Marxism and Insurrection
Letter to the Central Committee of the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Russia (Bolshevik)
(Written during the Democratic Conference)
ONE of the worst ways of distorting Marxism, and one of those most frequently used to that effect by the leading "Socialist" parties is to represent by methods of opportunist logic preparation for insurrection, and the consideration of insurrection as an art[1] as "Blanquism" pure and simple.
The high priest of opportunism, Bernstein, has already acquired a shameful notoriety by accusing Marx of Blanquism, and no extant opportunist who shrieks "Blanquism!" refreshes or enriches his meagre ideas in any way.
Accuse the Marxists of Blanquism because they consider insurrection an art Can truth be more disgustingly distorted since in calling insurrection an "art" Marx explains himself in the most precise and categoric manner on this question, he declares that one must win an initial victory and then go from success to success without interrupting for an instant the offensive against the enemy, by profiting from his disorder.
In order to be entirely victorious, insurrection must not depend on a conspiracy, or on a party but on a revolutionary class. That is the first point. Insurrection must depend on the revolutionary pressure of all the people. That is the second point. Insurrection must break out at the apogee of the rising revolution, that is at the moment when the activity of the vanguard of the people is greatest, when fluctuations among the enemy and among the weak and indecisive friends of the revolution are strongest. That is the third point. It is in bringing these three conditions to the consideration of the question of insurrection that Marxism differs from Blanquism.
But from the moment that these conditions arise, it would be a betrayal of Marxism and the revolution to refuse to consider insurrection as an art. In order to show that the present moment is exactly the one when, by the whole course of events, the party is obliged to recognise that insurrection is the order of the day,
- ↑ Lenin alludes throughout this letter to a passage in "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany" which is dealt with in detail in the preface to his pamphlet "Will the Bolsheviks Maintain Power?"
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