The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 16, 1926, Page 10

ea ett a THE GREAT REBEL By L. KAMENEV. ENIN was born to stand in the fore- front of millions, during the most catastrophic, the most rebellious, the most revolutionary epoch in the his- tory of the world, and lead them into the struggle. He was born on the shores of the Volga, at the border between Europe and Asia. As if foreseeing this epoch of the greatest upheavals, decades of wars and revolutions, history created this leader who was the incarnation of all the glowing revolutionary pas- sion and the unswerving determina- tion of a class which “has nothing to lose but its chains,” and which is de- stined to “conquer the world.” © History equipped him with the high- est achievement of world culture, a weapon forged by the greatest genius- es of mankind—the weapon of scien- tific socialism, Marxism. And history saturated him with the feeling of upheaval, rebellion, revolt; the passionate feeling of discontent and . revolution which for centuries had been accumulating in the “lower regions” of mankind, in the alleys of industrial towns, among the colonial slaves, was alive in his breast and di- rected his iron will. From the depths of history they come, these surges of mutiny and up- heaval which shake the world. Thru these the suppressed masses of slaves made themselves known to their mas- ters, slaves for whom history up to that time had been only changes in the forms of slavery. The long chain of volcanic revolu- tionary eruptions which light the path of mankind was the red thread in his development. For Lenin these were never mere objects for historical re- search, as for Kautsky or Plechanov. No. After the Paris Commune it was Lenin and.only Lenin who—as if with the silent consent of the suppressed millions—took up and continued in theory and practice this red thread of world history. ~Without neglecting the smallest de- tail, without refusing the humblest everyday task, able to wait when it was expedient and to take a risk when the situation demanded it, Lenin pre- pared systematically, perseveringly, unceasingly, the upheaval of the mil- lions against the world of suppression and violence. But he not only continued the work of the great rebels. ‘Together with the proletariat Lenin prepared the rebellion with the pur- pose of, the seizure of power by the proletariat. To rise with the purpose to con- quer; to conquer with the purpose of seizing power, to seize power in order to begin to recreate the world with the mighty proletarian iron hand in union with all suppressed. This is the thought of every worker. So thot Lenin; for this he lived, for this he worked, and in this work he died. Revolt must be made secure thru dictatorship; without securing the gains by the dictatorship of, the mass- es even a successful uprising is not a victory but at best only a step toward victory—this fact was hammered into Lenin by all the past history, by the fruitless attempts of toiling mankind to liberate itself from its masters; against the dictatorship of the minor- ity the dictatorship of the majority; against the dictatorship of the “up- pers” the dictatorship of the “lowly,” all other theories are a misleading of the people, treachery, a weakness of thot or a weakness of will, “priestli- ness” or “Tolstoyism,”—this was the theory of Lenin, and this theory was only thé formulation of the hard his- torical experiences, bought at an im- mensely high price, of millions and again millions of men. It was no accident that fighting mankind received its great leader from Russia. For it was in Russia, the great bor- derland between the west and the “We are filled with firm faith in the inevitable victory of the all-world Soviet power.’’—Lenin. (See article by Lenin on page 7 of this issue) ry; a _ 99 Lenin Is Dead The Speech of Nadieshda Krupskaya in the Second Soviet Convention of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. OMRADES: My words will have little resem- blance to a parliamentary speech. But I think that when I speak to the representatives of the working peo- ples’ republics, to close and dear com- rades who are to build up life on a new D&sis, I need not bind myself by any of, the conventions. During these last days, as I stood at the bier of Vladimir Ilyich, I thot back over his life. His heart beat with love for all toilers, for all the oppressed. He never said this himself, and I would not say it in a less solemn moment. I speak of it because he in- herited this sentiment from the he- roic revolutionary movement of Rus- sia. Jt drove him to a_ passionate, burning search for an answer to the question: What means are there to the liberation of the working people? He got the answer from. Marx. He went to Marx, not as a literary man. He went to Marx as a man who seeks the answer to achihg, compelling questions. He got the answer. With this answer he went to the workers. It was in the 1890’s. He could not ap- pear at meetings. He went to the workers’ circles. in Petersburg. He went to tell what he had found out from Marx, to tell about the answers he had gotten, but he went to the se east, the whirlpool of the greatest con- troversies, on the battlefield where hundreds of millions of workers and peasants fought their anguished and heroic fight for liberation from Asia- tic czarism and European capitalism, that a leader could develop and hard- en who could lead the working class over the threshold of the new epoch, Here was forged and here took its first political embodiment, the idea of the proletariat which gathers workers, not as a teacher from above, but as a comrade. He not only spoke, he listened to what the workers had to say. And the workers in Peters- burg told him not only about the every- day questions in the factory, not only about oppression, but they told athet country life too. In the Trade Union Hall at the bier of Vladimir Ilyitch, I saw one worker who at that time belonged to the circle. He is a peasant from Tula. This peasant, who was a worker in the factory of Semenikov, said to Vladimir Ilyitch, “Here in the city it is difficult for me to explain things; I will go back to my home in the Tula province and tell my people, the other peasants, all that you have said: They will believe me. I am one of them. There we have no gendarmes.” te We are now used. to speaking a great deal about the cooperation be- tween workers and peasants. This cooperation was given us by history, because the Russian worker is partly worker and partly a peasant, The work among the workers in Petersburg, discussions with them, attentive listening to their talk, help- ed Vladimir Ilyitch to understand the great teaching of Marx, that the pro- letariat is the advance guard of all the toiling people. In this fact, that around itself the peasants in order to strike a definite blow against capital- ism, the jdea of the union of the work- ers and peasants, Lenin made this slogan a formula for world-wide liber- ation, made it into a powder mine whieh will blow up the whole struc- ture of world imperialism. This idea knits into a united, mighty irresistible stream, the proletarian class movement in the great western cities and the revolutionary movement of the Indian villages and the Chinese it is the advance guard, and that all the working masses will follow the proletariat, in this lies the power of the proletariat, of its victory. Only as the leader of all the working peo- ple can the proletariat be victorious. Vladimir Ilyitch learned this when he worked among the workers of Petersburg. This idea guided all of his further activity, every step of it, He wanted the proletariat to have power, he realized that the proletariat needs this power, not to build an easy life for itself at the cost of other workers; he realized that the historic task of the proletariat is the liberation of all oppressed working people. ‘This. basic idea characterized all his activity, Comrades, representatives of the Soviet Republics, of the working peo- ples’ republics, I turn to you, I beg you to take this idea of Vladimir Ilyitch in your very heart. Vladimir Iyitch, our loved, our own, is dead. Comrades, Communists, raise high this precious banner of Lenin! Comrades, working men and wo- men! Peasants men and -women! Working people of the whole world! Gather together under the banner of Lenin, under the banner of Commun- ism.” a peasants; it fashions Communism in- to a hitherto unknown power, deep and strong, which guarantees victory ail over the world. With the torch of Lenin tn its hands, the toiling masses of the world march forward from the epoch of ele- mentary, scattered efforts at liberation into the epoch of victorious revolu- tions, which will make victory secure with the dictatorial power of the working class. eee eee eee | TT Sressssssssesssecssesnes we