The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 8, 1926, Page 9

LENIN (These sketches of the life of Viadimir lyitch Ulyanov—Lenin—were written by an 'd Bolshevik who was associated in political ‘ork with the great leader for many years.) A Great Time. MEAT things happened in the half-century between Lenin’s birth and his death. The t he was born, Germany and France clashed t war which ended with the Paris Commune, first attempt at proletarian dictatorship in ory. And when Lenin died he was the head he working-class government in a great power wing one-sixth of the earth. Between these 23 we know: the exception laws against so- ists in Germany, the rise and fall of the Sec- I}ternational, three revolutions in Russia, rfolutions in most of the Eastern countries, rise of America into the chief country of cap- _ism, the world war, the foundation of the mmunist International, and the Soviet Union che base for the fight of hundreds of millions toiling masses. And the Marxian prophecy realized that the Russian proletariat would ome the advance guard and the leaders of the kers of the world. ‘nder the heavy yoke of czarism, the advanced ught of Russia had sought the best theory of time in order to overthrow the main strong- 1 of world reaction. At the cost of heavy suf- 4 ng it found Marxism, studied it more j roughly than any others, and learned to apply in practice. And therefore it attained the te of honor it holds now. Marxism in Russia. IE year Marx died, 1883, a group of Russian -| emigrants in Switzerland—Plekhanoy, Axel- | , Vera Zassulitch and Leo Deutsch—founded deneva the “Group for the Liberation of La- .” with the purpose of studying conditions in sia in the light of Marxism. And when En- ; died, 1895, a Russian student—known to his- 7 iby. the na me of Lenin—had found in Engels’ i- Daebdiny ‘the completion to Marx’s Capital, forged for himself with the help of these a | pon by means of which he was to lead the | istem workers to victory in the greatest revo- o: in history, and had founded the organiza- .. ,hich will lead mankind to liberation. ‘he 1880’s were a turning point in Russian his- 7, says M. Lyadov—now president of the rdlov university in Moscow—in his history of Russian party. At that time, history gave lecisive answer to the question of whether ssia had to go thru the period of western cap- ism, or whether it had some peculiar way, as Populists claimed. . Russia was no longer yurely agrarian country. Even the peasant already come under the money system. He s; compelled to buy and sell and sometimes 2 to wage-work for a time. It was a time of worst gendarme regime under Alexander III. appearances of political life were wiped out. ittle group of revolutionists fought a hopeless it. Reforms that had been gained were lost. 1 ture reflected the hopelessness and mys- sects preached doctrines of resignation. ‘au under the ice of the surface the capitalist lution was doing its work. The populists srodniks), the Terrorists of the past decade, | become “reasonable,” the reaction allowed a to organize peasants’ banks, home handi- dollars and some cents. And there wasn’t much in the bank! Hardly enough to pay bills and feed them for another week. After day night came at Jast. All day Friday he sat on a bench in the Free Employment mcy like one in a stupor. A numbness ed to be creeping thru his veins. Evening e and he went home. It was raining out he was soaked to the skin. Sara was wor- . She was afraid he was getting sick. ey are working you too hard,” she said. brought him his carpet slippers. While he washing up at the tiny kitchen sing she ied herself putting the evening meal on the e. There was baked potatoes, creamed car- , and new onions. Bread, of course, with o, not butter; Gem Nut: something just as , and a cup of Postum for drink. While ate she talked of this and that. He helped, as his custom, to wash the dishes. They craft. museums and co-operatives. They imag- ined that by doing these things they were build- ing up socialism, ‘while they actually were help- ing forward. the capitalist development, because only the well-to-do farmers could use them. And they still believed that the Russian “mir’—the village community—was sound and would be- come the foundation of socialist society. They claimed capitalism to be a foreign plant in Rus- sia, and that the modern workers’ movemeént would not appear in that country. But the facts were otherwise. The workers in Petersburg had, as early as 1925, during the days of the Decembrist revolt, demanded a weapon to fight czarism. And there occurred strikes which were declared to come under the criminal law of 1845. In the seventies, there were study circles and fighting groups among the workers. The carpenter, Stephen Halturin, gathered statitics in Petersburg factories and wrote the first mod- ern working-class program. But he was also a terrorist and blew up the Winter Palace in 1878, tho Alexander II was only killed two years later, As late as 1887 a little group of revolutionaries went to the Nevsky Prospect with bombs in order to kill Alexander IIT, but they were betrayed and caught. Among those hanged was Alexander Ulyanov, the brother of Lenin. These revolutionary intellectuals and workers had very confused theories. A mix-up of anarch- ism, Bakuninism, Lassalleanism and’ Russian populism, idealization of country life and of the mir. They despised political activity and politi- cal liberties. The old terrorist party was split, and its activities melted away. But there was also Marxian groups in Russia. One of the first was created by a Bulgarian student Blagoyev (who died in 1824 in Bulgaria as a Communist). The students approached the workers. Marxian books were circulated and secret papers distributed. In the early years of the nineties, there was one name mentioned in the Marxian groups. It was Lenin. Childhood and Youth. VLADIMIR ILYITCH ULYANOV was born on April -23,-1870.:;-His forefathers -had. been , peasants, his grandfather was a townsman in Astrakhan, his father a school superintendent in Simbirsk. He was an upright man and founded more than 400 schools. He was not a landlord and did not belong to the nobility. It is neces- sary to point this out because the social-demo- erats are trying to explain his “inclination to dictatorship” to be an inheritance from his noble ancestors. The character of his mother is-shown by one episode. It is told by a worker, arrested in 1899, for participating in a strike. He was in the outer room of the police ministry, when the chief of the department entered and said to an old woman: “You can be proud of your chil- dren. One is hanged and the rope awaits the other.” The woman rose and said simply: “Yes, I am proud of my children.” .. . She was Len- in’s mother and was there on his behalf, since he was at that time in Siberia. Lenin was a good student. He learned to work systematically. But he was also the leader of his schoolmates; he was always starting discus- sions about social questions. He admired the revolutionaries. He left high school and the teachers were compelled to give him the gold medal of the first student although he already at that time “showed revolutionary inclinations,” It was for this reason that he was denied en- always retired early. Sara fell asleep quickly. After a while he got up and turned on the kit- chen light. He came back to the bed and for a long time stood looking down at her with working features. One of her hands was flung out—so. He stooped and kissed it. They would never be parted—never! He thought of the Greys and shuddered. What had Sara said? “Td rather die—die!” Yes, yes; death was preferable. Death! Like one whose mind was at last made up he passed quickly about the room, closing the windows, shutting the door. There was a gas jet in the room, tho they had never used it. He turned it on with shaking fingers, and then got swiftly into bed and drew Sara into his arms. She never awoke; she slept too soundly for that. He lay very still, with a sudden sense of peace, of security per- = his whole being. ey n were vances Par e . After a ‘while he fellasleep.. ..* Short Stories of His Life trance into the university in the main cities. Ow December 5, he was exiled to the country for participation in students’ demonstrations. In with his mother, and there he went deeper into Marxian studies. He continued them the next year in Samara, which was one of the stops on the way to Siberia. Many returned revolution- ists stayed there and participated in revolution- ary circles. Lenin was also a member of one and barely escaped arrest. In 1891, he had taken the law examinations in Petersburg. He. handled the cases of poor peo- ple and Martov claimed that he would have be- come a good lawyer. But he practiced law only a little, for he became at that time active in the daily work of the revolution. _ In Petersburg. ENIN was now a conscious Marxian revolu- tionist and conducted successful debates with the leading populists. His mimeographed pamph- lets were eagerly read. He proved the inaccuracy of the theories of the populists. He showed how capitalist conditions are growing up everywhere, even in far-away villages. With astonishment we read how deeply the young Lenin, the twenty- four--year-old student, grasped the quintessence © of Marxism. He says that the socialist youth must cease to build on illusions; they must base their activity on real and not wished-for condi- tions in Russia. The theory must be a complete and minute picture of the development. It must answer the questions raised in practice. “You cannot be an ideological leader without theoret- ical work, just as you cannot be a leader without conducting work on practical questions, without propagating theoretical conclusions among the workers and without helping them in their or- ganizations,” he wrote. The proof of practice saves from doctrinarism and sectarianism. “As a basis for our work, there must be the general conception of Marxists that the Russian worker is the sole and the real representative of the whole toiling and exploited people of the coun- try.” “The social-democrats center their attention and activity on the working class when its fore- most representatives accept the ideas of scientific socialism, the idea of the historical task of the Russian proletariat, when these ideas spread widely and strong organizations are formed among the workers, changing the present scat- tered economic struggle into a conscious polit- ical fight; then the Russian workers, rousing themselves at the head of all democratic elements, will overthrow absolutism and lead the Russian proletariat (together with the proletariat of all countries) on the straight path of open political fight to the victorious Communist revolution.” In April, 1895, Lenin went abroad, for his health, partly, but mainly in order to see the veterans of the “Group for the Liberation of Labor.” And he brought back new energy for the work. And he brought also hidden in the walls of his trunk books ahd a mimeograph. He was the leader of the “League for the Liberation of the Working Class.” He organized circles and wrote pamphlets and manifestos. In preparing these he always studied the subject thoroughly and had long talks with workers in order to learn their way of thinking and speaking. His pamph- let about fines is as much a social study as it is a piece of propaganda. He was just making up a new paper of the gathered materials when his group was arrested, on December 9. He continued his studies in prison. He gath- ered material for his book “Development of Cap- italism in Russia,” and he managed to send let- ters to his comrades in other cells thru the books + of the library. With these letters—at that time as thruout his life,—he stimulated the courage of his comrades and, made suggestions for their work. And there he wrote the May First Mani- festo of 1896, of which 2,000 copies were circul- lated in the factories. The workers said after- wards that the big strike movements of the fol- lowing summer had this manifesto astheir first inspiration. On January 29, 1897, came the court verdict—To Siberia! * * * 7 (This interesting series of Short Stories of the Life of Lenin will be continued in the next issue of the Saturday Magazine sup- plement of The DAILY WORKER. Read ers are advised to see that their names are on the regular subscription list, so that they may not miss any part of the series.)