Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony

Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony

Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen (Paris) Steve Edwards (London) Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam) Peter Thomas (London) VOLUME 72 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm

Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony Political Practice and Theory in the Class Struggle By Alan Shandro LEIDEN BOSTON

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shandro, Alan. Lenin and the logic of hegemony : political practice and theory in the class struggle / by Alan Shandro. pages cm. (Historical materialism book series, ISSN 1570 1522 ; volume 72) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-27105-0 (hardback : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-90-04-27106-7 (e-book) 1. Lenin, Vladimir Ilich, 1870 1924 Political and social views. 2. Hegemony Philosophy. 3. Social conflict Philosophy. 4. Socialism Soviet Union History. 5. Political participation Soviet Union History. 6. Soviet Union Politics and government 1917 1936. I. Title. DK254.L46S543 2014 947.0841092 dc23 2014009859 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual Brill typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1570-1522 isbn 978-90-04-27105-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-27106-7 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

In memory of Charles Nunn

Contents Acknowledgements x 1 A Philosophical Fact: Hegemony in the Class Struggle 1 Gramscian Hegemony and Lenin 3 The Post-Marxist Deconstruction of Hegemony 10 Lenin as Symbol 17 Hegemony in the Philosophy of Lenin s Politics 22 The Thread of the Argument 24 2 On the Relation of Theory and Practice: Karl Kautsky and the First Post-Marxist 32 Orthodoxy and Apostasy 33 Critical Marxism and Orthodoxy 37 The Agrarian Prelude 44 The First Post-Marxist 47 The Rejoinder 53 Theory and Consciousness 59 History 62 Science 64 Workers and Intellectuals 66 Politics and Epistemology 69 Practice and Theory 72 Political Will and the Party 75 Theory in a Community of Struggle 77 3 Situating Marxism in Russia: Ambiguous Coordinates 80 Karl Marx and the Russian Commune 81 Georgii Plekhanov and the Transformation of Russian Society 87 Forces of Revolution and the Problem of Hegemony 92 Intellectuals, Consciousness and Hegemony 95 Lenin and Marxist Orthodoxy 100 Class Struggle in the Democratic Revolution 103 Hegemony as Socialist Consciousness 108 4 Marxism, Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony: Spontaneity and Consciousness in the Class Struggle 115 Conventional Wisdom 116 Historical Questions 124

viii contents Political Questions 128 An Irreconcilable Antagonism... to the Whole 131 A Logic of Political Struggle 135 A Strategic Analysis 138 Some Implications 144 5 Dogmatism and Criticism: Freedom in the Class Struggle 149 The Argument About Freedom 150 The Argument About Theory 156 6 Two Orientations to Hegemony: Mensheviks and Bolsheviks 164 The Iskra Consensus and its Limits 167 The Congress and the Split 173 Menshevism and Hegemony 180 Rosa Luxemburg s Critique 185 Lenin and the Logic of Factional Struggle 187 Two Orientations to Hegemony 193 From Orientation to Revolution 197 7 The Mechanics of Proletarian Hegemony: Solidarity in the Class Struggle 201 An Alliance of Workers and Peasants 207 Class Alliance in Theory and Practice 213 Proletarian Hegemony and Historical Materialism 217 Proletarian Hegemony and Peasant Ideology 220 Permanent Revolution 225 The Advent of the Soviets 233 Lenin s Intervention 237 The Spontaneous Movement and Hegemony 240 Theory and Practice in the Struggle for Hegemony 246 8 Imperialism and the Logic of Hegemony: The People in the Class Struggle 250 The War and the Split in Socialism 250 A Hegelian Epiphany? 252 Kautskyism and the Highest Stage of Capitalism 257 Parasitism and Social Decay 263 Imperialist Economism 267 The State and the Logic of Revolution 272 The Logic of Revolution and Hegemony 279 A People s Revolution 285

contents ix 9 The Arm of Criticism and the Criticism of Arms: Courage in the Class Struggle 289 Class Struggle and the Rule of Law 291 Class Power and Political Form 297 Class Struggle and Political Community 301 Community and Class Consciousness 307 Class Consciousness and Courage 311 10 A Modern Prince to Discourses of Resistance... and Back? 315 From Empire to Commonwealth? 317 The Modern Prince and the Discourses 322 Prince and People 326 Appendices 1 Karl Kautsky, The Revision of the Austrian Social Democratic Programme 330 2 Text and Context in the Argument of Lenin s What Is to Be Done? 346 3 Lenin as a Reader of What Is to Be Done? 359 Bibliography 363 Index 381

Acknowledgements For encouragement and/or for insight, for suggestions and/or for criticism, for solidarity and/or for resistance, for an opinion or for an example, written or lived, thanks are due to Ed Andrew, to Etienne Balibar, to Clive Bass, to Julie Bass, to Frances Bernstein, to Robert Boarts, to Tibby Brooks, to Jenny Clegg, to Jim Gardiner, to Norman Geras, to Danny Goldstick, to John Herman, to Pepita Herrandiz, to John Paul Himka, to Paul Kelemen, to Kim Krawchenko, to David Laibman, to Robert Linhart, to Ralph Marion, to Dave Mather, to Yassamine Mather, to David McLellan, to Alain Noël, to Charles Nunn, to Tom Pocklington, to James Rees, to Chris Roberts, to Maggie Scammell, to Sukumar, to Geoff Waite, to Michelle Weber, to Kirsty Wright and to the editors of Science & Society. Thanks are due to John Paul Himka for assistance with translation from the German; thanks are due to Craig Brandist, to Aurélie Lacassagne and to Lars Lih for advice on translations from the Russian and to Craig Brandist for advice on transliteration from the Cyrillic. The comments of two anonymous readers were helpful in identifying ellipses in the line of thought and ambiguities in the text; a conversation and subsequent correspondence with Peter Thomas shed some timely light on how the argument might be more effectively framed; Sarah Grey provided insightful advice, probably too little heeded, as to how the argument might be more clearly and accessibly stated. Thanks to them and thanks to Sébastien Budgen who invited me to consider publishing the project. I would like to think that the book also owes something to two philosophers whose ways of thinking I have pondered over and tried to ponder with, Louis Althusser and Alasdair MacIntyre. The book was written alongside Daryl Shandro, who helped me think through the argument. Thanks to her and thanks to Sarah, to Craig, to Stephen, to Anna Lisa and to Ella who taught me much about how to take the measure of it. Alan Shandro August 2013 Havre-aux-Maisons, Québec