Marxism and the Leninist Revolutionary Model

Transcription

1 Marxism and the Leninist Revolutionary Model

2 This page intentionally left blank

3 Marxism and the Leninist Revolutionary Model William J. Davidshofer

4 marxism and the leninist revolutionary model Copyright William J. Davidshofer, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September

5 This work is dedicated to my wife, Claire, and three children, Kristine, Erik, and Claudine, who encouraged me throughout my writing

6 This page intentionally left blank

7 Contents Preface Acknowledgments ix xi 1 Foundations of Marx s Thought 1 2 Marx: Historical Materialism and Economics 27 3 Marx: The Revolutionary Movement and State 47 4 Lenin: The Revolutionary Party and Movement 73 5 Lenin: Imperialism and National Self-determination The April Theses and The State and Revolution Soviet Rule under Lenin 149 Epilogue Marxist and Leninist Revolutionary Theory Compared 177 Index 189

8 This page intentionally left blank

9 Preface The theme and format of this work stem from some forty years of teaching a course on Marxism and Leninism in the Russian and East European Studies Program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. My students found an understanding of the philosophical, economic, and political foundations of Marxist and Leninist thought to be instrumental to gaining a thoroughgoing grasp of nineteenth- and twentiethcentury political history. They repeatedly stated that they found my class notes and handouts their most important tools in setting forth a comparative study of Marxist and Leninist thought in understandable layman s language. It was on this basis that I decided that when time allowed I would compile the various themes of my class notes and handouts in a very readable work for the general public. After my retirement from teaching at the University of Maine at Presque and my move to Durham, North Carolina, where I now teach in the OLLI Program under Duke University, I went forward with the necessary time and resources for the writing of this work. As the reader will note in the table of contents, my work is divided into two parts, setting forth the fundamentals of Marxist thought and Leninist thought. Each part is divided into parallel chapters of specific topics, treating the entire corpus of Marxist and Leninist thought dealing with their revolutionary doctrines. A discourse continues to this very day on how closely Leninist revolutionary thought follows that of Marx. This study argues that, despite a more thoroughgoing Marxist emphasis on historical materialism, there is a common underlying emphasis on political voluntarism in both Marxist and Leninist revolutionary theory in treating the vanguard role of the Community Party, in both its revolutionary leadership of the socialist movement and its cadre political rule in the revolutionary socialist state, because of the Communist Party grasp of intellectual revolutionary theory. In an epilogue I summarize what I identify as the concordance and distinction

10 x l Preface in Marxist and Leninist thought carried out throughout the body of my study. All citations from Marx and Lenin are from their Collected Works, published by Progress Publishers in the then Soviet Union. Those from Marx were published by International Publishers, an American subsidiary of Progress Publishers. Therefore, I have cited the publisher of the works of Marx as International Publishers. The Collected Works of Lenin were published directly by Progress Publishers in Moscow and are so cited. Most of the various volumes of the Collected Works of Marx have different publication dates and they are individually noted. Most of the volumes of the Collected Works of Lenin have the same date, but several have different dates, therefore the publication dates of all of the Collected Works of Lenin are also individually noted. All italics, spellings, and punctuations of the quotes of Marx and Lenin are cited from the British translation. In reference to Russian names and terms I have used the Library of Congress transliteration system of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. In citing dates when the Russian Julian Calendar was still in use until July of 1918, and which until then was thirteen days behind the Gregorian Calendar, I have cited first the Russian dates and then in parentheses the corresponding Gregorian Calendar dates. Such dual citations were precluded when Soviet Russia adopted the Gregorian Calendar in July of 1918.

11 Acknowledgments I am very grateful to several of my graduate professors at the University of Notre Dame, especially Doctor George Brinkley and Doctor Nicholas Lobkowicz, from whom I received such an excellent grounding in the foundations of Marxist and Leninist theory. I also am very appreciative of the access to the library holdings of Duke University and the expert assistance of the Duke University library staff. Both are among the finest in the country. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my wife, Claire, for her tireless and insightful work in editing the final writing of the manuscript. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to the entire publishing staff of Palgrave Macmillan, whose decision to publish my manuscript and gracious assistance were instrumental in the realization of this work. William J. Davidshofer, PhD Professor Emeritus, University of Maine at Presque Isle and OLLI Instructor under Duke University