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CHAPTER 4 Lenin’s theoretical contributions to Marxism were shaped by his overriding concern with the problems of winning power and establishing communist rule. The central feature of Leninism was a belief in the need for a new kind of political party, a revolutionary party or vanguard party . Unlike Marx, Lenin did not believe that the proletariat would spontaneously develop revolutionary class consciousness , as the working class was deluded by bourgeois ideas and beliefs. He suggested that only a ‘revolutionary party’ could lead the working class from ‘trade union consciousness’ to revolutionary class consciousness. Such a party should be composed of professional and dedicated
revolutionaries. Its claim to leadership would lie in its ideological wisdom, specifically its understanding of Marxist theory. This party could therefore act as the ‘vanguard of the proletariat’ because, armed with Marxism, it would perceive the genuine interests of the proletariat and would act to awaken the proletarian class to its revolutionary potential. Lenin further proposed that the vanguard party should be organized according to the principles of democratic centralism . Lenin’s theory of the party nevertheless attracted criticism from fellow Marxists. In particular, Rosa Luxemburg associated the notion of the vanguard party with the problem of ‘substitutionism’, in which a ruling party would substitute itself for the proletariat and, eventually, a supreme leader would substitute himself for the party.
Leninism: Lenin’s theoretical contributions to Marxism, notably his belief in the need for a revolutionary or ‘vanguard’ party to raise the proletariat to class consciousness. Vanguard party: A Leninist term denoting a party whose purpose is to lead and guide the proletariat to the achievement of revolutionary class consciousness.
KEY FIGURE
ROSA LUXEMBURG (1871–1919) A Polish-born socialist and exponent of revolutionary Marxism, Luxemburg advanced the first Marxist critique of the Bolshevik tradition from the point of view of democracy. Emphasizing the benefits of a broadly based democratic organization, she condemned Lenin’s conception of a tightly centralized vanguard party as an attempt to exert political control over the working class. By associating vanguardism with the rise of despotism, she predicted the subsequent course of Russian communism. In also condemning the revisionism of Bernstein and others, Luxemburg steered a course between the two major traditions of twentieth-century socialism: orthodox communism and social democracy. With Karl Liebknecht, she formed the Spartacus League, which later became the German Communist Party. Luxemburg was arrested and murdered during the Spartacist uprising in Berlin.
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When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917 they did so as a vanguard party, and therefore in the name of the proletariat. If the Bolshevik Party was acting in the interests of the working class, it followed that opposition parties must represent the interests of classes hostile to the proletariat, in particular the bourgeoisie. The dictatorship of the proletariat required that the revolution be protected against its class enemies, which effectivelymeant the suppression of all parties other than the Communist Party. By 1920, Russia had become a one-party state. Leninist theory therefore implied the existence of a monopolistic party, which enjoys sole responsibility for articulating the interests of the proletariat and guiding the revolution toward its ultimate goal, that of ‘building communism’.
Class consciousness: A Marxist term denoting ideas and theories that serve the interests of the bourgeoisie by disguising the contradictions of capitalist society. Democratic centralism: The Leninist principle of party organization, based on a supposed balance between freedom of discussion and strict unity of action.
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