V.I. Lenin — The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War

Vladimir I. Lenin - The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War.

Published in Sotsial-Demorkrat No. 43, July 26, 1915.

Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1974], Moscow, Volume 21, pages 275-280. 

During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government.

This is axiomatic, and disputed only by conscious partisans or helpless satellites of the social-chauvinists. Among the former, for instance, is Semkovsky of the Organising Committee (No. 2 of its Izvestia), and among the latter, Trotsky and Bukvoyed,[2] and Kautsky in Germany. To desire Russia’s defeat, Trotsky writes, is “an uncalled-for and absolutely unjustifiable concession to the political methodology of social-patriotism, which would replace the revolutionary struggle against the war and the conditions causing it, with an orientation—highly arbitrary in the present conditions—towards the lesser evil” (Nashe Slovo No. 105).

J.V. Stalin - Trotskyism or Leninism? (1924)

Joseph V. Stalin- Trotskyism or Leninism?

Speech delivered at the Plenum of the Communist Group in the A.U.C.C.T.U., 

November 19, 1924;

Published on Pravda, No.269, 

November 26, 1924.

Published via Marxists Internet Archives.

Comrades, after Kamenev's comprehensive report there is little left for me to say. I shall therefore confine myself to exposing certain legends that are being spread by Trotsky and his supporters about the October uprising, about Trotsky's role in the uprising, about the Party and the preparation for October, and so forth. I shall also touch upon Trotskyism as a peculiar ideology that is incompatible with Leninism, and upon the Party's tasks in connection with Trotsky's latest literary pronouncements.

KKE speech in Leningrad Conference: Our future isn't capitalism, it is the new world, socialism

Speech of the Communist Party of Greece at the the International Theoretical Conference of Communist and Workers parties: "100 years after the Great October Socialist Revolution, the lessons and tasks for the contemporary communists." (Leningrad, Russia 11-13/8/2017). 

Dear comrades,

On behalf of the CC of the KKE, we thank the RWCP for this initiative and for hosting our Conference Today.

The Central Committee of the KKE honours the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It honours the climactic world-historic event of the 20th century which demonstrated that capitalism is not invincible, that we can construct a superior organization of society, without the exploitation of man by man.

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Higher form of Democracy

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART II: THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT: A HIGHER FORM OF DEMOCRACY.

The leap that takes place during the socialist construction, i.e. during the transition from capitalism to communism, is qualitatively higher than any previous one, since communist relations, as non-exploitative, cannot be formed in capitalism. The political revolution is the precondition for these new relations to be imposed and dominate, i.e. the conquest of power by the working class and the establishment of its own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

This is a basic difference in the transition to the communist socioeconomic formation in relation with the previous. In the framework of the transition from an exploitative socioeconomic formation to another, the new relations could be developed and dominate first in the confines of the previous socioeconomic formation and then, as the last part of this process, the class that was the bearer of the new relations struggled for and took power. This happened for example in relation to capitalism. 

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - The phony dilemma: "Democracy" or Totalitarianism"?

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART I: THE PHONY DILEMMA: "DEMOCRACY" OR TOTALITARIANISM"?

INTRODUCTION. 

A great part of anti-communist, anti-socialist propaganda focuses on the issue of the so called lack of “freedom and democracy” during the construction of the new society, of socialism-communism. The main focus of that attack is the revolutionary workers’ power, the state of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the role of the Communist Party. The capitalists cannot abide it; they tremble before the idea that the working class will emerge as the dominant class, and that they will be thrown into the dustbin of history. 

Joseph Stalin is the "most outstanding" world figure according to the Russian people

Despite years of severe anticommunist-antisoviet bourgeois propaganda, a significant number of the Russian people express admiration and respect for the great Bolshevik leader.

Source: Russia Today.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has once again been named the most oustanding world figure by Russians. Vladimir Putin shared second place with poet Alexander Pushkin. Among non-Russians, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton made the top 20.

Stalin, Putin, Pushkin, and Vladimir Lenin took the top three positions in a Levada Center poll which asked Russians to name the “most outstanding people of all times and peoples.” The poll results were published on Monday.

The poll surveyed 1,600 people in 137 places across Russia and was in free form – respondents weren’t given any suggestions for answers.

Carolus Wimmer: The Great October Revolution and its Influence on Latin America

The Great October Revolution and its Influence on Latin America.

By Carolus Wimmer* / Source: International Communist Review, Issue 7, 2017.

I) Introduction

The hundredth anniversary of the Great October Revolution comes in the midst of a counteroffensive by imperialism and the forces of reaction against the social and political advances of the working class. In these conditions, it becomes especially important to deliver the objective truth about the first victorious proletarian Revolution, its historic global importance for the world’s worker movement, for the struggles to liberate the oppressed peoples from imperialism, and ultimately for all humanity.

Joseph V. Stalin- Concerning Questions of Leninism

Concerning Questions of Leninism.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

 January 25, 1926.

Source: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 via Marxists Internet Archive.

Dedicated to the Leningrad Organisation of the C.P.S.U (B).

I. THE DEFINITION OF LENINISM

The pamphlet The Foundations of Leninism contains a definition of Leninism which seems to have received general recognition. It runs as follows:

“Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular.”1

Communist Party of Greece: Criticism of certain contemporary opportunist views on the state

POSITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION OF THE CC OF THE KKE AT THE 11th ANNUAL CONFERENCE "V.I.LENIN, THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD".

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The importance and timeliness of Lenin's work on the state. 

100 years ago, a few months before the Great October Socialist Revolution and in particularly difficult and complex political conditions, V.I. Lenin wrote a fundamentally important work, "The State and Revolution", which, of course, was published for the first time after the October Revolution in 1918.

In this work, Lenin highlighted the essence and analyzed the class nature of the state: “The state is a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The state arises where, when and insofar as class antagonisms objectively cannot be reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that the class antagonisms are irreconcilable.”[1]

V.I.Lenin- The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution (The April Theses)

Vladimir I. Lenin - The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution ("The April Theses").

Published on April 7, 1917 in Pravda No. 26.

Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1964, Moscow, Volume 24, pp. 19-26. via Marxists Internet Archives.

I did not arrive in Petrograd until the night of April 3, and therefore at the meeting on April 4, I could, of course, deliver the report on the tasks of the revolutionary proletariat only on my own behalf, and with reservations as to insufficient preparation.

The only thing I could do to make things easier for myself—and for honest opponents—was to prepare the theses in writing. I read them out, and gave the text to Comrade Tsereteli. I read them twice very slowly: first at a meeting of Bolsheviks and then at a meeting of both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

I publish these personal theses of mine with only the briefest explanatory notes, which were developed in far greater detail in the report.

Karl Marx: The Man Who Changed The World Forever

Karl Marx: The Man Who Changed The World Forever

By Nikos Mottas*.

"On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep-but forever”. With these words, Friedrich Engels had opened his speech during Karl Marx's funeral at London's Highgate cemetery. This year marks the 134^th anniversary since the death of the greatest thinker in the history of mankind; the man who tried not only to interpret the world but to change it. And, indeed, Marx's theoretical work became the basis for social change, highlighting the scientific perception of the class struggle as the driving force of History.

"The genius of Marx”, Lenin wrote, "lies in his having been the first to deduce from the lesson world history teaches and to apply that lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctribe of the class struggle” (V.I.Lenin, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism). Marx's thought and work consists a milestone in the history of philosophy, political economy and social sciences. As Lenin wrote, the Marxist theory “is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism”.

Poetry for Lenin - By Vladimir Mayakovsky and Bertolt Brecht

Photo: In Defense of Communism.

On the occasion of the 93rd anniversary of Vladimir I. Lenin's death, we post three major poems by the giants of literature and poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) dedicated to the great Bolshevik revolutionary and architect of the first socialist state in the world.  

The first one is Vladimir Mayakovsky's legendary poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" published in 1924. 

The other twoo are poems by Bertolt Brecht, titled "The Unconquerable Inscription" (1934) and the "Cantata on the Day of Lenin's Death" (1935). 

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: His revolutionary legacy remains alive and timely

By Nikos Mottas.

It was in the dawn of January 21, 1924, 93 years ago, when the heart of the greatest revolutionary in history, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, stopped beating. Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution and architect of the first socialist state in the world, was 54 years old.

The name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is identified with two dialectically connected issues. On the one hand, there is his revolutionary activity and practice as the leader of the 20^th century's most significant event- the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution. On the other hand, there is his theoretical work which is the development of the revolutionary theory of Marx and Engels in the era of Imperialism. That extraordinary combination of revolutionary theory and practice makes Lenin a unique personality in history who, 93 years after his death, remains “alive” in the collective memory and hearts of the working class people across the world.

Kostas Papadakis (KKE MEP)- No trust in any bourgeois government, any bourgeois class, any imperialist alliance

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC and MEP, in the introductory speech of the KKE at the international seminar of the KKE's delegation to the European Parliament stressed the following:

Dear comrades,

Our seminar today aims to shed light on contemporary, complex and serious (for the workers) developments, through the prism of  Leninist thought, as this was exemplified 100 years ago in the work "On the Slogan for a United States of Europe". With the utilization of other works that also analyze the constituent elements of imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism.

Today, we see new inter-state unions next to the old ones, like NATO and the EU. Unions are emerging in Eurasia, Latin America, Asia that supposedly aim to unite the peoples and economic life of entire continents. The problems are serious, because apart from the mutated parties that bear the "communist" title and follow the social-democratic path, there are CPs that are trying, struggling but detach this development from its economic base and salute it, adopting the ideological construct of the so-called "multi-polar world".

Successful International communist seminar regarding Vladimir Lenin's work was organised by the KKE in Athens

The International Seminar, with the subject: "A century from the publication of the work of V.I.Lenin "On the slogan of a United States of Europe", took place today, Saturday 10th December, organised by the European Parliament Team of the KKE in Athens, responding to the call of the Plenary session of the Parties of the "European Communist Initiative".

"On the slogan for a United States of Europe"- Communist Parties to participate in international seminar in Athens

IDC / Info from 902.gr.

At least 20 Communist Parties from around the world will participate in the international seminar that will take place in Athens on Saturday 10 December. The seminar's subject is the 100th anniversary since the publication of V.I.Lenin's work "On the slogan for a United States of Europe" and is organised by the European Parliament team of the KKE. 

The seminar's major speaker is Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC of the KKE and KKE MEP. The General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas will also attend the seminar and will deliver a short greeting message.

The venue of the seminar is Stanley Hotel at Karaiskaki Square (1 Odysseos str). 

John Reed- Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) Chapter II "The Coming Storm"

Ten Days That Shook the World.

By John Reed.

CHAPTER II: THE COMING STORM.

In September General Kornilov marched on Petrograd to make himself military dictator of Russia. Behind him was suddenly revealed the mailed fist of the bourgeoisie, boldly attempting to crush the Revolution. Some of the Socialist Ministers were implicated; even Kerensky was under suspicion. (See App. II, Sect. 1) Savinkov, summoned to explain to the Central Committee of his party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, refused and was expelled. Kornilov was arrested by the Soldiers' Committees. Generals were dismissed, Ministers suspended from their functions, and the Cabinet fell.

Kerensky tried to form a new Government, including the Cadets, party of the bourgeoisie. His party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, ordered him to exclude the Cadets. Kerensky declined to obey, and threatened to resign from the Cabinet if the Socialists insisted. However, popular feeling ran so high that for the moment he did not dare oppose it, and a temporary Directorate of Five of the old Ministers, with Kerensky at the head, assumed the power until the question should be settled.

Joseph V. Stalin- The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists (1924)

The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

Source:Problems of Leninism, by J.V. Stalin, 

Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1976, p. 117.

Republished from Marxists Internet Archives.

Three circumstances of an external nature determined the comparative ease with which the proletarian revolution in Russia succeeded in breaking the chains of imperialism and thus overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie.

Firstly, the circumstance that the October Revolution began in a period of desperate struggle between the two principal imperialist groups, the Anglo-French and the Austro-German; at a time when, engaged in mortal struggle between themselves, these two groups had neither the time nor the means to devote serious attention to the struggle against the October Revolution. This circumstance was of tremendous importance for the October Revolution; for it enabled it to take advantage of the fierce conflicts within the imperialist world to strengthen and organize its own forces.

G. Marinos- The Leninist Theory on Imperialism, Guide for the struggle of the Communists

The Leninist Theory on Imperialism, Guide for the struggle of the Communists.

Certain issues related to Lenin's work "Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism" on the occasion of its 100th anniversary this year.

By Giorgos Marinos*.

The complexity of the economic and political developments at an international and national level is borne out on a daily basis and requires a more serious, systematic effort to develop the theoretical work on the part of every communist party and to form a robust infrastructure that will have the capacity to support the independent ideological-political struggle of the communists, the struggle inside the trade unions, inside the labour-people's movement.

A permanent task for communists is the study of the development of the imperialist-capitalist system and its components, the capitalist states, the precise assessment of the position each state has in the imperialist system so that the formation of a revolutionary strategy and tactics is based on the real objective data that highlight that our era is the era of the passage from capitalism to socialism.

V.I.Lenin: "A United States of Europe, under capitalism, is either impossible or reactionary"

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- On the Slogan for a United States of Europe.

Sotsial-Demokrat No. 44, August 23, 1915. Published according to the text in Sotsial-Demokrat. Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [197[4]], Moscow, Volume 21, pages 339-343.

In No. 40 of Sotsial-Demokrat we reported that a conference of our-Party’s groups abroad had decided to defer the question of the “United States of Europe” slogan pending a discussion, in the press, on the economic aspect of the matter.

At our conference the debate on this question assumed a purely political character. Perhaps this was partly caused by the Central Committee’s Manifesto having formulated this slogan as a forthright political one (“the immediatepolitical slogan...”, as it says there); not only did it advance the slogan of a republican United States of Europe, but expressly emphasised that this slogan is meaningless and false “without the revolutionary overthrow of the German, Austrian and Russian monarchies”.