The validity and Current Relevance of the October Revolution of 1917 for the 21st century
Brussels, 4-6 May 2007
www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org
Eight Theses on the Significance of the October Revolution for the Present
By Communist Initiative, Austria
1. We are living in the epoch of the transition of humanity from capitalism to socialism.
The victory of the socialist October Revolution in Russia in 1917 marked the start of a new epoch of human history. Since then we have found ourselves in the epoch of the transition of humanity from capitalism to socialism. With the victory of the October Revolution, the theoretical contradiction between bourgeois ideology and communism moved from the field of ideology and political struggle to the level of national political reality. Since 1917, the social and system contradiction has been part of political, social and economic practice.
This fact is an absolute truth, regardless of the influence of revisionism in the world communist movement in the second half of the 20th century, regardless of the temporary setback to socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe in 1989/90. The world revolutionary process is not something linear one that leads directly to the final victory of the proletariat and socialism. For all the efforts of communists, successful counter-attacks by international counter-revolution can take place in countries that have taken the socialist path of development. From the very beginning, the USSR was threatened with all means available. Socialism in the USSR and in Eastern Europe was indeed able to resist these attacks for a long time, but ultimately, owing to internal weakening, which was not least due to ideological neglect, could not do so durably. But if it has been beaten on one front, the world communist movement can do nothing other than continue the revolutionary struggle with even greater energy.
Since 1989/90, the communist movement may find itself temporarily on the defensive, above all in Europe. Imperialism is using this situation for a comprehensive new expansion of its aggressive and repressive nature. But there is no question that, precisely through the conditions of imperialist repression and exploitation, communists will again manage to go on the offensive. Currently, communists must reorganise, evaluate the experience so far, and prepare the new offensive. Temporary setbacks such as 1989/90 are no reason for resignation, but cause for the resumption of the revolutionary struggle.
In this sense, the socialist October Revolution demonstrates one thing above all: the proletariat can defeat the bourgeoisie and build its own society. Since 1917, the capitalists above all have been aware of this. If bourgeois ideologies now maintain that the defeat of socialism in the USSR would mean the death of Marxism-Leninism and of communism, they are doing so above all to console themselves. Because it has long been clear that at the start of the 21st century the world revolutionary process is continued, the socialist, socialist-oriented and anti-imperialist states are still resisting imperialism, new social, emancipatory and revolutionary movements are developing everywhere in the world.
Capitalism is still in the stage of its general, all-embracing crisis, in an existential crisis, which the victorious October Revolution decisively contributed to instigating. The fact of the crisis, which is continuing today, is the reason why imperialism is currently still acting globally ferociously. And it is the reason why we objectively still find ourselves in the epoch of downfall of imperialism and the victory of socialism. This may be a long epoch, which implies intervening defeats for the revolutionary movement and socialism, but at the end of it is the liberation of humanity from capitalism and its transition to socialism.
2. The October Revolution has its specific characteristics, but also general, internationally applicable fundamentals for the revolutionary struggle.
Marxism recognises certain fundamentals without the application of which a society cannot be described as socialist or communist. These decisive fundamentals of the socialist revolution were already stated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They were valid before the October Revolution, they were valid after the October Revolution – they are still valid today. These fundamentals demand, for the socialist revolution: the socialisation of the means of production; on the basis of this, the planned increase in productivity; through this, the guarantee of the material life of all people; the abolition of the exploitation of people by people; the overcoming of the division of society into classes; the exclusion of war from people’s lives; and the gradual adaptation of people’s consciousness to the new social relations. The October Revolution and socialist construction in the USSR were also subject to these fundamentals.
In this sense, through their application, the October Revolution confirmed Marx’ and Engels’ general fundamentals of socialism. But the question that necessarily arises is whether and to what extent the October Revolution in Russia can be a continuing example for other countries. To what extent are new experiences and the practice of the October Revolution in general internationally applicable?
Lenin always opposed the mechanical transfer of the October Revolution to other countries. He always pointed out that that the right way to socialist revolution could only be found on the basis of a concrete analysis of the situation in each country and taking into consideration all specific national characteristics. Nevertheless, Lenin also said that particular fundamental experiences of the October Revolution, which were confirmed in practice in Russia and the USSR, have an absolute general validity for the struggle for socialism. This means that, alongside its national characteristics, the October Revolution very much also demonstrated important new general fundamentals that are applicable and usable – even indispensable – for the revolutionary struggle in the whole world. What are the fundamentals of the October Revolution with general international importance that are meant by this? – They are explained in the following points.
3. Without a revolutionary party of the working class the revolution cannot be victorious.
The victory of the October Revolution in Russia – and at the same time the defeat of revolutionary movements in other countries at the end of and subsequent to the First World War, such as in Austria for example – shows that the socialist revolution cannot be victorious without a revolutionary party of the working class.
At the latest with the start of the First World War, it had become obvious that the parties of the Second International were being devoured by revisionism and reformism, by opportunism and nationalism. These old social-democratic parties were neither willing nor able to lead the socialist revolution anywhere; in many places they were openly counter-revolutionary. The parties of the Third International were founded in reaction to this reality. These were to be true Marxist revolutionary fighting parties of the working class, parties of the type of the Russian Bolsheviks. This was because the differentiation process in the workers’ movement between social democracy and communism had already been anticipated in the Russian workers’ movement as early as 1903, with the Mensheviks assuming the social-democratic position and the Bolsheviks the revolutionary position. In this sense it is not ascribable only to the negative example of the failure and treachery of social-democratic parties in western and central Europe that communist parties were founded throughout the world, but rather to the positive example of the Bolsheviks, under whose leadership the bourgeoisie of one country was defeated for the first time and the revolution was defended.
The existence of a fighting revolutionary party of the working class, a Marxist-Leninist party, is indeed no guarantee of the success of the socialist revolution. But the absence of such a party is a certain guarantee of the failure or the complete absence of revolutionary popular movements.
According to the experiences of the Bolsheviks, the Marxist-Leninist party must fulfil the following tasks: it is the most advanced party and the continually forwards-driving department and the highest form of class organisation of the working class; in order to fulfil its historic task of defeating capitalism, the working class requires an independent political party that gives an objective and direction through the power of its insight into the social interconnections and processes of the movement. In this sense, the Marxist-Leninist party is the conscious advance guard of the working class. It must be based on the firm foundation of Marxism-Leninism; it must not tolerate either opportunism or revisionism within its ranks. Correspondingly, its members must be trained and committed. The Marxist-Leninist party is the organised advance guard of the working class. It must create effective organisations, it must command all necessary means and methods of struggle and it must base its activity on a clear revolutionary strategy and tactics. In this regard, too, the members need to be trained and committed. The Marxist-Leninist party must unequivocally be a class party, an internationalist and fighting revolutionary party. Such an organisation and such ideological foundations will enable the party to lead the working class to and through the socialist revolution as well as to defend it successfully and to build socialism. No other party can cope with these demands, whether from lack of ability or from unwillingness to do so.
The October Revolution shows in all clarity that the creation, construction and consolidation of a Marxist-Leninist party, a revolutionary party of working class struggle, are primary preconditions for the socialist revolution. If the activity of the Marxist-Leninist party is successful from an organisational and ideological point of view, then the working class is enabled by its leadership not only to defy the bourgeoisie in the practice of class struggle, but above all ultimately to defeat it.
4. Socialist construction is impossible without the dictatorship of the proletariat.
From a political point of view the socialist revolution must primarily mean the exercise of power of the proletariat organised as the ruling class. This rule of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat, must have a dual nature: it must be democratic in a new way (for the working people), it must simultaneously be dictatorial against the previous exploiting classes. The capitalists and landowners will not voluntarily vacate the field, but will struggle with every means at their disposal to win back their political and economic power. It is therefore the task of the new socialist state to hold down these classes, that is, to continue the class struggle under new conditions. If this does not happen, then the door would be wide open to bourgeois sabotage and ultimately to counter-revolution. In the face of the necessity of political and economic transformation, which as Marx and Engels write is only possible through "despotic" encroachments upon previous law, the development of socialist democracy gradually advances. In the USSR, the constitution of 1936 finally signified the comprehensive framework for socialist democracy.
The task of the proletarian revolution consists in the destruction of the old bourgeois apparatus of power and its replacement by a state form of a new type, by the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is only a synonym for socialist or proletarian democracy. In this sense, the October Revolution and the USSR have provided the conclusive evidence for the correctness of the views of Marx, Engels and Lenin on the transitional socialist state, in contrast to which the reformist and the social-democratic distorters of Marxism are not only contradicted by the success of the Bolsheviks but also through their own failure. Thus, since the victory of the October Revolution it is a general truth, proved through historical practice, that the way to socialism does not lead through (bourgeois) democracy but that the way to real democracy leads through the socialist revolution.
The proof of the necessity of the destruction of the bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which according to Marx was already shown by the 1871 Paris Commune, was furnished in all clarity by the successful practice of the USSR. The attacks on the young Russian Soviet Republic and subsequently on the USSR demonstrate impressively that internal and external counter-revolution attempted to undermine an independent course of socialist development by all possible means. The socialist course of development can only be defended against this by the constitution and the self-image of the revolutionary state power as the dictatorship of the proletariat.
5. The revolutionary struggle is helped by the alliance of the working class with oppressed non-proletarian classes and strata.
Not least, the October Revolution has shown the importance and value of a successful policy of alliances by the working class and its Marxist-Leninist party. In the Russia of 1917, the peasantry was not only a natural but also an essential ally of the revolutionary working class in the struggle against the capitalists and big landlords. At first sight, the importance of the peasantry as the most numerous section of the population in Russia appears to be a historical and national peculiarity of the October Revolution. Nevertheless, a general and international fundamental of the revolutionary struggle in the age of imperialism can be derived from the Bolsheviks’ revolutionary policy of alliances.
The imperialist stage of capitalism, monopoly capitalism, means the economic supremacy of the monopoly bourgeoisie, of finance capital. The monopolies in industry, banking agriculture and trade not only exploit the working class in the old way, but they also exact tribute from all non-monopolistic classes and strata of the population – this is the basis of monopoly profit, which exceeds the "normal", average profit. The fact of this opposition to monopoly capitalism by broad social strata going clearly beyond the proletariat is the objective opportunity for the working class and its Marxist-Leninist party to enter into anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist alliances. On this basis, broad popular movements are possible against monopoly power and the landed oligarchy, against militarization and attacks on democracy, against imperialist repression and war. The establishment of a progressive popular movement of this type can open up new revolutionary perspectives. A successful struggle by an anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist popular movement can restructure the social power relations to the disadvantage of the monopolies and imperialism itself and in favour of the working people in the cities and the countryside. This would favour the continued struggle for socialism, on which the most advanced section of this movement – the communists – must always orient themselves. It would thus be for the communists to guide the already initiated revolutionary process from a democratic, anti-monopoly or anti-imperialist stage into the socialist revolution.
6. The socialist revolution can also be successful in backward countries. On international criteria, capitalism in the stage of imperialism is ripe for the socialist revolution.
Tsarist Russia before the First World War was a relatively backward country, above all in relation to the main imperialist powers in western and central Europe. For this reason, many social democrats in particular rushed to prophesy a speedy end to the Russian Revolution. But the successful defence of soviet power, the socialist construction in the USSR and not least the great victory of the Red Army and the population of the USSR against the fascist aggressors in the Second World War refutes these people’s lies.
In fact, however, the material preconditions for socialism in Russia in 1917 were not optimal. True, there were already major industrial centres and a numerically very significant proletariat. But most of the country was economically backward. 80 per cent of the population lived from agriculture and in the hinterland there were still remnants of feudalism. The social democrats and other opponents of the October Revolution believed that capitalism in Russia, measured in the development of productive forces, was simply not yet ripe for socialism.
But the Bolsheviks found ways to circumvent the economic backwardness, the supposed lacking material basis for socialism. The first means to this end were the phases of the "New Economic Policy" (NEP), introduced by Lenin, and the GOELRO plan. With the introduction of the five-year plans by Stalin, the special period of the NEP was ended, and until 1941 three important tasks were carried out: rapid industrialisation, the change in class relations in the countryside and the building of the socialist school and education system. With these measures, in the shortest possible time the USSR created a material, economic and social basis that was able even to resist the greatest military annihilation machine, German fascism.
This is the proof that, within a few years, relatively backward countries can also follow a non-capitalist and ultimately socialist path of development that brings them up to the eye-level of the most advanced industrial capitalist states. Such a catching up may be difficult and demand great efforts and sacrifice, but the USSR has shown that it is possible. The fact that the USSR had to and could make these efforts without the assistance of allied countries underlines the achievement of the people of the USSR and the leadership of the CPSU in these years.
The successful socialist construction in a single, isolated country that was constantly under threat from without also refutes the lies of all the pseudo-Marxist right-wing and left-wing radical "theoreticians of the world revolution" who believed that the USSR could not survive in the absence of the revolution in western and central Europe. Lenin and Stalin certainly admitted that, with this historical fact, the USSR faced a difficult task, but it never came into their minds to capitulate in the face of this.
Naturally, the working class of each individual country, with the assistance of allies such as the peasantry, can independently defeat its own capitalists and autonomously build socialism in that country – this is, after all, also the task that is most in its own interest and the most important contribution of the working class of every nation to proletarian internationalism and to world revolution. Naturally, there is no guarantee of the finality of such a victory in a country, since there is always the possibility of imperialist interventions. But in the case of the USSR, the fascist attack of 1941, which was supposed to lead to the destruction of the first state of working-class power, was not only unsuccessful, but precisely the opposite: the victory of the Red Army over fascism opened socialist paths of development for other nations of eastern Europe, which exploited those possibilities with varying degrees of success. Ultimately, as history has also shown, the USSR could not be destroyed by world imperialism as long as it was not internally deformed by revisionism.
An essential feature of imperialism consists in the fact that it is a dying, parasitic capitalism that is in the process of decay. Imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution. In this sense, present-day capitalism is by international standards ripe for socialist revolution. The socialist revolution can therefore be successful in every country, whether it is a country of the imperialist centre or of the dependent periphery. In the economically backward and dependent countries, alliances of broad sections of the population and perhaps transitional phases will be necessary for this, but the overthrow of the national and imperialist exploiters is on the historical agenda there too.
7. The fight against revisionism is of central importance for the fight for socialism.
The history of the Bolsheviks and of the October Revolution shows that the unremitting fight against revisionism and opportunism in the workers’ movement is of decisive importance for the struggle for socialism. From the founding of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party to the October Revolution there was a sharp ideological struggle within the Russian workers’ movement. The victory of the October Revolution was only possible because the Bolsheviks decided this argument in their favour. The party of Lenin was free of bourgeois influences, revisionist viewpoints and non-Marxist strategies and tactics. This was a precondition for the creation of a fighting Marxist party of the Russian working class, which was both capable bringing the revolution in Russia to a successful end and willing to do so.
As in Lenin’s time, revisionism is also today present in a damaging way in the international workers’ movement, in the international communist movement – or to put it more precisely, at least present in parties and organisations that call themselves communist or socialist. If the international communist movement wishes to lead the revolutionary struggle for socialism successfully, it must break with all petty-bourgeois, revisionist and opportunist influences and elements.
The fight against revisionists of the old and new type means the defence and further creative development of Marxism-Leninism. From an ideological point of view this means defending the Marxist-Leninist world view, it means building communist theory, programme and strategy on the fundamental positions of Marxism-Leninism, in particular on the unadulterated Marxist theory of the state, on Lenin’s theory of imperialism, on the Leninist understanding of the party, on proletarian and anti-imperialist internationalism of working people and defence of the right of nations to self-determination. From a practical point of view, communists must repeatedly expose the harmfulness of revisionism, reformism and opportunism in the workers’ movement and defend the specific independent interests of the working class. In the discussion of the history of the workers’ movement, communists must emphasise and defend the historic role of the Soviet Union and of the socialist states of Europe. This demands, not least, emphasising the historic importance of the October Revolution and its significance for the present.
8. Imperialism as a world system must be countered by a world communist movement based on Marxism-Leninism.
The victory of the Bolshevik Revolution and the failure of the Mensheviks in Russia in 1917 simultaneously marked the practical victory of Marxism against revisionism, opportunism and reformism. Correspondingly, the foundation of the Communist International in distinction to the old Second International signifies the application of the same recognition at international level.
Today, too, alongside the well-known openly pro-imperialist social democracy, a new revisionism is developing in parties that were formerly communist or are formally still communist. With the so-called "European Left Party" these revisionist parties have created an international structure within the structure of the imperialist European Union. This attempt to form a reformist-revisionist and in part openly anti-Marxist "Left Party" must be rejected by the anti-revisionist, Marxist-Leninist communists and be countered with class-conscious, internationalist, anti-imperialistic cooperation and solidarity of the international communist movement, which naturally extends beyond Europe. The process of differentiation between the revisionist and the revolutionary forces is not finished yet. This process is not only a struggle against the "European Left Party" as structure und ideological model, but also takes place within the "European Left Party" and its member parties. Under these conditions, the task of the building of a new international and revolutionary pole, which the "European Left Party" does not represent, does not mean a front line against sincere communists, who are organized within parties of the "European Left Party".
The necessity of a strong international communist movement based on Marxism-Leninism, however, does not arise only or predominantly in the sense of a distancing from revisionism, but from the fact that imperialism is a world system. The current stage of the capitalist process of internationalisation means the capitalist form of socialisation of work on a global scale. Thus, if the conditions of capitalist wage labour are being internationalised on the part of monopoly capitalism, then this entails the "globalisation" of the pressure of work, wage dumping, and location questions and the dismantling of the welfare state. The struggle for the repartition of the world and around imperialistic hegemony means the militarization of the imperialist countries. Not only this inter-imperialist rivalry, but also the limited collective imperialism expresses itself today again increasingly in imperialist wars and direct military occupations. The imperialist countries threaten undisguised military aggression against the remaining socialist bastions and countries on an anti-imperialist path of development. The dismantling of democratic rights, the constant attacks on human rights and international law serve repressively to underpin the total new unfolding of the aggressive essence of imperialism.
The aggression of international monopoly capitalism and its imperialist states and alliances must be countered by world-wide popular movements for democracy, freedom and social rights. These popular movements must be globally linked, they must be coordinated and act together and in solidarity. The only consistently internationalist force is the communist movement. It is ultimately its job to show the way for these movements. For this it is initially necessary to strengthen the international communist movement. A strong international communist movement strengthens the communist movement in the individual countries – and conversely. In this regard, too, the October Revolution teaches us something. The foundation of the Communist International following the October Revolution meant not only the structural, political, material and moral support of the USSR by workers throughout the world, but conversely also support for the communist parties in the individual, still capitalist countries through the Communist International, the CPSU and the USSR.
If the world communist movement now succeeds in reorganising itself on a Marxist-Leninist basis, then the communist movement will succeed in moving from the defensive, in which it still largely finds itself, onto the offensive. It may be a difficult task but it is indispensable as long as humanity faces the alternative: socialism instead of barbarism.