The Rise of Communism in Russia

The Rise of Communism in Russia

Ð"'Unless we accept the claim that LeninÐ"*s coup gave birth

to an entirely new state, and indeed to a new era in the history of

mankind, we must recognize in todayÐ"*s Soviet Union the old empire of the

Russians -- the only empire that survived into the mid 1980Ð"*sÐ"" (Luttwak,

1).

In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich

Engels applied the term communism to a final stage of socialism in which

all class differences would disappear and humankind would live in

harmony. Marx and Engels claimed to have discovered a scientific

approach to socialism based on the laws of history. They declared that

the course of history was determined by the clash of opposing forces

rooted in the economic system and the ownership of property. Just as

the feudal system had given way to capitalism, so in time capitalism

would give way to socialism. The class struggle of the future would be

between the bourgeoisie, who were the capitalist employers, and the

proletariat, who were the workers. The struggle would end, according to

Marx, in the socialist revolution and the attainment of full communism

(GroilerÐ"*s Encyclopedia).

Socialism, of which Ð"'Marxism-LeninismÐ"" is a takeoff, originated

in the West. Designed in France and Germany, it was brought into Russia

in the middle of the nineteenth century and promptly attracted support

among the countryÐ"*s educated, public-minded elite, who at that time were

called intelligentsia (Pipes, 21). After Revolution broke out over

Europe in 1848 the modern working class appeared on the scene as a major

historical force. However, Russia remained out of the changes that

Europe was experiencing. As a socialist movement and inclination, the

Russian Social-Democratic Party continued the traditions of all the

Russian Revolutions of the past, with the goal of conquering political

freedom (Daniels 7).

As early as 1894, when he was twenty-four, Lenin had become a

revolutionary agitator and a convinced Marxist. He exhibited his new

faith and his polemical talents in a diatribe of that year against the

peasant-oriented socialism of the Populists led by N.K. Mikhiaiovsky

(Wren, 3).

While Marxism had been winning adherents among the Russian

revolutionary intelligentsia for more than a decade previously, a

claimed Marxist party was bit organized until 1898. In that year a

Ð"'congressÐ"" of nine men met at Minsk to proclaim the establishment of the

Russian Social Democratic WorkerÐ"*s Party. The Manifesto issued in the

name of the congress after the police broke it up was drawn up by the

economist Peter Struve, a member of the moderate Ð"'legal MarxistÐ"" group

who soon afterward left the Marxist movement altogether. The manifesto

is indicative of the way Marxism was applied to Russian conditions, and

of the special role for the proletariat (Pipes, 11).

The first true congress of the Russian Social Democratic

WorkersÐ"* Party was the Second. It convened in Brussels in the summer of

1903, but was forced by the interference of the Belgian authorities to

move to London, where the proceedings were concluded. The Second

Congress was the occasion for bitter wrangling among the representatives

of various Russian Marxist Factions, and ended in a deep split that was

mainly caused by Lenin -- his personality, his drive for power in the

movement, and his Ð"'hardÐ"" philosophy of the disciplined party

organization. At the close of the congress Lenin commanded a temporary

majority for his faction and seized upon the label Ð"'BolshevikÐ"" (Russian

for Majority), while his opponents who inclined to the Ð"'softÐ"" or more

democratic position became known as the Ð"'MensheviksÐ"" or minority

(Daniels, 19).

Though born only in 1879, Trotsky had gained a leading place

among the Russian Social-Democrats by the time of the Second party

Congress in 1903. He represented ultra-radical sentiment that could not

reconcile itself to LeninÐ"*s stress on the party organization. Trotsky

stayed with the Menshevik faction until he joined Lenin in 1917. From

that point on, he acomidated himself in large measure to LeninÐ"*s

philosophy of party dictatorship, but his reservations came to the

surface