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Soviet Union [USSR] Theoretical Underpinnings
Lenin's ideas about the proletarian revolutionary party
differed from the ideas of Marx. According to Marx, the working
class, merely by following its own instincts, would gain rational
insight into its plight as the downtrodden product of capitalism.
Based on that insight, Marx held, the workers would bring about a
revolution leading to their control over the means of production.
Further, Marx predicted that the seizure by the proletariat of the
means of production (land and factories) would lead to a tremendous
increase in productive forces. Freedom from want, said Marx, would
liberate men's minds. This liberation would usher in a cultural
revolution and the formation of a new personality with unlimited
creative possibilities.
As he surveyed the European milieu in the late 1890s, Lenin
found several problems with the Marxism of his day. Contrary to
what Marx had predicted, capitalism had strengthened itself over
the last third of the nineteenth century. The working class in
western Europe had not become impoverished; rather, its prosperity
had risen. Hence, the workers and their unions, although continuing
to press for better wages and working conditions, failed to develop
the revolutionary class consciousness that Marx had expected. Lenin
also argued that the division of labor in capitalist society
prevented the emergence of proletarian class consciousness. Lenin
wrote that because workers had to labor ten or twelve hours each
workday in a factory, they had no time to learn the complexities of
Marxist theory. Finally, in trying to effect revolution in
autocratic Russia, Lenin also faced the problem of a regime that
had outlawed almost all political activities. Although the
autocracy could not enforce a ban on political ideas, until 1905--
when the tsar agreed to the formation of a national
duma (see Glossary)--the tsarist police suppressed all groups seeking
political change, including those with a democratic program.
Based on his observations, Lenin shifted the engine of
proletarian revolution from the working class to a tightly knit
party of intellectuals. Lenin wrote in What Is to Be Done
(1902) that the "history of all countries bears out the fact that
through their own powers alone, the working class can develop only
a trade-union consciousness." That is, history had demonstrated
that the working class could engage in local, spontaneous
rebellions to improve its position within the capitalist system but
that it lacked the understanding of its interests necessary to
overthrow that system. Pessimistic about the proletariat's ability
to acquire class consciousness, Lenin argued that the bearers of
this consciousness were déclassé intellectuals who made it their
vocation to conspire against the capitalist system and prepare for
the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin also held that because
Marx's thought was set forth in a sophisticated body of
philosophical, economic, and social analysis, a high level of
intellectual training was required to comprehend it. Hence, for
Lenin, those who would bring about the revolution must devote all
their energies and resources to understanding the range of Marx's
thought. They must be professional activists having no other duties
that might interfere with their efforts to promote revolution.
Lenin's final alteration of Marx's thought arose in the course
of his adaptation of Marxist ideology to the conditions of Russia's
autocracy. Like other political organizations seeking change in
Russia, Lenin's organization had to use conspiratorial methods and
operate underground. Lenin argued for the necessity of confining
membership in his organization to those who were professionally
trained in the art of combating the secret police.
The ethos of Lenin's political thought was to subject first the
party, then the working class, and finally the people to the
politically conscious revolutionaries. Only actions informed by
consciousness could promote revolution and the construction of
socialism and communism in Russia.
The CPSU continues to regard itself as the institutionalization
of Marxist-Leninist consciousness in the Soviet Union, and therein
lies the justification for the controls it exercises over Soviet
society. Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution refers to the
party as the "leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the
nucleus of its political system, of all state organizations and
public organizations." The party, precisely because it is the
bearer of Marxist-Leninist ideology, determines the general
development of society, directs domestic and foreign policy, and
"imparts a planned, systematic, and theoretically substantiated
character" to the struggle of the Soviet people for the victory of
communism.
Data as of May 1989
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