The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1924, Page 8

THE RUSSIAN IN LENIN seas HE internationalism of Nic- olai Lenin needs no special recommendation. it is best re- vealed by the irreconcilable break in the first days of the world war with that immita- ‘tion of internationalism which reigned in the Second Interna- tional. Upon the rostrum of parliament the official leaders of ‘Socialism’ endeavored, thru abstract explanations in the spirit of the old universal- ists, to reconcile the interests of mankind. In practice this led, as we know, to the support of the rapacious fatherland by the working ‘class. The internationalism of Le- nin from first to last, is no for- mula of reconciliation of na- tional and international in words, but the formula rather of international action. This internationalism considers the territory of the world inhabited by so-called civilized mankind as a single, continuous field of battle upon which the individ- ual nations and their classes wage a gigantic struggle against one another. - Accord- ing to this internationalism not a single question of importance permits of being forced within the national limit. Visible and invisible threads in fact con- nect this question with dozens of phenomena in all corners of the earth. In the estimation of international factors and forces Lenin was more than anyone else free of national prejudices. It was the view of Marx that the philosophers had explained the world sufficiently, and he perceived his task to be that of reshaping this world, He him- self, this inspired prophet, did not live to see it. The reshap- ing of the old world is at pres- ent in full swing and the one who has more to do with it than anyone is Lenin. His in- _ternationalism consists of esti- mating historical events practi- cally, and intervening practi- cally in their process upon a world-wide scale for purposes which effect the whole world. Russia and its fate represents only one element in this con- test upon whose outcome the fate of mankind depends. The Internationalism of Le- nin needs no special recom- mendation. And yet Lenin himself is withal national in a high degree. He is deeply rooted in the new Russian his- tory,. absorbs it in himself, gives it the most pregnant ex- pression; and it is just in this way that he reaches the peak of international potency and in- fluence. At first sight this character- istic of Lenin as “national” may be a surprise, and yet, at bottom it is something very ob- vious. To be able to lead such a revolution, unprecedented in the history of the nations, as the one taking place in Russia, it is obviously necessary to have an unseverable connec- tion with the basic forces of the people’s life, a bond which springs from the deepest roots. Lenin embodies the Russian working class, the young class, which politically is perhaps, not older than Lenin himself, a deeply national class, for it comprises the whole of the pre- ceding development of Russia; it holds in its hand Russia’s fu- |ture ; with it stands or falls the Russian nation. The absence of strict routine and conform- ‘ity, or of falseness and conven- ing, daring in action, a daring which never degenerates into indiscretion—all this marks the Russian working class and Le- nin as well. The nature of the Russian working class which has made it at present the most significant force in the international revo- lution has been prepared thru the process of Russian national history, thru the barbaric cruelty of the absolute overn- ment, the insignificance of its other great man of the world proletariat: Marx, in black frock-coat, on a rock. Cer- tainly that is a trifle, but it would be impossible for a mo- ment to imagine Lenin in a frock-coat. In a few por- traits Marx is pictured in a broad, stiff shirt-front upon which dangles a sort of mono- cle. That Marx did not incline to vanity is clear to all those who have some concepion of the spirit of Marx. But Marx grew up on a different soil of national culture, lived in an- other atmosphere. Inthe same way, the leading personalities of the Gerrgan working class privileged classes, the feverish fiave their roots extending back, developments of capitalism upon the dregs ef the world | The Christening of “Hull 18” not into the village, but into handicraft and the complicated “Hull 18,” we called her in the “ways—” Ten thousand tons ef labor-cemented steel. Oh, how we loved her, from the very days on, a decisiveness in think- en first we laid her resolute keel. And now she is finished, and leaves our hands To be fitted out for the challenging sea; Soon, readv to meet the severe demands, Which she will answer, we'll guarantee. Three shifts a day we sweated and toiled— We wrestled and fought with the trembling steel; In garments, ragged and burnt and soiled; "Mid heat and noise that made us reel. And nny were injured and two were killed, But this we couldn’t heed, Because an ambitious master willed To sate his giant greed. . And now, she is ready to slide from the ways, And, into the water—splash; Soon, ready to thread the ocean’s maze, : Without any fear of -its lash... . The day’s first shift is over now, And the sun is in the west; And strangers stand on the haughty prow, In lordly raiment, dressed. ~ They have come to christen the ship; To break a bottle and gaily cheer As into the water she takes the dip. The bottle is broken by a maid— It is the master’s daughter; The ship is skidding the greasy grade, And into the startled water. I stare at my. mates, who, on every side, Toward the time-houses crush and press; In some, I notice a glow of pride, In others, scowls of bitterness. Resentment burns in many a breast # we punch the accursed clocks; And the sun, descending in the west, rren impotence mocks, ., * it generacy of the Russian capi- ; talist class and its ideology, the cheapness of its policy. Our “third estate’ did not know of the Russian working class ac- quired an all-embracing char- acter, which included these. Our history in the past has had neither a Luther nor a Thomas Munzer, neither a Danton or a Robespierre. Just on that ac- count the Russian working class hag its Lenin. What was lacking in tradition’ was made up for in revolutionary spirit. Lenin reflects the Russian working class, not only in its proletarian present, but also in its peasant past which is still so fresh. This man whose lead- ership is least disputed in the working class, does not only outwardly resemble the peas- ant, but also has a good deal of ‘the peasant about him. They are friends of the master;—this we hear— ‘4 stock exchange, thru the de- city culture of the Middle Ages. Even the style of Marx, which is rich and beautiful, in which force and flexibility, wrath and irony, ruggedness and elegance go hand in hand, reveals the literary and ethical ‘stratification of the whole pre- ceding social-political German literature since the Reforma- tion and extending even farther back. The literary and oratori- cal style of Lenin is amazingly simple, ascetic like his whole life. But this powerful asceti- cism has not even the shadow of moral: preaching about it. It is not a principle, not a cal- culated system, and not decoration, but simply the sending. soeomieaae artes ensified concen ) forces leading to action. It is a frugal objectivity pe- culiar to the peasant, but on a|¢o. gigantic scale. In front of Smolny Institute! All of Marx is contained in these. The revolutionary tasks stands the monument of an- the “Communist Manifesto,” in lof the world prol the foreword to his “Critique” and in “Capital.” Even if be had not been the founder of the First International, he would have always remained what he is. Lenin on the contrary lives entirely in revolutionary action. Had he not published a single book in the past, he would nonetheless appear in history as that which he is now, as the leader of the proletarian revo- lution, as the founder of the Third International. A clear scientific system— materialist dialectic—is neces- sary for the execution of actions of such historical di- mension, as Lenin had to per- form. This materialist dialectic is necessary, but not sufficient. What is still needed is-that se- cret creative force, which we call intuition, the capacity im- mediately to grasp a situation correctly, to separate the es- sential and important from the inessential and insignificant, to be able to imagine the missing parts of the picture, to follow up thoughts of others to their conclusion and ~ principally those of the enemy, to weld all this to a uniform whole, and to strike the blow the moment that the “formula of attack” springs up in the mind. That is intuition for action. In one way it is synonymous with what we call acumen. When Lenin, his left eye nar- rowed, receives a_ wireless which contains the speech made in parliament by one of the shapers of imperialist his- tory or a diplomatic note re- quiring an answer—a mixture of blood-thirsty slyness and polished hypocrisy—he resem- bles a devilishly clever peasant who does not let himself be confused by any words or de- luded by any phrases. That is highly intensified — peasant shrewdness, lifted to the point of inspiration, and fitted out with the last word in scientific thought. The young Russian working- class was capable of accom- plishing that which the peasant class desires to accomplish, that class which cultivates the hard, untouched clod of earth. Our whole national past served to prepare this very thing. But is precisely because the working class acquired power thru the course of events ‘that our Revolution has been able at one bound to overcome rad- ically the national narrowness jand provincial backwardness. ue Russia is not only the élter of the Communist In- ternational, but also. the living embodiment of its program and its methods. In that unknown way in is formed, which has not as yet been investigated by sci- ence, Lenin took from the na- tional that which we needed for the most tremendous revo- | lutionary action in the history of the world. It is precisely because the social revolution | which for a long time Past al- . ready had its international eoretic the first time finds in this reason that he be. came in the real sense of the word the revolution which the personality of a man. al expression, now for Lenin _