exiled friends of Lenin, several peasants and the future mother-in-law - that's all the eyewitnesses of the wedding of two atheists. The problem with wedding rings is solved by an exiled Finn, an amateur jeweler - Oscar Enberg. He gives the young wedding decorations made of copper nickels, made with his own hand.

“In the evening, Ilyich and I somehow couldn’t fall asleep, we dreamed of powerful workers’ demonstrations in which we would someday take part ...” (N.K. Krupskaya).

Lenin's main entertainment in Shushenskoye was reading. There was no radio in those days, newspapers arrived many days late, and Ilyich spent the long winter evenings with a book. He spent most of his available funds on literature.

"IN AND. he also managed to systematize the reading of these old newspapers: he distributed them in such a way that every day he read only the numbers that corresponded to the rate of delay, but precisely those that fell only on a certain day. It turned out that every day he receives a newspaper, only with a large delay in the process of receiving ”(G.M. Krzhizhanovsky).

Distinguished by an insatiable scientific curiosity, Ulyanov reasonably believes that literature contributes to the spiritual growth of the individual, playing the role of a "textbook of life", a tool for comprehending human characters and destinies, helping to plan one's life path correctly, to solve everyday and social problems in truth. The role of books in his life is growing rapidly - far from libraries, the thirst for reading seems insatiable.

“The thought of arranging the sending of books here from some metropolitan library occupies me more and more often; I sometimes begin to think that without this it will not be possible to conduct literary work here: an impulse from outside is so necessary for it, which is absolutely absent here ”(V.I. Lenin).

Evaluating the books according to their ideological content and summarizing everything he read about the previous revolutionary struggle, Lenin “finds himself in the books”, gets the opportunity to feel like a contemporary of a bygone era, and vividly supplement the topical facts of the formation of capitalist relations in Russia.

“During our arrival, Vladimir Ilyich rented a separate hut from the peasant Petrov ... As far as I remember, almost half of the hut was occupied by huge shelves with books. Thick, thin, bound and unbound books looked out from the shelves, occupying the entire wall from the bottom to the ceiling, as if saying that here they are honored guests of the owner, who lives by intellectual interests” (A.S. Shapovalov).

Reading scientific literature for Lenin is an intellectual work that brings pleasure. For complete assimilation, he outlines everything he read, including the "works" of the opportunists, which allows him to deal with hostile journalism as convincingly as possible. Under conditions of exile, it is extremely difficult to get not only novelties, but also other literature. However, forming around himself a "force field" of a passionate book lover, Ulyanov could not help captivating his relatives and friends with his enthusiasm.

“As for the books, Vladimir Ilyich calmed down: he received the books brought by me, on his order, from abroad, he also received many Russian books, including those borrowed by Dmitry Ilyich in scientific Moscow libraries .., so that we managed to satisfy even I thirst for it in books ”(A.I. Ulyanova-Elizarova).

The high cost of books, taking into account their shipment and the huge amount of necessary literature, seemed to be a decisive obstacle to full-fledged work. Lenin coped with this difficulty, including by taking up the translation of the book by S. and B. Webb "The Theory and Practice of English Trade Unionism." Other literary royalties, financial assistance from friends and relatives also go to purchase the necessary essays.

“If you are not very shy about the means for issuing books, then you can, I think, work in the wilderness,” I judge, at least for myself, comparing my life in Samara about 7 years ago, when I read almost exclusively other people's books , and now that I have begun to get into the habit of prescribing books ”(V.I. Lenin).

Exiles are forbidden to enter the state or public service, engage in pedagogical activities and practice law. They are deprived of the right to move outside the settlement, the police open their correspondence and at any time can come in with a search. All this forces the exiles, who do not have help from the "mainland", especially if they are serving their sentences with their wives and children, to look for any job.

“Gleb and Basil (Krzhizhanovsky and Starkov) now have a job, without it they could not live ...” (V.I. Lenin).

The atmosphere of life in exile largely depends not on the severity of the crime, but on the social status and property status of the offender. The upper and lower classes are kept in different conditions, and the hereditary nobleman Ulyanov enjoys a more advantageous position not for personal purposes, but for the main thing - that which later brings the Bolsheviks victory over all enemies.

“... During my summer trip abroad, I met members of the Emancipation of Labor group, brought them greetings from Vladimir Ilyich. They asked with great interest about him and asked him to tell him that no one in Russia writes as well for the workers as he does. I told him this, of course, in a secret letter written with milk and water or chemicals in a book, in a magazine issue or in a catalog, as I also wrote to him from abroad. Regarding this review, Vladimir Ilyich wrote to me in the same way that the approving review of the “old men”, that is, Plekhanov and Axelrod, about his writings for the workers is more valuable to him than anything he could imagine ”(A.I. Ulyanova- Elizarov).

Remoteness from civilization, aloofness from politics, lack of funds, hostility of the administration and wariness of the local population often lead exiles to nervous exhaustion, conflicts, drunkenness, and suicide. However, Ulyanov, soberly assessing his strengths and capabilities, having the moral and material support of relatives, does not despair, does not withdraw into himself, does not plunge into the image of the victim imposed on him, but continues to fight, brushing aside despondency and dragging his comrades with him.

“With his diligence, ability to rationally distribute hours, energy, Ulyanov attracted all the general sympathy and served as an excellent example for us, the exiles. He did a great deal to help us bear the brunt of the link. After all, exile was a cage where a revolutionary fell. Exile separated the revolutionary from his comrades, from the workers, from direct revolutionary work among the masses. And what was needed was a deep faith in the rightness of one's cause, a huge will in order not to lose heart. His unbending will literally infected us” (O.A. Engberg).

The intellectual and spiritual initiative of Lenin is aimed at eliminating negative assessments of themselves and their future among the exiled Marxists. Orienting his comrades to the continuation of revolutionary activity, to overcoming a gloomy state of mind, to getting rid of decadent moods, Ilyich does not reject problems, does not devalue people's negative feelings, but gently leads to the fact that only struggle will change the situation for the better, showing by personal example what is needed to do and how practical work allows you to cope with bouts of blues and laziness.

“The exceptional intensity and fruitfulness of Lenin's work in exile, the intensity and systematicity with which he worked, were a fascinating example for all of us. Looking at him, we also pulled ourselves up and strove to constantly replenish our mental baggage ”(O.B. Lepeshinskaya).

A broad outlook and four years of experience in legal practice, the ability to highlight any issue and give useful advice have created Ulyanov's reputation among local residents as an intelligent and necessary person. Compiling petitions, statements and complaints for the peasants, Lenin not only explained what needed to be done and what could be achieved by this, but also asked everyone who came to him about the conditions of his life. A deep study of popular sentiments, the study of the psychology of the masses was useful to him in his further revolutionary activities.

“... When I was in exile in Siberia, I had to be a lawyer. I was an underground lawyer, because I was an administrative exile and it was forbidden, but since there were no others, people came to me and told me about some cases ”(V.I. Lenin).

Taking advantage of the fame of an underground lawyer who helps peasants, gold mine workers, and exiles, Ulyanov achieves effective interaction with other people, which is a necessary condition for success in the political field, and contributes to the growth of his authority among the local population.

“Vladimir Ilyich was brave. Once I saw such a case. It was some kind of holiday. The men got drunk and, as usual, started a fight. Wall to wall with fists. Some are already lying around, some have blood on their faces. In such a fight, do not approach the peasant - he will kill him. And Vladimir Ilyich was walking along the street, he had to pass by the fighting. So he went straight to the peasants, telling them that it’s not good to fight, why are you sharing, why are you hitting each other? And the peasants somehow involuntarily obeyed him, dispersed, and stopped the fight. But another, and even a political one, would simply be killed. That’s how Ilyich was!” (F.P. Rodin).

Having become the organizing center in Siberia around which the revolutionary cadres rally, Lenin attaches great importance to maintaining contact with other exiled Social Democrats. Sincerely interested in their position, anxieties and problems, Ilyich draws the attention of his comrades to the fact that difficult battles lie ahead, fierce battles with opponents of progress, and in spite of everything, it is necessary to prepare thoroughly for the coming struggle now.

“Approximately twice a week we received letters from him, thanks to which we were aware of his own work and the information that he received as a result of extensive correspondence. This correspondence arose not only because Vladimir Ilyich's letters were always to the point, always gave in a concise and concise form, deeply considered answers to the very essence of the topics touched upon, but also because of Vladimir Ilyich's extraordinary accuracy and self-discipline in this respect: he could send a sharp , a polemical response to the letter received, but he considered it completely unacceptable to hush up or, even more so, “smother” the answer to those requests that came to him ... These letters could serve as valuable material for characterizing the powerful preparatory work in which Vladimir Ilyich plunged into the time of his exile” (G.M. Krzhizhanovsky).

Lenin's influence on his comrades-in-arms is growing not only because of his correct theoretical propositions, but also because his political activity clearly leads to positive results. Despite persecution, arrests, imprisonment and exile, the Marxist movement in Russia is growing and gaining strength, incorporating new fighters for a better, just life.

“... Once in exile in a remote Siberian village, more than four thousand miles from cultural centers, he (Vladimir Ilyich) continues revolutionary work. Not only were his legal works aimed at promoting the ideas of Marxism, against the Narodniks and "legal Marxists", but he also wrote illegal works in exile: the pamphlet The Tasks of the Russian Social Democrats, articles for the party organ Rabochaya Gazeta, which was edited by he is elected in absentia at the First Party Congress. So great at that time was already his authority in the party ”(M.I. Ulyanova).

The comrades see that in leading them, Lenin not only does not remain aloof from direct activity, but sets the tone for it, shouldering the entire burden of the main work, bearing responsibility for the implementation of the decisions taken, for the actions of all the comrades-in-arms led by him.

“He taught us ... to build a great building of all-conquering communism in the distant vast deserts of Siberia, where he gathered the broken cadres of communist fighters in order to line up again in ranks, distribute roles among themselves, and outline a plan for the repeated hundredth attack of the enemy” (F.V. Lengnik) .

Constructive activity to achieve significant social goals, conviction in the correctness of Marxism and his competence in it, organizational skills, energy - that is the totality of the necessary qualities of the head of a team of professionals that Lenin had available. Such a leader wants to be trusted, to fulfill his decisions, even if a person perceives them not with his mind, but with his heart.

“It is not enough to say about Lenin that he was a man-magnet. Of course, he was charming, aroused to himself a feeling of enthusiastic gratitude, ardent love, he attracted, just as a magnet attracts iron. Lenin was a force guiding human minds... The intense pace of work of this extraordinary man, who before our eyes did not miss a single day, so that in one way or another, but did not move forward a little in the sense of expanding his mental baggage, acted on us in an unusually encouraging and tightening way. Everyone in his presence wanted to be better than he is, and at the same time he was so drawn to be closer to this bright and cheerful person ”(G.M. Krzhizhanovsky).

The ability to convince, when the interlocutor understands what he is talking about, realizes the intentions of the speaker and, performing the necessary actions, internally agrees with them, by itself develops into Lenin's duty to manage communication, make decisions, engage in team building, setting goals and values ​​for common activity. At the same time, this increases the degree of its demand for comrades, which in turn entails further activity.

“Contact with Vladimir Ilyich was beneficial for each of us - and for me in particular - in the sense that his creative mind was constantly working and awakening thought in others, always refreshing our political interests. As once in St. Petersburg, even in exile, where I saw him relatively rarely, he did not refuse me his methodological instructions, recommending books and lending his own for reading ... ”(MA Silvin).

The Shushensky everyday life of Ilyich, filled with intense mental work, demonstrates high standards of self-education, later accepted by the rest. Raising his bar, Lenin urged others to do the same - to invest more effort and time in the development of their scientific worldview.

“... It is not enough to say that he shared his intellectual wealth with us: he usually passionately wished that we ourselves became the full owners of these intellectual benefits, he would like us to perceive this or that theoretical contribution to our worldview, with which he usually searched for something new in the book he read or studied” (P.N. Lepeshinsky).

Lenin's authority, as a result of his competence, and the respect that his comrades-in-arms have for him, cost Ilyich a lot of effort, although from the outside it might seem that the formation of a leader in the Siberian wilderness is going like clockwork. That the organization of the core of the future party, where everyone makes maximum demands on himself, and their fulfillment turns into their internal need, is a natural and logical process that does not require self-education, discipline and control on the part of a principled and patient leader.

“During his Shushen captivity, Ilyich never turned into a weak whiner. And here, for his creative emotional nature, there was no shortage of objects for an active reaction on the part of his mind and nerves. Starting with the Shushensky microcosm (with its peasant interests in a remote Siberian outback) and ending with the epic of the struggle of labor against capitalism, which Vladimir Ilyich closely followed from his Siberian distance, everything occupied him and called him to some effective acts ”(P.N. Lepeshinsky).

While still in prison, having begun to analyze the economic development of Russia, Lenin was in dire need of specialized literature, statistical and other materials. And on the way from St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk (at that time the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway), stopping with the permission of the police for three days in Moscow with his mother, he goes daily to the Rumyantsev Library to make extracts from books. He is doing the same in Krasnoyarsk, waiting for an appointment to a place of exile. The library of the main city of the Yenisei province turns out to be much poorer than the Moscow one, and through acquaintances Lenin seeks permission to visit the luxurious book depository of the Krasnoyarsk merchant Yudin.

“Yudin was flattered that the young Russian scientist was using his library for his essay on the development of the Russian economy, willingly allowed him this use” (P.A. Krasikov).

"The Development of Capitalism in Russia" is conceived as a continuation of "Capital" by K. Marx, written in the "language of Russian facts." With this work, published under the pseudonym Vladimir Ilyin, Lenin proves that the transition from subsistence farming to mass industrial production inevitably leads to the division of peasants into prosperous and poor, and hence to the disintegration of the peasant community under the pressure of developing capitalist relations:

“Thanks to the consistency of his main point of view, the author understands all the most complex phenomena of life and is able to give them the right coverage, so that the reader from the mass of individual facts gets a picture of the process of economic development connected into a whole ... Ilyin’s book, in terms of the depth and consistency of his analysis, undoubtedly is a major contribution to our economic literature” (B.V. Avilov, “Education” magazine, October 1899).

Proving the idea of ​​the hegemony of the proletariat in the coming revolution, the idea of ​​the need for an alliance between the working class and the peasantry, Vladimir Ilyich examines the untenability of the populist ideas about the spiritual harmony of the community members, about their equality, about the unity of their interests and thoughts. In Krasnoyarsk, Lenin meets with several old Narodnaya Volya convicts. The conversation, or rather the debate, takes the whole evening. The polemical tournament with representatives of the old revolutionary generation of Russia shows that populism is degenerating from a revolutionary movement of the intelligentsia into a liberal, reactionary force that convinces the public that capitalism is capable of civilizing the country without ruining the peasants, without exploiting the workers, without oppressing all working people.

“Once, while talking with Lenin on this topic in Siberia, we talked about Nekrasov, that an intellectual is then only strength when he“ ties his fragile shuttle to the stern of a big ship, ”that is, when he binds his fate with the fate of the working class” (N.K. Krupskaya).

The significance of the “Development of Capitalism” ended in exile lies in the fact that the book focuses on an adequate perception of reality and at the same time suggests arming yourself with a promising knowledge of the trends in the development of society, an understanding of the upcoming events of the historical process, and the disclosure of its essential nature.

“The analysis of the socio-economic system and, consequently, the class structure of Russia, which is given in this work on the basis of economic research and a critical analysis of statistical information, is now confirmed by the open political action of all classes during the revolution” (V.I. Lenin in the preface to the second edition of The Development of Capitalism in Russia, July 1907).

Noting the progressive role of Russian capitalism in increasing the productivity of labor and its socialization, Ulyanov analyzes the specific processes of the socialization of labor by capital, which no Marxist has done before. Revealing the essence of the inescapable contradictions of the system of market relations, exploitation, private property, Lenin draws the correct conclusion that this economic regime is of a transitory nature.

“The success of some of my recent publications is simply amazing,” I am talking about Ilyin’s book The Development of Capitalism in Russia. I published it in the spring and, despite the onset of summer and the ebb of youth from the capitals before Easter, this book diverges with incredible speed ... Ilyin's success is explained, in addition to brilliant literary and scientific data, also mainly by the fact that he treats the formation of an internal market in connection with the agrarian question in Russia and the disintegration of the peasantry... One cannot read this book without the most exciting interest” (M.I. Vodovozova).

Lenin's largest economic work refutes the utopian dreams of the Narodniks that Russia in its development will do without capitalism, the illusion of "legal Marxists" who saw only the progressive side of capitalist relations being established, and confirms Ilyich's reputation as a brilliant theoretician who created the basis for the further development of the strategy and tactics of social -democrats.

“... It has been established that in order to write his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia, he had to use 583 books ... After reading these books, he was not only able to write such a large and important book as The Development of Capitalism, but at the same time time perfectly studied the then life of workers and peasants ”(N.K. Krupskaya).

The conclusions of Lenin's analysis of the development of capitalism in Russia lead to the topical issue of the future strategy of a new type of party - a centralized militant organization of professional revolutionaries, whose main task is to unite reason - class political consciousness - with the masses' age-old desire for a just social order.

“I remember very well one of my last walks with Vladimir Ilyich along the bank of the wide Yenisei. It was a frosty moonlit night, and before us sparkled the endless shroud of Siberian snows. Vladimir Ilyich told me with inspiration about his plans... The organization of a printed party organ, the transfer of its publication abroad and the creation of a party with the help of this central organ, which thus represented a kind of scaffolding for the construction of the entire building of the revolutionary organization of the proletariat - that was at the center of it argumentation” (G. M. Krzhizhanovsky).

The enormous work of Ulyanov in the difficult conditions of exile is evidenced by the fact that, despite being cut off from active revolutionary activity, Lenin does not get lost in the Shushensky wilds, but, as it were, pushes the bearish corner of Eastern Siberia to the forefront of the theoretical form of class struggle, fighting in word and deed for the minds and hearts of all those who have realized the meaning of life in promoting progress, in the progressive and steady movement from the exploitative prehistory to the true history of mankind - communism.

“In 1899, in exile, when he (Vladimir Ilyich) received detailed information about the First Congress (of the Party), he began to think about the preparation of the Second Congress. He saw what great preparations must be made in order for the Second Congress to lay the true foundation of a single powerful party.

... In Shusha, all the time he (Vladimir Ilyich) thought about the matter ... how to unite all the scattered undertakings, how to create a party, how to make it a true leader of the working masses ... He thought about work most of all. He thought about the program of the party, about the tactics that must be followed ... Life in exile was a preparation for revolutionary work ”(N.K. Krupskaya).

No matter what Ilyich is doing, he understands that revolutionary work is first of all work with people, the ability to "approach a person", understand him, agitate, teach him what and how to do it. Acutely feeling the position of the people, studying the real, typical life of a working person, Lenin competently approaches people, wanting to see the picture of the world through their eyes, to tune in with them on the same emotional, and then intellectual wave.

“At the same time, his self-confidence did not suppress, but gave energy and desire for a more complete manifestation of himself, his witty jokes infused cheerfulness - this is the best lubricant for any work” (A.I. Ulyanova-Yelizarova).

Keeping abreast of the development of the proletarian movement and having received the "credo" manifesto in Shushensky, Lenin launched a sharp criticism of all those who denied the need for an independent workers' party, all those who proposed that they confine themselves to an economic "struggle" against the landowners and capitalists. To discuss the “Protest of the Russian Social Democrats” compiled by him, in the summer of 1899 Ulyanov organized a meeting of the exiled Social Democrats in the village of Ermakovskoye. Those assembled unanimously accept Lenin's propositions against the apologists for "Economism", who exhorted the future vanguard of the proletariat to become an appendage of the bourgeois parties.

“Having first asked what I had read on the labor question, political economy and other subjects, Vladimir Ilyich suggested that I answer the question:

What is more important for workers now: economic demands or political ones? Knowing from experience what kind of knowledge the workers possessed at that time, I answered:

Under the present conditions of great illiteracy among the workers, the seizure of political power will not give what is needed, and this is why: there are no experienced administrators from among the workers, no engineers, no scientists, no people capable of grasping from the social side any phenomenon of life and etc., and thus all those sacrifices that will be inevitable in the struggle for political power will be in vain.

After a short pause, Vladimir Ilyich asked the question again:

- And how do you and what do you mean by economic requirements?

“Economic demands,” I replied, “are an inevitable stage in the development of capitalism. The factories themselves, where masses of workers accumulate, are a school of collective labor, but this labor lacks the knowledge necessary to master production, and hence the requirements of technical schools, special schools, etc. for workers are necessary. In the same way, the health of workers, their families, the 8-hour working day, hospitals, baths and good housing are needed to give the younger generation health and knowledge to continue their struggle to improve their economic situation.

- All this is true ... but I am interested in the question: how can this be done, if now the power is in the hands of people who consciously do not want to give exactly what you are talking about. After all, by doing this, giving the workers knowledge and fulfilling their desires, the government will undermine itself, and it will not agree to this.

"Explain to me," he continued, "how can one become the master of the situation through economic demands?"

I was unable to answer this question. Then Vladimir Ilyich jokingly said:

— You are now in exile in Siberia, why? Yes, simply because they have the power and you have slightly encroached on their profits, just like you are here now. Know that until the workers have power in their hands, until then they will have nothing, no schools, no housing, and so on.

“Individual workers can change their difficult living conditions for better ones, but as a class the workers will not live better. This is what the history of the class struggle teaches,” he concluded” (from the memoirs of A.I. Smirnov).

In addition to the monograph “The Development of Capitalism in Russia” (by the time the work was completed, the author was not even 30 years old), Lenin wrote more than 30 articles and reviews (about 600 pages) in exile, among which the brochure “The Tasks of the Russian Social Democrats” occupies a special place. . In it, he justified the need to create a party as the vanguard of the proletariat, emphasizing the leading role of trained Marxists in the inevitable revolution.

“There can be no strong socialist party if there is no revolutionary theory that unites all socialists, from which they draw all their convictions, which they apply to their methods of struggle and methods of activity ...” (V. I. Lenin).

Any activity, and even more so intense, like Lenin's, would be impossible without restoration. But the main thing for Ilyich was business, so he did not work in order to relax later, but actively rested in order to work even more productively. Rest in the Siberian village was a poor palette of options. In the first place is hunting, and Lenin systematically gets out into nature - to wander around the neighborhood with a gun, once again in silence to reflect on what he has read or written.

“Working intensively and fruitfully, Ilyich knew how to give a legitimate rest to his hard-working brain, knew how to add variety to the monotonous exile life. Rest for Ilyich did not consist in idleness, but in giving work to the muscles of his legs, stirring up every part of the vascular system, making the heart beat at a healthy, distinct pace, bringing the lungs into a more active state, pleasantly exciting the nerves and, in general, physiologically, with all your being. feel the joy of life. In rest, Ilyich was as mobile and active as in the process of the most intense work ”(O.B. Lepeshinskaya).

A few kilometers from the village, in the midst of a pine forest, rises the Crane Hill, where Ulyanov takes walks in fine weather. In the summer he goes swimming on the Yenisei, and in the winter he goes skating - Krupskaya brought them from St. Petersburg.

“Now we have a new entertainment - a skating rink, which greatly distracts from hunting ... I skate with great zeal. Gleb showed me different things in Minus (he skates well), and I study them so zealously that once I hurt my hand and couldn’t write for two days ... And this exercise is much better than winter hunting, when you get stuck, it happened, above your knees in the snow, spoil a gun and ... you rarely see game! (V.I. Lenin).

Ulyanov's daily routine is based on the fact that he does not what he wants, but what he needs. The skill of regular work as an expression of will and determination emphasizes that, having taken on a grandiose project to restructure social relations, putting all his strength into it, withstanding serious loads, Lenin acts systematically, without being distracted by what is not useful in solving a specific, current task.

“Volodya from time to time glances at philosophy with tenderness and dreams of the time when he will plunge into it ...” (N.K. Krupskaya).

Switching between the research mode of work and rest, Lenin uses a change in the type of activity, combining mental labor with physical labor.

“Vladimir Ilyich dug beds in the garden, watered the flowers and always joked with everyone. In the garden they set up a arbor of hops, in which Vladimir Ilyich read newspapers and magazines. Everyone in the village liked this corner, we had never seen such purity and beauty, there was only manure around, and thistles grew ”(A.S. Seredkina).

Immersion in the complex theoretical and organizational issues of the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia, along with the inability to delegate their extensive functions, imposed a wide range of duties on Ulyanov. The downside of being extremely productive, focusing on the problem at hand, and being able to switch between activities involves wasting time on “pulling back in,” mental overload, physical fatigue, and health problems.

“We must visit the Old Man, as he is seriously ill ... Partly from overwork. He, moreover, suffers, and to a very great extent, from insomnia. In a word, there is no trace of a healthy species ... ”(V.V. Starkov).

In the last months of his exile, Ulyanov's overstrain, which did not find relaxation, testified that the Shushensky "super university" was over, that preparations for a new stage of the struggle had been completed. Mastering the skill of a professional revolutionary is a continuous movement to new heights through new efforts, it requires a new “campaign”, new trials. Without this, the burning of Ilyich is replaced by burnout, when the “Shushensky captivity”, having finally clarified the goals, plans and priorities of the upcoming struggle, does not allow to step further, depriving the revolutionary life of meaning.

“... It is felt that purely desk work is less and less satisfying to Ilyich. New, topical books and articles - in Russia and abroad, new trends - revisionism and Kantianism - in a word, the manifestation of life in mindsets and politics, seeping, understandably incompletely and belatedly, into his wilderness, unnerve him and make him strive harder. to the centers" (Ulyanova-Yelizarova).

Fears “as if the term were not added” dissipated after the New Year, when it became known that the exiled Ulyanov was released from police supervision at the specified time - January 29, 1900. The unnerving uncertainty was replaced by the joyful chores of preparing for departure. The future organizer of October takes with him from Shushenskoye a box of books weighing 250 kg and a foretaste of "real" work on a larger scale, the work that rallied the Russian proletariat under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and led it to victory.

“... From exile, Vladimir Ilyich went not only as a revolutionary who had experience and a definitely crystallized personality, which was already an authority in the underground; not only a person who published a scientific work, but also strengthened, as a result of a three-year life in the very thick of the village, his knowledge of the peasantry - this main stratum of the population of Russia ”(A.I. Ulyanova-Yelizarova).

D. Nazarenko
4/11/2022

For a detailed acquaintance with the biography of V.I. Lenin, we offer the book "Biography of the Red Leader". It differs from other publications in that it describes not only the fateful actions of the leader of the world proletariat, but gives them a psychological analysis, finding out the reasons that prompted Lenin to make this or that decision.

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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