Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“ We carry on the struggle against the labor aristocracy in the name of the working masses, in order to gain them over to our side; and we do battle against the opportunist and social-chauvinist leaders in order to achieve the same object. To forget this most elementary and self-evident truth would be stupid. But the German “Left” Communists commit just this stupidity when, because of the reactionary and counter-revolutionary heads of the Trade Unions, they jump, by some inexplicable mental process, to the conclusion that it is necessary to abandon these organizations altogether! ”

“ We now have, from the standpoint of the development of international Communism, strong, powerful contents at work for Soviet power and the proletarian dictatorship, and these can and must manifest themselves in any form, new as old; the new spirit can and must regenerate, conquer and subjugate all forms, not only the new but the old, not for the purpose of reconciling the new with the old forms, but to enable us to forge all forms, new and old, into a weapon for the final decisive and unswerving victory of Communism. ”

“ Russia, which has imbibed so much revolutionary initiative from the West, is now perhaps itself ready to serve as a source of revolutionary energy. The Russian revolutionary movement, which is now bursting into flame, will, perhaps, become the strongest means for the extermination of the senile philistinism and sedate politics which is beginning to spread in our ranks, and will again rekindle the militant spirit and the passionate devotion to our great ideals. Russia has long ceased to be for Western Europe a simple prop for reaction and obsolutism. ”

“ If we do not possess all the means of struggle, we may suffer a heavy—at times even a decisive—defeat, if the changes in the situation of other classes which are beyond our control should make the order the day that form of activity in which we are especially weak. Possessing all the means of struggle, we surely conquer, once we represent the interests of the truly foremost, truly revolutionary class, even though circumstances may not permit us to use all the weapons most dangerous to our enemy, weapons which the more quickly deal him deadly blows. ”

“ Probably almost everyone can see now that the Bolsheviks could not have maintained themselves in power for two and a half years, nor even for two and a half months, without the most stringent, I may say iron, discipline in our party, and without the fullest and unreserved support rendered it by the working class, that is, by that part of it which is sensible, honest, devoted, influential, capable of leading and of inspiring the backward masses with enthusiasm. ”

“ They will find their way into the Soviets, and into the courts of law, and into every sphere of administration, as it is impossible to build up Communism otherwise than out of the human material created by capitalism. Since it is impossible to expel and to destroy the bourgeois intelligentsia, it becomes indispensable to conquer this intelligentsia, to change, to re-train and to re-educate it, just as it is necessary to re-educate, in the process of a long struggle, the proletariat itself, on the basis of proletarian dictatorship. ”

“ Why, then, should a rapidly-growing revolutionary mass party, under conditions of post-war disappointment and exasperation of the masses, be unable to hammer-out for itself a Communist faction in the worst of parliaments? ”

“ One must make sure, first, that all the class forces hostile to us have fallen into complete enough confusion, are sufficiently at loggerheads with each other, have sufficiently weakened themselves in a struggle beyond their capacities, to give us a chance of victory; secondly, one must ensure that all the vacillating, wavering, unstable, intermediate elements—the petit bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeois democracy, in contradistinction to the bourgeoisie—have sufficiently exposed themselves in the eyes of the people, and have disgraced themselves through their material bankruptcy ”

“ So long as the bourgeoisie is not overthrown, and, subsequently, until small economy and small production have utterly disappeared—the bourgeois atmosphere, proprietary habits, middle-class traditions, will impair the proletarian work from without as well as from within the labor movement; not only in one sphere of parliamentary activity, but unavoidably in each and every sphere of social activity, in each and every branch of politics, culture and life, this bourgeois atmosphere will manifest itself. ”

“ The main thing—although far from everything—has already been achieved in winning over the vanguard of the working class, in winning it over to the side of Soviet power against parliamentarism, to the side of proletarian dictatorship against bourgeois democracy. Now all efforts, all attention, must be concentrated on the next step, which seems, and from a certain standpoint really is, less fundamental, but which is, in fact, much nearer to a practical solution of the proletarian revolution. That step is to discover the forms of approach or transition to the proletarian revolution. ”

“ If an indisputably weak minority of the workers say "Forward, without compromise, without stopping or turning," their slogan is, on the face of it, wrong. They know, or at least they should know, that the majority, in the event of Henderson's and Snowden's victory over Lloyd George and Churchill, will, after a short time, be disappointed in its leaders, and will come over the communism—or at any rate to neutrality and, in most cases, to benevolent neutrality towards the Communists. ”

“ But those who cannot co-ordinate illegal forms of the struggle with legal ones are very poor revolutionaries. It is not at all difficult to be a good revolutionary once the revolution has already broken out—when all and everyone joins the revolution from mere enthusiasm, because it is the fashion, sometimes even from considerations of personal gain. It costs the proletariat labor, great labor and I may say excruciating pains, to rid itself after the victory of these pseudo-revolutionists. ”

“ But at the same time the bourgeoisie sees in Bolshevism only one side—insurrection, violence, terror; it endeavors therefore to prepare itself especially for resistance and opposition in that direction alone. It is possible that in single cases, in individual countries, and for more or less short periods, it will succeed. We must reckon with such a possibility, and there is absolutely nothing dreadful to us in the fact that the bourgeoisie might have temporary success in this. Communism "springs up" from positively all sides of social life. ”

“ And there is no doubt whatever that capitalism universally generates, not only outside the labor movement, but also within it, certain prevailing characteristic traits, such as shameless place-hunting, a bourgeois readiness to accept soft jobs in the Government, a glaring reformist corruption in parliamentary activity, despicable middle-class routine. ”

“ Otherwise we shall not be equal to the occasion, shall not be comprehensive, shall not be prepared to master all the types of weapons in the struggle, shall not be ready for victory over the bourgeoisie—which is responsible for the creation of all the aspects of public life, but which has now disrupted them, and disrupted them in a purely bourgeois manner. Not without careful preparation shall we be ready for the impending Communist reorganization of society after our victory. ”

“ To bind one's hands beforehand, openly to tell the enemy, who is now better armed than we are, whether or not we shall fight him, is stupidity and not revolutionism. To accept battle when this is obviously profitable to the enemy, and not to oneself, is a crime; and those politicians of the revolutionary class who are unable to 'manœuvre, temporize, compromise,' in order to evade an obviously unprofitable battle, are good for nothing. ”

“ The proletariat cannot abolish its own petit-bourgeois prejudices at one miraculous stroke; this can be accomplished neither by the command of the Virgin Mary, nor by any slogan, resolution, or decree, but only by dint of a long and difficult mass struggle against petit-bourgeois influence. The same problems which at the present time the anti-parliamentarians brush aside with one hand so proudly, so loftily, so lightly, so childishly, will, under the Soviet system of government, arise within the very Soviets themselves, within the Soviet administration, with the Soviet "legal defenders." ”

“ On the other hand, to postpone the realization of the proletarian dictatorship until such a time as there is not left a single professionally narrow-minded workman, until all are quite free from craft and Trade Union prejudices, would be a still greater mistake. For a Communist, with a correct understanding of his own ends, the art of politics lies in correctly calculating the conditions and the moment when the proletarian vanguard can take over power successfully. ”

“ Everywhere is felt an ever-widening and increasing dissatisfaction with the Second International, a dissatisfaction due to its opportunism and its incapacity to create a real leading center, able to direct the international tactics of the revolutionary proletariat in the struggle for the world Soviet Republic. One must clearly realize that such a leading center can, under no circumstances, be built after a single model, by a mechanical adjustment and equalization of the tactical rules of the struggle. ”

“ But it is far more difficult, and yet more valuable, to know how to be a revolutionary, even when conditions are yet lacking for direct, general, truly mass, and truly revolutionary action; to be able to defend the interests of the revolution by propaganda, agitation and organization, in non-revolutionary institutions and often times in downright reactionary surroundings, amongst masses that are incapable of immediately understanding the necessity for revolutionary methods. ”

“ The intricate philosophic points of Communism are something more than mental gymnastics with which to exercise one's minds. They are a guide to action! Those that cannot translate Communism into terms of action, that the masses understand and need, have no place in Communism as expounded in this work. Those who academically adhere to the principle of "no compromise" whatever, will no doubt take issue with Lenin in the position that he lays down in this work. ”

“ When the capitalist system of production is broken down and society is in a state of revolution, parliamentary activity gradually loses its significance as compared with the action of the masses themselves. When then under such conditions Parliament becomes the center and organ of counter-revolution, while on the other hand the working class creates the tools of its power in the shape of Soviets, it may even become necessary to decline all and any participation in parliamentary activity. ”

“ Without all these conditions discipline in a revolutionary party, really capable of being a party of the foremost class whose object is to overthrow the bourgeoisie and transform society, is impossible of realization. ”

“ It is our duty to tell them the bitter truth. It is our duty to call their bourgeois democratic and parliamentary prejudices by their right name. But, at the same time, it is our duty to watch soberly the actual state of consciousness and preparedness of the whole class, and not of the Communist vanguard alone ”

“ A greater lack of sense and more harm to the revolution than this attitude of the “Left” revolutionaries cannot be imagined. Why, if we in Russia, after two and a half years of incredible victories over the Russian bourgeoisie and the Entente, had demanded that entrance into the Trade Unions must be conditional upon the “acceptance of the dictatorship,” we should have committed a stupid act, impaired our influence over the masses, and helped the Mensheviks. ”

“ One must admit that the Scheidemanns and Kautskians have perpetuated a great many treacheries, obstructing, and in part ruining, the work of union with Soviet Russia and with Soviet Hungary. We Communists will use all means to facilitate and prepare such a union; at the same time, we are not at all bound to repudiate the Versailles Treaty—or, what is more, to repudiate it immediately. The possibility of successfully repudiating the Treaty depends, not only upon the German, but also upon the international success of the Soviet movement. ”

“ Communism, will avail nothing. Here one must count by millions and tens of millions, not by thousands, as, after all, the propaganda does, the member of a small group that never yet led the masses. Here one must ask oneself, not only whether the vanguard of the revolutionary class has been convinced, but also whether the historically active forces of all classes of a given society have been properly distributed, so that the final battle may not be premature. ”

“ Russia has attained Marxism, the only revolutionary theory by dint of fifty years' travail and sacrifice, through the greatest revolutionary heroism, the most incredible energy and devotion in seeking, educating, practical experience, disappointment, checking and comparison with European experience. Thanks to the emigration forced by the Czar, revolutionary Russia, in the second half of the 19th century, came into possession of rich international connections, and of a grasp of the superlative forms and theories of the revolutionary movement such as no other country had. ”

“ To yourselves, dear boycottists and anti-parliamentarians, you seem to be "terribly revolutionary," but in reality you are intimidated by comparatively small difficulties in the struggle against bourgeois influences within the labor movement, when actually your victory—i.e., the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the conquest of the political power by the proletariat, will create these very difficulties on an infinitely larger scale. ”

“ To attempt in practice today, to precipitate development of this characteristic of a thoroughly developed, stable and completely matured Communism would be like trying to teach a four-year-old child higher mathematics.
We can and must begin to build up Socialism, not with the fantastic human material created by our imagination, but out of the material left to us by capitalism. ”