Abstract
In the historical career of Leninism the theory and practice of party organisation proved to be at once its greatest asset and its greatest liability. Its assets were obvious. It set out to establish (and sometimes succeeded in doing so) a disciplined, tightly-structured organisation of dedicated activists utilising front organisations and modern media of communication to mobilise mass action. Its members were to have the satisfaction of knowing that, because of these factors, their political potency was out of all proportion to their actual numbers. Its liabilities were less immediately apparent, but manifested themselves with increasing force as Leninist parties became more mature, and especially where their unchallengeable tenure of state power produced, as it was bound to, internal degeneration.
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Notes and References
See, particularly, Lenin’s last significant writings ‘How We Should Reorganise the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection’ and ‘Better Fewer But Better’, both in CW, 33. For analyses of the significance of these last reflections on the party and state apparatus see M. Lewin, Lenin’s Last Struggle (London, 1969), and 1981, chs. 14 and 15.
K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works, vol 1, p. 46.
Ibid., p. 43.
This was the introductory quotation to Plekhanov’s first and seminal translation of Marx to Russian conditions, published in 1883 as Socialism and the Political Struggle (see G.V. Plekhanov, Selected Philosophical Works, vol. 1, London, 1961, p. 59).
MESW, 1, 43.
See Note 26 to Chapter 1.
L. Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1961), p. 10.
K. Marx and F. Engels, Collected Works, vol. 1, p. 217.
CW, 25, 203–04.
CW, 28, 108.
CW, 10, 79.
CW, 28, 284.
CW, 19, 406.
‘Better Fewer But Better’ was the title of Lenin’s last article, March 1923, CW, 33, 487–502.
CW, 28, 254.
CW, 28, 292–3.
CW, 31, 207–8.
CW, 31, 208.
CW, 31, 210.
CW, 31, loc. cit.
CW, 32, 200.
CW, 32, 252.
CW, 32, 244.
CW, 32, 505.
CW, 32, 488–9.
CW, 32, 21.
CW, 32, 199
CW, 32, 246.
N. Bukharin, Economics, pp. 106–7.
CW, 33, 309.
CW, 32, 492.
N. Bukharin, Economics, pp. 110–11.
Bukharin, ‘K teorii ...’ Lenin initially rejected Bukharin’s analysis of the imperative to destroy the all-embracing Leviathan of state monopoly capitalism, but by late 1916 he had clearly accepted it as the copestone of his strategy.
N. Bukharin, Economics, p. 69.
Ibid., p. 79.
CW, 31, 514. Lenin looked forward to ‘that very happy time when politics recede into the background, when politics will be discussed less often and at shorter length, and engineers and agronomists will do most of the talking’ (pp. 513–14).
CW, 32, 206.
CW, 32, 99.
J. V. Stalin, Works 13 vols (Moscow, 1953) vol. 6, pp. 47–8.
CW, 33, 496.
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© 1996 Neil Harding
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Harding, N. (1996). Party, Class and Consciousness. In: Leninism. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24775-2_8
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