The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 1, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes |. power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. * SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY Wor NOVEMBER 1, 1924, BER SECOND SECTION Thia magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker, On the Anniversary of the Russian Revolution (A speech delivered by Lenin in Moscow on thé Fourth Anniversary of the November revolution.) We are approaching the fourth an- niversary of the November revolution. The farther we go from this great day, the clearer do we grasp‘ the sig- nificance of the proletarian’ revolution in Russia,‘and tlé deeper do we ap- preciate the experiences of the gener- al struggle. These could be stated in very brief form as follows: The immediate and direct task of the revolution in “Russia, was‘of a bourgeois democratic nature—that is, to overthrow the remnants of the mid- dle ages, to clear Russia of this bar- barism, disgraceful and greatest ob- stacle to any kind of progressive de- velopment in our country. aa We have all grounds to be proud of the fact that we in Russia have car- ried out the abilition of feudalism in a much more radical, determined and sweeping way than has been done by the great French revolution over one hundred and twenty-five years ago. The anarchists and petty-bourgeois democrats (that'is, the mensheviks and socialist-revolutionaries, as the Russian representatives of this inter- national social type) have ween say- ing and continue to say all kinds of things about the relations between a bourgeois democratic revolution and a socialist proletarian revolution. The past four years of the Russian revo- lution haveproved the correctness of our understanding of Marxism with re- gard to this point. We have complet- ed the bourgeois democratic revolu- tion to its very end. At this moment we continue to move ahead, determin- edly and energetically to the socialist revolution, realizing at the same time that there is no Chinese wall between the bourgeois denfocratic revolution and the socialist revolution,.and that only in the process of actual strug- gle will it he determined, how far we shall succeed in moving ahead, what portion of our great task we shall succeed in accomplishing, and» how much of it we shall be able to re- tain. We shall live and see. But} even now, we already: find, that we have accomplished: gigantic changes —-changes to the better for our ruin- ed and backward country on the road on to the up-building of @ socialist or- der of society. Marxians should have no difficulty in understanding the. significance of a bourgeois-democratic revolution. For further illustration, we should take a few concrete examples: To carry thru a bourgeois-democratic revolution means to clear the social relations of a country from institutions of the middle ages, from chattel slavery and feudalism. Now, what were the main characteristics of these remnants of feudalism in Russia in 1917? The answer is: The monarchy, the then existing system of land ownership, the social position of women, the of- ficial status of religion and the posi- tion of the oppressed nationalities. Take any of these manifestations of feudalism, which, by the way, can be found in a goodly measure in any or the bourgeios democratic countries which had their revolutions a hundred and twenty-five and more years ago, and you will find that our revolution had cleared these manifestations com- pletely out of existence. In the course of about ten weeks, from November 7, 1917, to January 5, 1918, we have done in this respect a thousand times more than have the petty-bourgeois democrats and liberals during the eight months that they have been in power. ‘ : _ These cowards, empty phrase-mon- gers, these little stage-Hamlets, arm- ed with paper swords, failed even to aboiish the monarchy, while we, as soon as we got our chance,. cleaned Russia of the monarchistic impurities as Was never done before in any coun- try in the world. We have left no stone unturned in the ‘old structure of czaristic oppression. We have remov- ed the very foundations of. the old system of feudalism, “chattel-slavery and land ownership. -Of course, one could discuss with- out end (and there are plenty of jour- nalists...cadets, .mensheviks, and so- cialist-revolutionists who indulge in this sort of debate) as to what. will be the final result of the agricultural changes produced by the November Teyolution. .As to ourselves, we have neither the time nor the desire to indulge now in such discussion. How- ever, there is one fact which cannot be denied, and that is, that the petty- bourgeois democrats have been in power for eight long months with out abolishing a single institution of the old feudal order, while we have completely swept feudalism off the face of the Russian earth in the course of only a few weeks’ time. Or. take, for example, the official status of religion, or the inferior po- sition in society of the Russian wo- tionalities. These promises were ne- ver realized. The leaders of the bour- geois revolutions in Europe could not very well complete their own task be- cause of their inherent respect for the “sacred institution of private prop- erty.” Our proletarian revolution was hampered by no such respect for the institutions of feudalism and for the “sacredness of private property.” But here is what must be kept in mind, In order to insure and retain the victories of the Russian masses in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, we had to continue the revolution fur- ther than its bourgeois-democratic aims. This we did. While we were moving ahead towares our main ob- jective which was the proletarian te- volution, we kept on abolishing and destroying every remnant of feudal- ism and czarism. We were acting in accord with our old theories, that so- cial reforms are only a by-product of the revolutionary class struggle. We have proved the correctness of our old saying—that bourgeois-democratic reforms come as a by-product of the proletarian socialist revolution. A yery simple truth—is it wot? And yet, none of the heroes of the “two-and-a- half” Marxism, such as Kautsky, Hil- ferding, Martov, Chernov, Hillquit, November, 1917 men, or the oppression and persecu- tion of the non-Russian nationalities. All these are problems of a bourgeois- democratic revolution. But what hap- pened? Our petty-bourgeois democrats spent eight months in mouthing phras- es, without producing a single fun- damental change in the old social and political relations of Russia. Even in the most advanced bourgeois coun- tries in the world, thesé bourgeois- democratic problems have not been completely solved as yet. And in Russia the November revolution—only the November revolution—succeeded in completing the tasks of the bour- geois-democratic revolution. Our-strug- gles against religion dre ¥eal struggles. Our November revolution has granted the non-Russian nationalities their own republics and autonomous prov- inees. We in Russia no longer toler- ate the disgrace of oppressing women, which, tho it is a remnant. of feudal- ism, still persists in somewhat modern form in every bourgeois country in the world. All this properly belongs to a bour- geois democratic revolution. One hundred and fifty and two hundred years ago, the leaders of the bour- geois revolutions had promised to li- berate humanity from the oppression of feudalism, to do away with the in- equality of hy rary to destroy the Longuet, ‘MacDonald, Turrati, ete., could understand this kind of correla- tion between a bourgeois democratic- revolution and a proletarian socialist revolution, They failed to understand that the bourgecis-democratic revolu- tion if it is to be completed, must na- turally, pass over and become a pro- letarian socialist revolution. The lat- ter*in its development, solves the problems and reinforces the victories of the former. The measure in which a bourgeois-democratic revolution suc- ceeds in developing into a proletarian revolution is determined only by ac- tual struggle. The Soviet system offers the best proof of this. This Soviet system em- bodies the maximum of democracy for the workers and peasants, while at the same time it is a complete depart- ure from bourgeois democracy and marks the beginning of a few type of democravy—namely, proletarian de, mocracy, or the dictatorship of the proletariat. Let the dogs and swine of the dy- ing bourgeoisie continue their work of damnation and ridicule of our fail- ures and mistakes in the building of cur Soviet system. We never for- get, not even for a minute, that wa have really committed many mistakes. Who could avoid making them, while carrying out the greatest revolution in history, and building a new type of government? There is one thing cer- = = By N. Lenin tain—that we will continually correct our mistakes always looking after the best and most efficient solution of our problem. But in spite of all our mistakes, we have every reason te be proud of our accomplishments, and particularly of the fact that it was we who started the greatest revolu- tion in human history, which marks the epoch of the coming into power of a new class, whose struggles and vic- tories will eventually relieve humani- ty of the disgraceful rule of capitalism and imperialism. Since 1914, the question of inrperial- ist war and of its main driving force, finance capital, which is imposing its rule of robbery, plunder, and oppres- sion upon the weak and backward na- tions-—this question has became the central point in the political life of the entire world. It is a question of life and death for tens of millions of people. It is a question of whether we shall again have to pass thru an im- perialiat war (which capitalism is pre- paring right now before the eyes of the whole world) which will again de- stroy tens of millions of human lives and in this question also, our Novem- ber revolution opened up a new era in human history. The servants of the bourgeoisie, such as the mensheviks, the socialist- revolutionaries and the “socialist” democracy” of ‘the whole world, have been ridiculing our slogan of trans- forming the imperialist war inte a civil war. And what do we find? That this slogan has proved the only truth in the world of lies spread by the chauvinists and social patriots. These lies are being exposed now. Every day brings new revelations-to the es as to the meaning of capi- talist peace and capitalsst war. The masses are gradually coming to the realization of the truth of our old slogan—that there is no other way of abolishing the imperialist war ex- cept by bolshevist struggles and bol- shevyist revolutions, Let the bourgeoisie and the paci- fists and all pious Christians and knights of the Second and Second-and- a-Half Internationals keep on condemn- ing the bolshevist revotition. It will net help them. No aniount of con- demnation and lies will be able to do away with the great historical fact -that it was for the first time in hun- dreds and thousands of years that the oppressed slaves have risen in their anger and have declared that they are not going to fight the battles of their masters, It. was for the first time in thousands of years that the Vague and blind instincts of the mass- es found their expression in a clear- cut political program in an organized struggle of millions of oppressed un- der the leadership of the proletariat, which resulted in the first victory of the working class and the victory of the Russian revolution. This first. victory is not yet the final victory. The Russian masses have paid an immense price for what they have already achieved. We have com- mited mistakes- which we are not afraid to admit. We shall continue to study our experiences soberly and im- partially, in order to improve our pro- gram of struggie against world capi- talism. We know that we have only made a beginning. The triumphant. end is yet to come. And altho we cannot say precisely when and in what country the ‘proletariat will make the next decisive step, there is one thing we do know — and that is, that the ice is brokén, the way has been shown to the workers of the world, how to fight capitalism and establish the rule of the working class, NOTE. This speech by Lenin is part of the Workers Party branch program ap- pearing on Page 2 of Magazine Seo tion. r