THE IMPORTANCE OF IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL STRUGGLE IN BUILDING REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

The Importance of Ideological and Political struggle in building Revolutionary Movement.

Com. Subodh Mitra

We are here to celebrate the Great October Socialist Revolution. Hundred years ago in 1917 under the leadership of Bolshevik Party led by Comrade Lenin the people seized the power overthrowing the tsarist regime. The Bolshevik Party, Com. Lenin and the entire Central Committee had to encounter the external and internal conspiracies inside and outside the party before and after the revolution. So it was a very hard and long drawn struggle. As you know that Lenin started his carrier as a professional revolutionary as a Marxist just at the age of twenty years. And he actually not died. He was a victim of bullet injury. He finally died in the year 1924 at the age of 55 years only. So his life pan was shortened. A man of 55 years old had created a new hope for theentire working class of the world. While preparing for the revolution just before the First World War Lenin had told that there can be no revolution without a revolutionary party. So in his work, he had given a very strong importance to the building of a revolutionary party. The Bolshevik party was a product of the struggle for the party. The Bolshevik party was formed in 1912. In Russia, the struggle had to be waged against Narodism, revisionism, Trotskyism and socialist revolutionaries – all kinds of people who were actually the direct agents of imperialism.

Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 with the aim of developing the Communist Movement at the international level. In 1864, the Communist International was formed as a platform of working class movement. But even then Marx had to fight against the enemies within. In the Communist International, there were people who took the name of Marx every day. Bakunin used to tell that Marx was more than his father to him. But the same man said he hated the Jews. Marx happened to be a Jew. So Bakunin’s struggle was to destroy Jews, ie., Marx and Engels. And he conspired. He had taken money from the imperialist powers. He purchased many workers in the head quarters and finally the First International had collapsed. In 1871, there was the Paris Commune. The workers held power for 71 days. This was the first time the workers had successfully seized the power. But because of inexperience, the absence of a Communist Party and strong revolutionary leadership it failed. After the collapse of the First International, the Second International came into being under the leadership of Engels. But this Second International, in the period of First World War during 1914-19, the line of peaceful transformation of society was brought to the fore under the leadership of Karl Kautsky. He said Marxism cannot be implemented; Marxism needs to be changed in view of the changed international situation. He said that the balance of powers had changed between the workers and imperialist powers. So there is no question of revolutionary change; the revolution can be brought and completed by peaceful means. This was the line when the First World War had begun in 1914. This was called Kautskyism. It influenced the German Communist party and the parties in various other countries, including Russia.

So Lenin was of the view that the revolution was not possible without waging the struggle against the revisionist ideas called Kautskyism. He had seen that Marx had said in the last para of the Communist Manifesto that the “Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims” and their aims can be achieved only through a forcible overthrow of the existing order. No revolutionary change is possible in the society without the destruction of the existing order. Lenin had taken the lessons from the experiences of Paris Commune, 1905 Russian revolution and the February Revolution of Russia (1914). He wrote three important works, like “The Lessons of Revolution”; “Fundamental Questions of Revolution” and “Renegade Kautsky and Proletarian Revolution.” He had exposed Kautsky and called him a ‘social-imperialist.’ He said, Kautsky had actually betrayed the working class, acts as a reactionary and revisionist agent of imperialism. In these three ideological works Lenin had categorically said that without armed overthrow, without a party which is steeled, strong and capable to lead the working class and also without foiling this kind of conspiracy internally the revolution cannot be achieved. He also called for an ideological struggle

against various ideas alien to Marxism. So, naturally, the revolution had advanced with this kind of struggle. In 1917 Lenin was in exile. Stalin was arrested. After the 1917 February Revolution, Lenin arrived Petrograd. Stalin came to know of this. He escaped from the custody while he was being taken by the tsarist army for the purpose of forcing him to serve in the army. He walked on foot in the severe cold atmosphere and reached Moscow. He met Lenin in Petrograd. This was the time when the revolutionary peoples’ movement was growing into a mighty upsurge. Lenin gave the party the April Thesis which said that the time has matured for the seizure of power by the proletariat and for the socialist revolution. It said that the Bolsheviks can and must seize power. Then, what about Trotsky? He was the editor of a paper. Just before three months of the seizure of power he came to Moscow, contacted Lenin and joined the Bolshevik party. Perhaps, Lenin thought that he may be helpful for revolution. But Trotsky took it as an opportunity. He became a Minister. But Trotsky continued to work against Lenin even after joining the Bolshevik party. His line was, the revolution and socialism are not possible in a single Country. He advocated a ‘world

revolution.’ In spite of this, he was given the membership of the Bolshevik Party and also an important position in the Central Committee. However, the Bolshevik blueprint of revolution was leaked by Trotsky and Zinoviev. These two were the important members of the Central Committee. It was leaked to the enemies. Lenin and Stalin could expose comrades and were able to lead the proletariat to seize power. Once the power was seized, the question before the Bolsheviks was how to sustain it. First World War was going on at the time for a division of loot and territories among the imperialist powers. Russia was encircled by the German forces. And also in Siberia and other parts of Russia there were forces of the so called allied (imperialist) powers which were opposing Germany. The American, British and other imperialist powers thought that the Soviet power cannot survive for long. They thought that the Bolshevik party is too weak and therefore cannot sustain power. They hatched the conspiracies. They have sent a British agent to Moscow to carry out the conspiracy to liquidate the Bolshevik leaders. And in 1918, Sidney Ralle got the report that on 21 st August, 1918 the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party was going to meet in Moscow in a theater house. He reported that he had purchased a security chief Wendie by paying him 50,000 rubles as an advance. This security chief of the central Committee was supposed to guard and provide the security to the Central Committee. But, unexpectedly,the Central Committee meeting was deferred to September 8 th . On Sept, 7 th, when Lenin was coming out of a factory after giving a lecture, he was shot by a British agent. The upper portion of Lenin’s lungs was damaged. He was immediately rushed to the hospital. The conspiracy was to arrest all the Central Committee members together with Lenin, take them along the street and shoot all of them down in the open day light. This conspiracy was foiled because of the vigilance of Red guards, vigilance of Stalin all

the conspirators were arrested. Somehow Ralle could escape from Moscow. But, as Lenin was shot one day before the Central Committee meeting, naturally, his health went on deteriorating. It was really sad even though he lived for three more years and played an active role. Before this shooting incident, the Germans were controlling some Russian territories. So the peace talks were to be held between Russia and Germany. At that time, Trotsky was the Foreign Secretary. He was sent to peace talks to sign the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. The Central Committee and Lenin gave specific instructions to Trotsky. But Trotsky had shown no interest in it. He violated all the instructions and as a result the treaty could not be signed. Germany attacked the Russian territory in three fronts. As a result, the Petrograd and Moscow were on the verge of collapse. The Red Guards and the armed workers and peasants actually stopped the German forces from annexing the territories. Another team was sent to Brest-Litovsk to negotiate and sign the peace treaty. Trotsky was excluded from the team. A treaty was signed at the cost of losing some territories. Trotsky hoped and believed that the Bolsheviks cannot sustain, but collapse. He hatched conspiracies but failed.

After a long time in 1957, Khrushchev raked up the question whether Stalin’s leadership had Lenin’s approval knowing well that Stalin was elected as the General Secretary of the Party right in the presence of Lenin and Lenin was clear in his evaluation of Stalin as well as in his choice of Stalin as the General Secretary of the Party. Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and others sought to make use of a small incident where Stalin was said to have behaved rudely to sow misunderstanding and blow it into a rift between Lenin and Stalin. But they miserably failed. Stalin was very much annoyed by these attempts. He made an open apology. He submitted his resignation before the Party Plenum. But the Plenum had unanimously decided Stalin to continue as the General Secretary of the Party. Trotsky and his group too accepted it. Again, in the Party too Stalin had placed his resignation letter. The entire Congress including Trotsky had rejected his resignation letter and asked him to continue as the General Secretary. Then Stalin wrote, ‘yes Comrades, I am rude. I am rude to those who try to turn the wheel of history back. Sorry, I cannot be polite. This is my task.’ Trotsky never stopped his conspiracies. Even after Lenin’s death, he wrote several things. The discussion on the questions of building socialism, industrialization of Russia was very much needed. The Five Years Plan was prepared by Stalin and successfully implemented. Socialism was advancing, new industries and new working class were coming up as a result. But, on the other side, the

conspiracies continued. Trotsky and followers formed themselves into a group called ‘Fifth Column’ consisting of 500 people and three layers of leadership. One would be headed by Trotsky himself. It was the first group. The second group of leadership was in the hands of Bukharin as he was the Minister. He was able to contact the people if the first group was exposed. The third group was under the leadership of Kamenev. This conspiracy went on. The Bolshevik party and Stalin were vigilant against this conspiracy. Stalin gave more responsibilities to these conspirators so that they can get exposed. Finally in 1929, these conspirators decided to kill Stalin as the only way to kill best of the Bolsheviks. Com. Stalin, Com. Kaganovich, Com. Molotov, Com.kinov, Com. Maxim Gorky, and other Comrades were in the top of the list of 42 people they wanted to kill. This is history. Now it is known to every- body. They could kill many of them.

In 1935, when Kirov was coming out from a political meeting, he was shot dead. The culprit was caught and the whole conspiracy was exposed. First, Trotsky was sent to Siberia. The Bolshevik Party gave him money and everything to live Siberia. But in Siberia too he continued his conspiracy. Driven out from Siberia, he first came to Turkey’s Constantinople. He went there on the plea of leading a world revolution. But his main objective was to destroy Socialist Russia and give a new turn to the world proletariat. Turkey’s Communist Party led a huge struggle against the govt. there to get Trotsky a shelter. The imperialist powers too were pressing the Turkish govt. for it. So he was sent to Constantinople, an island, to provide him a shelter. From there he continued his activities. Please let me be brief. Maxim Gorky was killed. His son was killed in 1936. Best Bolsheviks were killed. But Stalin’s leadership had succeeded in exposing the conspiracies and finally there was a Moscow trail. All the hard core revisionist leaders like Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov, Tomsky, and Bukharin accepted their crimes. They confessed and finally punished. This was the history. An unparalleled incident in open camera and all the international representatives were sitting. In the open camera and Supreme Court had the hearing and gave its verdict and many convicted persons were shot dead. The first phase of Moscow trail the conspiracy was exposed. Then came the Second World War. As we all know, under the leadership of Stalin the struggle against Fascism became victorious. The whole world was saved. It was the struggle led by Stalin that defeated fascism headed by Hitler and protected socialism and led to its advance. And thirty years under his leadership the socialism advanced winning many victories.

So, Comrades! To conclude from the Great Russian October Socialist Revolution, the imperialists are the enemies of Socialism and Marxism. The imperialists always try to wage wars, hatch conspiracies against the proletariat, against the socialist ideas, against the proletarian ideology. So we have to wage the ideological struggle. We must be vigilant. We have to build and develop the

Communist Party, taking lessons from the Russian revolution, Lenin’s concept of the Party and the way he had developed the Bolshevik Party.

 Today we have to develop such a party and wage struggle, concrete struggle. Today, as you know, the ruling classes are very active. The Soviet Union had collapsed because of the betrayers. Today we are living in a very crisis ridden situation. So, taking lessons from the Russian revolution, remembering Lenin’s struggle, remembering the victorious socialist revolution in 1917 we have to pledge to go ahead, to march ahead and protect Marxism-Leninism.

Inquilab Zindabad

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