THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARX

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 39
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 12, 1997
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARX
AN OUTLINE OF COMMUNIST THEORY
88
Approved For R~PI 8-00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re
Neither the current tactics nor the strategic goal of the Communist
parties of the world - and of the Soviet Union - can be adequately
understood without some knowledge of the basic "philosophy" or theory
of the century-old revolutionary Marxist movement. The publication of
the Communi,_?st Manifesto exactly one hundred years ago (January, 184)
initiated the era of "scientific" socialism, socialism professedly
based not upon a sentimental attachment to the vision of a humanitarian
future nor upon a program of "social reforms" within the structure of
capitalist society, but upon a series of "scientific" analyses of the
dynamics of capitalist society and a "proof" of its inevitable collapse,
accompanied by a vague program of the post-capitalist development of a
socialist society. The joint authors of the Manifesto, Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, gave the movement its revolutionary Bible in a series
of several major and countless minor writings which have been drawn
upon, in one fashion or another, by almost all socialist movements of
the past seventy-five years. During the early years of this century
Marx'q theories and program were expounded and amended by Lenin, the
leader of the revolutionary (or Bolshevik) wing of the Russian Social
Democratic Party, and with the successful assumption of power by this
Party faction in the October Revolution of 1917, the basic writings of
Lenin were added to the canon, and Marxism-Leninism became the revolutionary
theory of the twentieth-century Communist movement. A few additions
and some rigid reformulations of basic concepts by Stalin completed
the theory of Marxism-Loninism_Stalinism, which today gives to the
Communist movement its world view, its guide to action, and its ultimate
goal.
Origins-2f.-Socialism and Communism
Socialism, in its special sense of a movement aiming at the
collective organization of the community in the interests of all
its members by means of the common ownorshh and collective control
of the means of production and exchanne, developed in the early 19th
century as a result of the combined effect of the developing factory
system produced by the Industrial Revolution and the ideas of Liberty,
Equality, and. Fraternity engendered by the French Revolution of 1789-94.
00915R000100080002-0
T 1 -
Approved For -00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For R -00915R000100080002-0
The first socialists wore the so-called utopian socialists (Robert Owen
in England,. Fourier, St. Simon, Proudhon in France) who advanced
various prescriptions for the cooperative control of industry (villages
of cooperation, national workshops, communal estates) which wore
designed to eliminate the poverty and unemployment of capitalist society
and to achieve a society in which all men (and women) would have the
opportunity to develop their faculties to the utmost degree, The
words "socialism" and "socialist" were first employed in English about
1830 to describe these idealistic reformers,.
Utopian socialism held first place in the "radical!' or reformist
movements of western Europe up to the 1840's, when Marx and Engels
began preaching their anti-utopian, "scientific" socialism. Marx
derided the utopians as sentimental dreamers for believing that the
"natural laws" of socialism simply had to be expounded to the propertied
classes to be adopted and that no struggle would be required to achieve
socialist society. Marx's "sciontific proof" of the inevitable collapse
of the capitalist system of private property, his insistent preaching
of the necessity for revolutionary action to break the power of the
ruling class, and his gradual success in gaining the acceptance of
his theories by working-class groups and parties in the fifties and
sixties spelled the end of utopian socialism as a political force,
and "Marxism" has become an integral part of the workers' political
and economic movement.
After the liquidation of the European revolutionary movements of
1848, and the subsequent political reaction, socialism of any sort
survived only as the creed of isolated sects until the organization
in 1864 of the International Working Men's Association (The First
International) under the tutelage and theoretical direction of Marx
and the succeeding development of increasingly strong national workers'
parties in the countries of Europe: the Social Democratic Labor Party
of Germany (1875), the French Socialist Party and, after its failure
in the Paris Commune of 1871, the Parti Ouvrior (1875-6), the illegal
Russian Social Democratic Party (1898), etc. The movements out of
which these parties grow wore more often called "Communist" in their
Mal i
Approved For Rele
'1,0915R000100080002-0
 early stagAppawNedeFe'rR E0899# ooe-10Dfl$eH 2-0
period be considered broadly synonomous.
The Marxist socialist movement gradually developed, about the
turn of the century, a basic split in the method to be followed in
achieving socialist society. The revolutionary tactics clearly advocated
by Marx were substantially "revised" or modified, particularly in the
British and German parties (revisionism, reformism), and peaceful
parliamentary methods of legal and constitutional reform were advocated
by most of the "Social-Democratic" and "Labor" parties of the Marxist
persuasion, with "revolutionary" groups generally in the minority. The
historicail;y Lost si~nificdnf .split ..ciecurred in the Russian SocialDeno-
cratic Party in 1903. The M~nshevilc ("iniriority") faction advocated collabo-
ration with diddle-class parties in establisliing?a constitutional republic
as a step to socialism, while the Bolshevik ("majority") faction under
Lenin stood. for a revolutionary transformation of Tsarist Russia to be
carried out by the "dictatorship of the proletariatl"' Both groups
quoted Marx. -- the Mensheviks in accordance with the revised practices
of the West European social democrats, and the Bolsheviks adhering to
the revolutionary ideas of the Communist Manifesto of 184 and the
various pronouncements of the International Working Men's Association,
The first (March) Russian Revolution of 1917, carried through
with the collaboration of Monshoviks, Social Revolutionaries and
middle-class Liberals, commanded the universal support of Socialists
in all countries. The second (October) Revolution, by which the
Bolsheviks, aided by a section of the Social Revolutionaries, seized
power and proclaimed the "dictatorship of the proletariat", sharply
divided European Socialism. The division was accentuated when the
Bolsheviks, having established themselves in power, proclaimed themselves
the Communist Party, established a now (Third) Communist International
in opposition to the Social Democratic Second International, and sot
out to foster a world revolution on principles which they professed to
derive directly from Marx's writings, and especially from the Communist
Manifesto of 1848, The new Soviet Communist leaders then denounced the
Social Democrats as "social traitors", guilty of the sin of repudiating
Approved For R LI 14111h" -00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For R 00915R000100080002-0
Marxism and collaborating with the bourgeoisie for the maintenance
of capitalism; and the Social Democrats retorted by attacking the
Communists as tyrants who had crushed out liberty and democracy in
Russia, and had imposed their will by force on the mass of the common
people.
European socialism as a whole was split by this conflict, with
significant minorities, fractions, and groups breaking out of the old
Socialist and Social-Democratic parties and forming new Communist
Parties adhering to the Third International. The sharp divisions
in the socialist movement helped prepare the way for fascism in Italy
and Gernny, and both Socialist and Communist parties found themselves
hard-pressed by authoritarian governments of central and eastern
Europe. The existence of a common enemy helped somewhat to produce
local and temporary accommodation and collaboration, but even the war-
time resistance effort failed to affect the basic hostility of the two
warring carps. The tentative post-war sparring between the two carps
in 1945-7 was abruptly terr.inated with the restatement, in the recent
Nine-Party Cominform declaration, of the basic hostility of the revo-
lutionary to the "democratic" Marxists.
stance of Theory in the Communist Movenont
Marxist theory is not simply a collection of political beliefs and
economic dogmas, but a complete social philosophy which not only purports
to explain al,l aspects of human society but also dictates what action
must be taken to assist history in achieving the "inevitable" goal of n
socialist society. Marxist theory is therefore "not a dogma, but a
guide to action", and the inseparability of theory and action has been
heavily stressed by Marx, Lenin, and Stalin.
"Theory becomes a material force as soon as it has captured
the masses." (Lenin)
"Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary
movement." (Lenin)
"Thoory...alone can give to the movement confidence, guidance,
strength and understanding of the inner relations between
events; it alone can help practice to clarify the process
and direction of class movements in the present and near
future." (Stalin)
-4-
Approved For Re~-00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rel 0915R000100080002-0
Since theory determines the correct strategy and tactics of the prole-
tarian movement, a major responsibility of the Communist Party is to
preserve the correct theory and apply it accurately to the strategy
and tactics of the revolutionary movement, testing it always in the
crucible of revolutionary activity:
"The role of the vanguard can be fulfilled only by a party
that is guided by an advanced theory." (Lenin)
"Revolutionary theory is the generalization of the experience
of the labor movement in all countries." (Stalin)
A large part of the Soviet Communist effort in the past thirty
years has been directed at the maintenance of a uniformly interpreted
theory inside the world movement. In almost the entire 20th century
discussion of Marxist theory the wri tines of Marx and Engels and
Lenin have been quoted with funde?:Aeutalist regularity. This pose of
orthodoxy has, however, not precluded theoretical conclusions determined
more by the strategic or tactical needs of the moment than by the
actual words or intended meaning of Marx and Engels.
Theory in the Party
The Communist Party demands that every leader be a co.:-pot ent
Marxist th.eo:retician--in party parlance, he must be "politically
mature" There are usually, however, among the top party leaders
one or more men who are accepted by their colleagues as the most
competent "Marxist dialecticians" and who are looked to for final
theoretical :interpretations of a situation or a policy: for example,
Stalin and now Zhdanov in the CPSU, Duclos and Fajon in the CP France,
Alexander Bittelnan (and V. J. Jerome and Robert Weinstone) in the
CPUSA.
All Party functionaries are expected to have a basic understanding
of Marxist theory and be able to "guide" the thinking of Party members
under their supervision.. Errors Party functionaries commit are frequently
ascribed to "political immaturity", that is, lack of understanding of
Marxist theory, In the case of the Party rank-and-file, the Party
constantly attempts to "educate" all its members through study groups,
lectures, group discussion, and self-study, with the main emphasis
throughout on theory.. The basic reading for the rank and file of the
Approved For - 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re. Pam-*1L00915R000100080002-0
Party membership is The Short History of the CPSU, Stalin's
Problems of Leninism, and the Party press--not only the daily
newspaper which all Party members must read, but also its weekly
or monthly theoretical publications.
Both functionaries and members
are educated in Marxist theory, not only at the regular Party Schools,,
but often in "special" schools at the regional level which are almost
exclusively dedicated to theoretical education, In some countries
non-Party "study groups", usually comprising white-collar workers, are
established to provide theoretical education for "sympathizing" non-
Party members or for members who, for a variety of reasons, do not
carry a Party card;
Appeal and Strength of the Mar is t They
Marxts social philosophy reflected the rise to consciousness
and finally to political power of the working-class. Marx set him-
self, first, to interpret democracy and liberalism as ideologies peculiar
to the middle classes, and secondly to create a social philosophy for
the working-class, or proletariat. His detailed criticism of capitalist
society and his call to action for the world proletariat has exerted an
enormous appeal not only to members of the industrial working class but
also to countless "intellectuals" of the bourgeois class whom Marx
assailed. It is of some importance to recognize the major factors in
the Marxist approach to life which are primarily responsible for this
appeal.
In many respects Marxism exerts the attractions normally found
in the major religions, the religion in this case promising Paradise
on this side of the grave. For the believer, Marxism represents a
system of ultimate ends giving the full moaning of life and providing
absolute standards for judging events and actions, and at the same time
prescribes a plan of salvation which acts as a guide to these ends.
With all its pretended scientific and rational approach to the problems
of society, there is throughout Marx and modern Marxist theory a
powerful element of emotional exaltation: the so-called "scientific"
socialism of Marx actually ends up very close to blind faith,
Approved For Rek UUMNANJU - 09158000100080002-0
 Approved For -00915R000100080002-0
Within this "religious" context a basic appeal of Marxism is
the absolute dogma that Marxism is true, that it simply formulates
the inev itable course of history and therefore invites the believer
to cooperate in the inevitable march of civilization. The dogma that
socialism is inevitable, irrespective of human desires or will,
possesses a strong attraction for those who are temperamentally
disposed to subordinate themselves to a superior force.
The primary appeal of Communist doctrine is, of course, to those
ft
elements of society who receive the smallest material share of the
benefits accruing from the capitalist system. It offers to the many
who feel thwarted and ill-treated an explanation of their failure
and arrays on its side all those who take exception to one or another
aspect of society as it is currently constituted, There is little
question that one of the major strengths of Marxism is its energetic
appeal to familiar facts (unemployment, had housing, crises, etc.)
which helps enormously in obtaining agreement on the explanation which
Marxism gives to those facts. The uncritically minded "masses" can
hardly be expected to supply complicated alternative explanations of
these same facts.
Finally, one must not underestimate the appeal which any dynamic
anduncompromising revolutionary program holds for may individuals
and many groups in any period, but more particularly in the unstable
and challenging conditions of the 20th century, It capitalizes upon the
impulse to action of the born. radical, of the fanatic, of the severely
repressed. The more unstable the conditions in any society and the
greater the want or distress, the stronger the appeal of the extremist
whether of the Left or the Right.
Critiduo o Marxist,_ _Theory
The Marxist-Lonjnist_Stalinist doctrine is presented in the
following pages in a series of nineteen propositions, or summary state-
ments, which are briefly discussed and illustrated from the theoretical
texts of Marxism. The principal statements of theory and their broader
significance have boon presented as objectively and "correctly" as is
possible for a non-Marxist. The task of reducing the complicated
Approved For -00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For R 0915R000100080002-0
formulas and analyses of Marxist theory to a simple and ocn-noriical
form is not easy, and expert Marxists would no doubt find distortions
and inadequacies in the presentation of their favorite political,
economic, or :revolutionary doctrines. It is nonetheless felt that
the nineteen propositions as stated and annotated adequately formulate
the main outlines of Cor.iunist theory in relatively understandable
terms for readers who are not acquainted with the distinctive vocabulary
and complicated dialectics of Marxist thinking,
It would be an unwise compliment to the Marxist view of life to
permit many of its propositions to stand without evaluation or criticism.
In many cases, the reader will immediately grasp for himself the
unfounded assumption, the disagreom_;nt with fact, the prejudiced per-
spective, and the errors of prophesy which so richly decorate the pages
of Marxism. It is, however, beyond the scope of this paper to present
a detailed analysis of the errors, confusions, assumptions, and incon-
sistencies of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, particularly since the theory
itself is here presented in highly simplified terms. It is nonetheless
desirable to provide an overall evaluation of its principal weaknesses
and defects, with appropriate references to the pertinent propositions
presented in the text. The critique can therefore be only partially
understood until the main poi-its of the theory itself have been absorbed.
The principal weakness of revolutionary Marxist theory is its rigid,
dogmatic, and. uncritical formulation of a series of assw.1ptions, arid
assunp ions onn, into a set of "inevitable", necessary "laws": the
pages of Marxism are larded with constant repetitions of !'irresistible",
"deterministic", "iron necessity", "universal", "absolute", ".infallible",
"compulsive", As the theory has developed from the Corr.,.iist Manifesto
on, its formulas, abstractions, and hypotheses have become progressively
more and more hardened to the point where analyses and statements of Marx,
Lenin, and Stalin arc, rust be be, accepted as gospel truth: quotations
from the Marxist "Bible" simply cannot be challenged or amended, only
accepted and applied. This purportedly "scientific" theory, by any
standards does not satisfy the most elementary requirements
of the scientific method, or even of common sense. To illustrate only
with a few of the more conspicuous cases:
Approved Fo. 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re -00915R000100080002-0
The Dialectical Method (para.2) is basic to all Communist
political and economic analysis: although nature and
society display conflicts, "contradictions", or "opposites"
(not a, novel discovery of Marxism), acceptance of this
hypothesis (unproved, naturally, since it is impossible)
as the sole "law" of development in a simple 1-2-3
succession ignores fact and limits theory to a completely
unrealistic view of the historical process.
The Materialist Interpretations History (para. 3), "the
central point around which the entire network of ido,o.s...
turns" (Lenin), was never advanced by Marx to assort
that economic forces are e, lusively responsible for all
events and changes in huarlan society, but the subsequent
alm-,,.,ost exc u ive ,emphasis in this one factor makes the
Marxist blind to the importance of countless other
factors, the recognition of whose existence would vitiate
a great many Marxist analyses:
religious fanaticism,
dynastic ambition, tribal or racial hatred, "individual
caprice", etc,
The Doctrine of Class Strunge (para. 4) takes the concept
of "social classes" (a concept not new with Marx and
which any historian normally accepts) and converts it
into a single, exclusive focus for all social and political
fact. The Marxist's narrow view of "classes" and class-
divisions misses reality on two Major counts: (1) no such
watertight division exists, say, between the people (and
their descendants) who are supposed to be "capitalists"
once and for all, and others who are supposed to be
"proletarians" once and for all (a characteristic feature
of modern "classes" is the incessant rise and fall of
individual families into and out of the "upper" and
"lower" classes and the Zrowth of a large "middle" class);
(2) "class antagonism" is highly exaggerated in the case
of recent capitalist society since the relation between
classes is normally one of cooperation, however argumentative,
for a common good.
Approved F 00915ROO0100080002-0
 Approved F 8-00915R000100080002-0
The economic arguments adduced as proof for the Inevitable
Breakdown of Caldt'lism rest upon a completely inacceptable
theory (Labo Theory of Value, para. 7 ), a deduction
from this theory (Theor of Surplus Vlue, para. 8)
which can itself be challenged on a number of grounds,
a statistically disproved "law" (Law of the Diminishin
R-.te of Profit , parr.. 9), and a completely erroneous
forecast (Theo of the Growin Misery of the Proletariat,
para. 11): the constant improvements over the past
century in the position of the worker under capitalism
presents the strongest evidence against the entire Marxist
economic analysis dedicate? to proving the "inevitable"
collapse of the capitalist system.
The Marxist prides himself on the ability which his "scientific"
theory gives him to understand the basic forces at work in a given
situation and to forecast their "inevitable" course of development. It
is then a fair test of Marxist theory to measure its success in prophesy-
ing history--and its record of failure here is enormous and not to be
clouded over by the fact that Lenin and Trotsky made some brilliant
"guesses" in the Russia of 1917. Even in the first stages of Marxist
analysis, from 1848 on, Marx and Engels were misled countless times
(by trade depressions, nationalistic revolts, international wars) to
foresee both "bourgeois" and "proletarian" revolutions just around the
corner - in each case they fizzled, and retrospective analyses of why
society did not behave the way it was supposed to simply underlined the
inadequacy of the "theory" to provide "scientific" analyses and forecasts.
The record of Bolshevik theoretical leadership after the October Revolution
in Russia is characterized by even grosser, and in this case bloody,
failures in recognizing "revolutionary situations". The Comintern began
its career with a series of grotesque errors based upon completely faulty
analyses: from the abortive putsches and "revolutions" in Germany up to
1923, the fiasco of the Soviet Republic in Hungary, and the ill-conceived
march on Poland in 1921 to the theoretically and strategically inept
direction of the Chinese Revolution in 1927. There is little reason to
suppose that history has appreciably adapted itself to Marxist theory in
the course of the past twenty years.
Approved For 1a-, 9915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rele 0915R000100080002-0
Perhaps the greatest theoretical weakness of Communist theory,
even from the larxistnoint of view, is its failure to provide anything
more than a hazy, utopian promise of a distant Paradise as the final
goal of all Communist effort. Marx himself never provided anything
tangible on the institutions, methods, or mechanisms of the socialist,
or cormunist system, nor oven on the nature of the dictatorship of the
proletariat which is destined to usher in socialist society. He stops
short with the successful end of the proletarian revolution, the seizure
of power, and the expropriation of private property. It is precisely
hare, as the Bolsheviks found out, that the real problems begin--and
the "theory" has nothing but a few brxa.d formulas to offer. This is
utopia - building with a vengeance, and the true Marxist would be
justified in resenting the fact that his theory, however "scientific"
for the destructive phase of Ccnrlunist action, loaves him as much a
sentimental :idoalist or "utopian" in the constructive phase as those
early French and English "utopian socialists" when Marx assailed with
such vehemence.a century ago.
This theoretical inadequacy is publicized by the enormous gulf
that exists between the broad formulas of Marxism for the period of the
proletarian dictatorship and the course of events in the only actual
proletarian dictatorship so far realized. Marxist theory and Bolshevist
practice are strange bedfellows. Whatever the Bolshevik theoroticans
have had to say about domestic policy changes and the difficulties for
the "Socialist Fatherland" living in a "capitalistic encirclement", the
present spectacle of Soviet Russia should provide apple tostimony to
the moaning for human progress of the Communist utopia. Step-by--step
the Revolution has adopted both "feudal-absolutist" forms of government
and "bourgeois-capitalist" economic principles and practices to support
its hold over the "tailing masses" of Soviet Russia, while its "progressive"
social reforms in most cases do not roach the levels attained by the
"bourgeois democracies" of the reactionary world. The final test of
theory, by Marxist standards, lies in practice: the theory is there to
read, the practice there to see. The Marxist reads the theory which thus
far has frequently blinded him to the reality.
Approved For Re e " I - -5-00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re 0915R000100080002-0
DOCTRINE OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE: MARXX s kQ Y OF HISTORY
Materialism 1. THE DEVELOPMENTS OF HUMAN HISTORY, IN COMMON WITH THE
HISTORY OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD ITSELF, ARE EXCLUSIVELY DETERMINED
BY 1ASURABLE MATERIAL FORCES WORKING ON HUMAN BEINGS.
The basic philosophical position of Marxism assumes that nothing
exists except matter and its movements and changes, and that the history
of the human race is determined by these material forces to the complete
exclusion of such non-material, or spiritual, forces as "God", "Providence",
a "universal will", an "absolute idea", etc. It stands in direct
opposition to any form of philosophic Idealism which, in general,
maintains that "ideas" (inside the human mind or in the mind of some
supernatural deity) are the only true reality, and that material things
merely reflect these "ideas". Marxism is thus directly opposed to both
the Christian and the philosophical concepts underlying European and
American political and moral values.
For the Marxist, the "mind", "soul", or "spirit" is the product
of matter and has no separate or superior existence:
"There is nothing in the world but matter and motion." (Lenin)
`1'Matter is primary. Sensation, thought, consciousness are
the supreme product.of matter organized in a particular
way," (Lenin)
The Marxist is clearly hostile to any form of religion or belief
in a supernatural being exerting influence on the world or human affairs:
"There are no things in the world which are unknowable, but
only things which are still not known, but which will be
disclosed and made known by the efforts of science and
practice." (Short History)
"Religion is the opium of the people." (Marx)
"God is (from the historical and practical standpoint)
primarily a complex of ideas begotten by the crass sub-
missiveness of man, by external nature, and by class
oppression--ideas which tend to perpetuate this sub-
missiveness, to deaden the force of the class struggle...
Now (1913), both in Europe and in Russia, Me
.= advocacy
or justification of the idea of god, even the most subtle,
even the best-intentioned, is a justification of reaction."
(Lenin)
"Socialism...enlists science in the struggle against
religious obscurity and emancipates the workers from
belief in a life hereafter by welding them together
for a real fight for a better life on earth." (Lenin)
Approved For Rel se . -00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rea 00915R000100080002-0
This "scientific materialism" also leads to a precise stand on the
age-old issue of "free will": the problem of whether men can make "free"
choices or decisions independent of the material forces around them.
Marxism does not stand for a rigid determinism which would not permit
any freedom of choice or decision (such a fatalism would make it pointless
for any one to attempt to do anything), but maintains that free will can
operate only within the possibilities allowed by material forces and
material laws which operate with "blind necessity". The Marxist holds
that he alone understands those material forces and laws and is accordingly
the only one who can make "free" or intelligent decisions:
"Freedom is the appreciation of nocossity...Freodom of
the will therefore means nothing but the capacity to
make decisions with real knowledge of the subject." (Marx)
",.,until we know a law of nature, it, existing and acting
independently and outside our mind, makes us slaves of
'blind necessity'. But once we know this law, which
acts independently of our will and our mind, we become the
lords of nature." (Lenin)
The Marxist is, therefore, in his own view the only true "scientist"
of nature and society.
Dialectics 2. THESE MATERIAL FORCES WORK THEMSELVES OUT IN HUMAN HISTORY
BY A DIALECTICAL PROCESS: BY THE CONFLICT OF THE CONTRADICTIONS
OR OP'OSITES INHERENT IN NATURE AND SOCIETY AND THEIR RESOLUTION
INTO A NEW AND "HIGHER" CONDITION.
Dialectics*,, essentially the process of working out the contradictions
within nature and society, is based on the following principles:
a. Nature is a connected unified whole in which all things
are organically connected with each other,
b. Nature is in a state of continuous movement and change.
c. Development is not a simple process of growth, but a process
in which minor, imperceptible quantitative changes (e.g. water
becoming ice or steam) pass into qualitative changes rapidly
and uhruT)t .
d. Internal contradictions are inherent in all things, and the
struggle between those contradictions or opposites constitutes
development (e.g,, in biology, the struggle for existence; in
ph;7sics, action and reaction, movement of electrons and protons,
positive and negative electricity; in society, the class struggle;
etc.). Consequently, the Marxist feels that nothing can be under-
stood if taken by itself; that what appears stable and durable in
nature or society is not as important as that which is arising
and. developing; and that development is not a gradual, steady
progress, not a "harmonious unfolding" of phenomena, but a series
of sudden "leaps" and "revolutions."
*Dialectics, with the Greeks, was the art of arriving at the truth by dis-
closing the contradictions in an argument and overcoming them by a superior
synthesis.
-13-
Approved For RelL9$46R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rel000100080002-0
All life and history are thus in constant movement - a movement
of dynamic change - and humanity is viewed as moving "upward" along a
zigzag path following an iron "law of motion": every event or state of
things (thesis) has within it the seed of its own destruction, its opposite
or contradiction (antithesis or negation) which develops in conflict with
it, and issues in a now and higher synthesis ("negation of the negation").
"Contradiction is the root of all motion and of all life."
(Hegel)
"What Marx and Engels call the dialectical method... is nothing
more or less than the scientific method in sociology, which
consists in regarding society as a living organism in a constant
state of development...., the study of which requires an
objective analysis of the relations of production that constitute
the given social formation and an investigation of its laws
of functioning and development." (Lenin)
"To the dialectical philosophy, nothing is final, absolute,
or sacred; everything is transient, subject to an uninter-
rupted process of becoming and disappearing, of an unending
ascent from the lower to the higher." (Engels)
The dialectical philosophy is fundamental to the entire position of
Marx, Lenin, Soviet communism, and revolutionary Marxists in general - it
provides the theoretical basis for the "theory of the class struggle",
furnishes "scientific proof E' of the necessity for revolutionary change,
and guarantees the finality of communist society as the goal of humanity.
Materialist -3. THE BASIC CONFLICTS OF THE DIALECTICAL PROCESS IN HUMAN
I nt e r~r e t at i on
of History SOCIETY OPERPTE IN TERMS OF THE CHANGING FORCES OF PRODUCTION
(TOOLS, MACHINES) WHICH PLACE MEN IN CERTAIN RELATIONS UITH
OTHER MEN ("PRODUCTION RELATIONS"); THESE PRODUCTION RELATIONS
DETERMINE THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES
OF LIFE.
From the viewpoint of dialectical materialism, the history of society
is a science based on the study of the "laws of development" of society;
the material life of society is primary, its "spiritual" life a secondary
reflection of the material life. The ideas, political institutions, legal
systems, religions, arts, etc., of any society are "formed" by the con-
ditions of its material or economic life.
that are those "conditions of material life of society". Not, says
the Marxist, geographical environment or the growth of population, but
the techniques for procuring the means of life (food, clothing, houses, etc).
rNIMIAM
Approved For Rel
15R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re -00915R000100080002-0
To produce those goods men and instruments of production (tools, machines,
etc.) are necessary, and in the process of production men enter into
relationships with each other.
Together, these represent the mode of
production which is always in a state of change and development by
changes in the productive forces (stone tools - metal tools - handicrafts -
manufacture - machines - large-scale machine industry) which bring about
changes in the production relations. Five typos of production relations
have existed in human society:
primitive communism: community owns the moans of production, labor
slavery
feudal system
capitalist system
is in common,
. slave-owners own the means of production and
the worker.
: feudal lord owns the moans of production and
partially owns the worker (serf).
. "capitalist owns the moans of production, but
not the worker who is "free", yet must sell
his labor power to the capitalist.
socialist system . society owns the means of production and all
workers "cooperate" in the process of production.
The primary factor determining the history of society and the
conditions in any one society is accordingly the economic factor: the
relationship between non (master and slave, lord and serf, capitalist
and worker) involved in the process of producing goods. Marx himself
never held that the economic factor alone produced all the other character-
istics of a society, but that it determined the on in of its political,
social, and intellectual elements - it was "the strongest, most
elemental, and most decisive" factor.
",..what individuals are depends upon the conditions
of material production." (Lenin)
"...the intellectual behavior of human beings arises
as the direct outcome of their material behavior." (Marx)
The entire fabric of any society (forms of government, legal system,
religion, ethics, economic theory) therefore reflects the values of the
ruling class, the class which owns the means of production:
"People always were and always will be the stupid victims
of deceit and self-deceit in politics, until they learn to
discover the interests of some class behind all moral,
religious, political and social phrases, declarations and
promises....,every old institution, however barbarous and
rotten it may appear to be, is maintained by the forces of
some ruling classes..." (Lenin)
15
Approved For Re - 915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Ref ml k1T1 L00915R000100080002-0
"Just as man's knowledge reflects nature..., which exists
independently of him, so man's social knowledge (i.e., the
various views and doctrines--philosophical, religious,
political, and so forth) reflects the economic system of
society." (Lenin)
So, for capitalist society:
"Taken as a whole, the professors of economics are nothing
but scientific salesmen of the capitalist class, while the
professors of philosophy are scientific salesmen of the
theologians." (Lenin
",.,the ruling bourgeoisie.., devotes hundreds of millions
of rubles from the profits squeezed out of the toilers
to the support of religion." (Lenin)
"...bourgeois science and philosophy...are officially
taught by official professors in order to befuddle the
rising generation of the possessing classes and to "coach"
it against the internal and foreign enemy (Socialism)."
(Lenin)
Doctrine of 4. THESE PRODUCTION-RELATIONS RESULT IN CERTAIN SOCIAL
Class Struggle
RELATIONS BETI,TEEN MEN tiJHICH ARE E11,MODIED IN A CERTAIN SET
OF CLASS-RELATIONSHIPS: THESE CLASSES ARE THE BASIC FACTORS
IN THE HISTORICAL PROCESS, AND THE HISTORICAL DIALECTIC WORKS
ITSELF OUT IN A SERIES OF CLASS-STRUGGLES.
In general, any society other than a communist society is divided
into two primary classes: those who control the means of production
(tool-owners -w- exploiters) and those who do not (tool-users or the
exploited). Basically, the struggle of these classes is "the battle
of developing production" -- the changing production forces of a society
cannot develop fully within the old production relations and the conflict
between them loads to an overturn of the old relations.. For example, the
developing forces of production in the feudal period gradually reached
the point when the rising middle class of merchants and manufacturers wore
compelled-to rid themselves of the controls and restrictions of the old
ruling class, the feudal landlords -- the revolutions of 1688 in England,
1789-94 in France, and March 1917 in Russia brought the "bourgeois" class
into power in place of the feudal aristocracy. In the next stage, accord-
ing to the Marxist, the proletariat will replace the bourgeoisie in order
further to expand the powers of production through social ownership of
the moans of production,
Approved For Rele 00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Re -00915R000100080002-0
"The history of all hitherto existing society is the
history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician
and plobian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman,
in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant
opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted,
now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended,
either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at
large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes...
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the
ruins of feudal society has not done away with class
antagonism. It has but established new classes, now
conditions of oppression, now forms of struggle in place
of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie,
possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has
simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole
is more and more splitting up into two groat hostile
camps, into two groat classes directly facing each other--
bourgeoisie and proletariat." (Marx)
"...anybody who ignores the class struggle in capitalist
society....entiroly ignores the ronl content of the social
and political life of this society, as regards the realisation
of.what he desires, inevitably condemns himself to hover in
the sphere of pious dreams. The failure to understand the
class struggle makes him a reactionary, for appeals to "society"
and to the tstate', that is, to the ideologists and politicians
of the bourgeoisie, can only confuse the Socialists, lead them
to accept the bitterest enemies of the proletariat as allies,
and hamper the workers' struggle for emancipation instead of
helping to strengthen, elucidate and bettor organize this
struggle." (Lenin)
Marx's theory of social classes is an analytic tool which, by linking the
economic interpretation of history with Marx's concepts of the capitalistic
economy, brings to a single focus all social facts and becomes the organic
basis for the Marxist conception of social life and history. For Lenin
"the doctrine of the class struggle is the focal point of his whole system
of views".
Theory of 5. THE CLASS-STRUGGLE IS ESSENTIALLY A POLITICAL AS WELL AS
the State
AN ECONOMIC CONFLICT SINCE THE STATE IS PRIMARILY AN ORGAN OF
CLASS-COERCION FOR THE "RULING" CLASS.
The Marxist views the "state" as a "special apparatus for the
systom^t,ic app]iaKfion of force" used by the ruling class to maintain
its power over the oppressed classes. The State developed in society
only after the communal, non-class, primitive society had given way
to an owner-class within society which set up and used the State to
protect its "private property" both against the ruled class and against
the threat of the ruling class of other societies.
17 -
Approved For Rel -16 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved F 915R000100080002-0
"There was a time when there was no state. It appears
wherever and whenever a division of society into classes
appears. Whenever exploiters and exploited appear." (Lenin)
"The state is a machine for maintaining the rule of one
class over another." (Lenin)
"The state is the product...of the irreconcilability of
class antagonisms. The state arises when, where and to the
extent that class antagonisms cannot be objectively reconciled.
And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that the
class antagonisms are irreconcilable." (Lenin)
"According to Marx, the state is an organ of class rule, an
organ for the oppression of one class by another; it creates
"order" which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by
moderating the collisions between the classes." (Lenin)
This "oppression" of one class by another which controls the
bureaucracy, police, and military power of the State is considered
obvious in such a government as an absolute monarchy or an aristocracy,
but the Marxist holds that this holds true of the democratic state as
well:
'?In a democratic ropublic.,.'wealth wields its power
indirectly, but all the more effectively', first, by
means of the 'direct corruption of the officials' (America);
second, by moans of the tallianco between the government
and the Stock Exchange' (Franco and Arm.erica).." (Lenin
quoting Engels)
"..,the more democratic (the republic) is, the cruder and
more cynical is the rule of capitalism. One of the most
democratic republics in the world is the United States of
America, yet nowherea..is the power of capital, the power
of a handful of billionaires over the whole of society, so
crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital
exists, it dominates the whole of society, and no democratic
republic, no form of franchise can alter the essence of the
matter. The power of capital is everything, the stock
exchange is everything, while parliament and elections are
marionettes, puppets." (Lenin
"To decide once every few years which member of the ruling
class is to misrepresent the people in parliament is the
real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism. Parliament itself
is given up to talk for the special purpose of fooling the
tcomr;on people'." (Lenin)
The Marxist considers the best form of State under the capitalistic
system to be the democratic republic, not because it is any less the tool
of the ruling capitalist class, but because it provides the most ideal
conditions (free speech, free association, general education, etc.) under
which the proletariat can carry on its class-fight against the bourgeoisie:
"Democracy is of great importance for the working class in
its struggle for freedom against the capitalists. But
democracy is by no means a boundary that must not be over-
stepped; it is only one of the stages in the process of
development from feudalism to capitalism, and from capitalism
to comm.unism." (Lenin)
Approved For Rely -00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rel 00915R000100080002-0
"We are in favor of a democratic republic as the best form
of state for the proletariat under capitalism; but we have
no right to forget that wage-slavery is the lot of the
people even in the most democratic bourgeois republic.
Furthermore, every state is a ?special repressive force'
for the suppression of the oppressed class. Consequently,
no state is a ?free? or a ?people's State,." (Lenin)
",..political liberty will primarily servo the interests of
the bourgeoisie and will not improve the conditions of
the workers, but only the condition for their struggle
against this very bourgeoisie." (Lenin)
In countries where, as in the Russia of March 1917, the political
development has not reached the stage of a democratic republic, the
Communists will unite with the bourgeois class to fight for political
liberties and a representative government, but this program is only
preparation for the real class-fight which can be launched efficiently
only within the "bourgeois republic" itself.
6; IN MODERN CAPITALIST SOCIETY THE POLITICAL-ECONOMIC CONFLICT
BETWEEN THE OPPOSING CLASSES OF THE BOURGEOISIE AND THE PROLE-
TARIAT HAS REACHED THE STAGE WHERE THE PRODUCTIVE POWER OF
SOCIETY HAS OUTGROWN THE SYSTEM OF PRIVATE PROPERTY, AND THE
EXPLOITED PROLETARIANS CAN LIBERATE THEMSELVES FROM THE YOKE
Off' THE BOURGEOISIE ONLY THROUGH THE SEIZURE OF THE (BOURGEOIS)
STATE POWER AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CAPITALIST TO A
SOCIALIST SYSTEM. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS INEVITABLE SINCE THE
CAPITALIST SYSTEM IS DOOMED TO FALL BECAUSE OF THE )'CONTRADICTIONS"
INHERENT IN IT.
The "proof" for this inevitable downfall of capitalism is contained
in the economic theory of Marxism, the essential elements of which are
contained in Marx's detailed and voluminous Capital. Marx's proof drew
upon the evidence afforded by the development of the capitalist system
up to the mid-nineteenth century, before the advent of extensive monopolies
and powerful labor-unions; his analysis was brought up to date by Lenin's
analysis of the "Imperialist Stage" of capitalism reached in the late
nineteenth century. The stops in this analysis are outlined in propositions
7 - 13.
Approved For rjj.%rL=LAA __ 9158000100080002-0
 Approved For Rele
915R000100080002-0
THE INEVITABLE BREAKDOWN OF CAPITALISM: MARXIST ECONOMIC THEORY
Labor Theory 7. THE VALUE OF ALL COMI?IODITIES (GOODS) IS DETERMINED BY THE
of Value
QUANTITY OF HUMAN LABOR EXPENDED ON THEIR PRODUCTION.
Accepting the theory advanced by his"capitalist" predecessors, but
working out its implications along completely new lines, Marx ascribed
the real source of value in goods meant for exchange or sale to the
amount of labor necessary to produce then:
"As values, all cor ioditio are only definite masses of
congealed labor tiro." (Marx)
The common denominator lying beneath the relative values and prices
of goods in the market was conceived to be the number of hours of
"socially necessary" labor required for their production (the amount
of labor for any given task is determined by the average skill and
technical ability existing at a particular stage of the society's
development). Thus "hu-man labor in general", allowing for differences
between skilled and unskilled, efficient and inefficient, technically
advanced and technically retarded labor, is the source of value of all
goods produced by society: raw materials, land, water-power do not
contribute any value whatever beyond the amount of labor power that
is expended in exploiting them in the production process.
Theory of 8. THE ONLY SOURCE OF A CAPIT LIST's PROFIT, THEREFORE, LIES
Surplus Value
IN THE EXCESS. OF LABOR-TIME HE FORCES THE LABOR TO WORK BEYOND
THE HOURS NEEDED TO PRODUCE THE NECESSITIES (FOOD, CLOTHING, ETC)
REQUIRED TO M!LINTAIN THE LABORER.
Theory of CAPITALIST PROFIT ACCORDINGLY VARIES IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO
Exploitation
THE AMOUNT OF TIME THE LABORER IS FORCED TO i?TORK BEYOND THE
TINE REQUIRED TO EARN THE SUBSISTENCE WAGES HE IS PAID FOR HIS
LABOR-POWER.
If, in the course of six hours' work, a laborer produces enough
goods or "value" to pay for his own wages (which the capitalist must
give him to, food, clothe, and house the laborer and allow him to keep
up the supply of labor by breeding children), then a twelve-hour, day
would mean that during the second six hours of the working-day the
laborer is simply "working for nothing"r with the results of his labor
-20-
Approved For 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For R 0100080002-0
going to the capitalist to pay his profits (the rent and interest the
capitalist pays to other capitalists are just as much "unearned"
profit as the manufacturer's profit). This exploitation of the
laborer by the capitalist who owns the machinery, factories, and
raw materials needed to produce goods rests at the bottom of the
entire capitalist system of "private property", "wage-slavery", and
"profits":
"The essence of capitalism... is the appropriation by
private persons of the product of social labor organized
by commodity production." (Lenin)
"Capital 'vampire-like' only lives by sucking labor, and
lives the more, the more labor it sucks." (Lenin)
"The rate of surplus value, all other circumstances
remaining the same, will depend on the proportion between
the part of the working day necessary to reproduce the
value of the laboring power and the surplus time or surplus
labor performed for the capitalist. It will, therefore,
depend on the ratio in which the working day is prolonged
over and above the number of hours during which the working
man would only reproduce the value of his laboring power
or replace his wages." (Marx)
?or o_f Q?. BECAUSE OF CONSTANT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND THE
Accumulatjo_n
COMPETITION OF FELLOW-CAPITALISTS, THE CAPITALIST IS COMPELLED
TO TURN INTO ADDITIONAL CAPITAL ("SAVE" AND "INVEST") THE
GREATER PART OF THE SURPLUS-VALUE HE HAS WRESTED FROM HIS
WORKERS
Law of
f iminlshi }g
Rate of
Profit
THIS CONSTANT INCREASE IN THE MACHINES (CAPITAL) DIMINISHES
THE CAPITALIST'S PROFIT (WHICH VARIES SOLELY WITH THE
AMOUNT OF LABOR POWER EXPLOITED),
In analyzing the beginnings of the capitalist system of commodity
production, Marx describes the "primitive accumulation" of capital]
which paved the way for the capitalist system, as resting upon force,
robbery, and the subjugation of the "masses": the land of the feudal
serfs or peasants was "stolen" from them by the growing class of
merchants and manufacturers who also "forced" the independent artisan
out of business by developing mass-production. The subsequent increase
in the means of production (factories, machinery, railroads, power-
plants, etc.) is solely financed by the surplus-labor of the "wage-
slaves" who, with their means of production taken away, are compelled
to hire themselves out to the capitalist.
Approved For.R. 16Q IM MAJ 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Ref W500915R000100080002-0
The Marxist accepts this development as historically inevitable
and as serving the creative purpose of increasing society's ability
to produce more goods for human needs. It cannot, however, go on
indefinitely because it tends to decrease more and more the profit of
the capitalist because he uses more and more machines, and fewer and
fewer workers--and without profit there is no reason for his continuing
in business.
Theory of 10. THE CAPITALIST COMPEITSATES FOR THESE SMALLER PROFITS
Expropriation
NOT ONLY BY CONSTANTLY INCREASING THE EXPLOITATION OF SUCH
WORKERS 0 HE DOES EMPLOY, BUT ALSO BY CHEAPENING COMMODITIES
THROUGH INCREASING THE SIZE OF INDUSTRIAL PLANTS AND UNITS
OF CONTROL (CORPORATIONS, HOLDING COMPANIES, TRUSTS, CARTELS).
IN THIS LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE OF COMPETITION THE CAPITALISTS
TEND TO DESTROY EACH OTHER BY CONCENTRATING CAPITAL INTO FEWER
AND FEWER HANDS.
This "inevitable" development of capitalist production toward
larger and larger units of ownership and control, with its attendant
concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a small
ruling "clique", had this compensation for Marx: the workers, hitherto
disorganized and scattered, now are brought into closer association
with each other in the large plants and corporations, and they are
enabled to forge a single-minded unity in their opposition to th^ ^.ipi?^,
"exploiters":
"That which is now to be expropriated is no longer the
:Laborer working for himself, but the capitalist exploiting
many laborers. This expropriation is accompanied by the
immanent laws of capitalist production itself, by the
centralization of capital. One capitalist always kills many.
Hand in hand with this centralization, or the expropriation
of many capitalists by few, develops, on an ever extending
scale, the cooperative form of the labor process,...the
transformation of the instruments of labor into instruments
of labor only usable in common, the economizing of all means
of production by their use as the means of production of
combined, socialized labor, the entanglement of all peoples
in the net of the world market, and with this, the inter-
national character of the capitalist regime." (Marx)
Furthermore, the concentration of capital into larger units of control
will facilitate the socialization or "nationalization" of the means of
production when the time comes.
Approved For Re 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For M 00915R000100080002-0
Theory of 11. THIS DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHLY MECHANIZED, LARGE-SCALE
Industrial
Reserve Army INDUSTRY INEVITABLY CREATES LARGE-SCALE UNEMPLOYMENT -
A PERMANENT "SURPLUS POPULATION".
Theory of the AS WELL AS THE TRANSFER OF COUNTLESS SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED
GroETin_ Miser
of tile CAPITALISTS INTO THE PROLETARIAT WHO GRADUALLY BECOME MORE
Proletariat
"In proport_on as capital accumulates, the lot of the
laborer must ~,~:~?cw 1lcrse. Accumulation of wealth at
one pole is the some time accumulation of misery,
agony of toil, si.?:very, ignorance, brutality, mental
degradation, at the opposite pole." (Marx)
"Along with the constantly diminishing number of the
magnates of capital who usurp and monopolize all the
advantages of this 1_a-oooss of transformation, grows the
mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation,
exploitation; but with it, too, grows the revolt of the
working class, a class always increasing in numbers." (Marx)
"Poverty is 'the revolutionary and destructive trend which
will overthrow the old society'." (Marx)
Marx, in the fifties and sixties, analyzed this "increasing
misery" of the proletariat as consisting in the continual lengthening
of the working day, decreasing wages, increasing permanent unemployment,
speed-up practices, progressive deterioration of factory buildings and
equipment and of the health and life-span of the laborer.
The glaring faults of this part of Marx's forecast has provoked
major corrections by subsequent Marxist theoreticians, especially Lenin
(see below).
Under- 12. IN THE ADVANCED STAGES OF CAPITt'.LIST DEVELOPMENT
C oDgumption
or Over- RECURRENT CRISES OR DEPRESSIONS ARE CREATED BY THE INABILITY
Production
Theory OF THE MASSES TO BUY THE EVER-INCREASING FLOW OF GOODS.
Theory of the THESE CRISES ARE PERIODIC, INESCAPABLE, AND OF INCREASING
Inevitable
Catastrophe SEVERITY UNTIL THEY FINALLY CULMINATE IN A BREAKDOWN OF THE
CAPITALIST SYSTEM: A BREAKDOWN PRODUCED BY THE SYSTEM'S
OWN ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS AND BY THE REVOLT OF THE INCREAS-
INGLY MISERABLE PROLETARIAT.
An over-simplified analysis of the "internal contradictions" of
the capitalist system results in the following "vicious circle":
Private ownership of the means of production leads to
competition in the open market, with the cheapest
producer winning out.
Approved For WAK" 0915R000100080002-0
 Approved For -009158000100080002-0
The cheapest commodities are produced by the most efficient
machinery and factory installations.
More machinery means fewer workers.
Fewer workers mean less surplus value (and less profits)
and less consumption.
but - to increase consumption (purchasing power) requires
more jobs for workers.
More jobs require more capital (machines).
More capital (greater accumulation) requires increased
rate of surplus value.
Increase of surplus value demands cheaper commodities
(to reduce the cost of labor).
Cheaper commodities mean more machines.
More machines mean more capital---
which brings us back to where we started.
Whatever the theoretical value of Marx's analysis of the inner
contradictions of capitalism and its inevitable downfall, the evolution
of the capitalist system since his day has effectively disproved the
accuracy of his forecast. The "theory of the inevitable catastrophe",
however, remains a cornerstone of Communist ideology, but Marx's analysis
has been replaced by Lenin with a more up-to-date foundation based upon
the "now" stage of capitalism which has developed since Marx's death.
"Leninism" is "Marxism in the epoch of imperialism", for Lenin's analysis
of 20th century "world monopoly capitalism" and its inevitable downfall
(summarized in para. 13) now has become the orthodox theory.
13,. SINCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM IN ANY ONE
COUNTRY GRADUALLY ELIMINATES PROFITS (PARA. 11), CAPITAL SEEKS
OUTLETS IN COUNTRIES IN ?MJHICH THERE IS STILL LABOR TO BE
EXPLOITED AND ADDITIONAL MARKETS TO COMPENSATE FOR THE IN-
ADEQUACY OF THE DOMESTIC MARICET (PARA. 12). THIS "Ii,1PERIALIST"
STAGE OF CAPITALISM LEADS TO THE INEVITABLE CLASH OF RIVAL
IMPERIALISMS (THAT IS, THE CAPITALIST CLASSES OF DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES) AND THE EVENTUAL DOWNFALL OF CAPITALISM BECAUSE OF
ITS INTERNATIONAL CONTRADICTIONS.
Lenin transferred the analysis of capitalism from the national (Marx)
to the international level, as capitalism itself developed into a "world-
front" within which the advanced capitalist countries sought to escape
-24-
Approved For Rele 915R000100080002-0
 Approved For RBI _ 0915R000100080002-0
from the "pressure of accumulation on the rate of profit" by "exploiting"
the loss advanced areas of the world. For Lenin "imperialism" (starting
about 1890) represented the period of "monopoly capitalism" during which
highly centralized industrial capital (giant corporations, trusts,
monopolies) fused with banking capital (the great banks and banking
firms) to form "finance capital", which extended its exploitation over
the entire world.
"Imperialism is capitalism in that stage of development
in which the domination of monopolies and finance capital
has established itself; in which the export of capital
has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division.
of the world among the international trusts has begun;
in which the partition of all the territories of the globe
among the great capitalist powers has boon completed." (Lenin)
This new, and "last", phase of capitalism ("monopoly is the transition
from capitalism to a higher system"), temporarily overcomes the con-
tradictions of a capitalist system confined to one country, but it
contains within itself three basic contradictions which make its collapse
inevitable:
a. The old conflict of labor vs. ca}?tal becomes even more
sharp as the workers realize over more clearly that they can escape
the control of the monopolistic trusts and banks only through armed
revolt. The capitalists can "bribe" the workers in their own
country for a time through the "super-profits" wrung from the
exploited colonial areas, but the world-wide solidarity of the
proletarian front cannot permit this "betrayal" of one section
of the proletariat by another.
b. A new conflict, that between one bourgeoisie vs. . rival
bourgeoisie, introduces another contradiction which has thus far
led to two world wars, both of which were essentially a fight for
markets, sources of raw materials, and outlets for finance-capital
between the advanced capitalist countries (Britain Franco vs.
Germany-Austria in 1914, and Germany-Japan vs. Britain-France-USA
in 1939-41):
"There is and there can be no other way of testing the
rea:L strength of a capitalist state than that of war.
War does not contradict the principles of private
property--on the contrary, it is a direct and inevitable
development of those principles. Under capitalism the
even economic growth of individual enterprises, or
individual states, is impossible. Under capitalism, there
is nothing else that periodically restores the disturbed equi-
librium than crises in industry and wars in politics." (Lenin)
- 25 -*
Approved For
Ww"I 000100080002-0
 Approved For ReIme[91~1pI 915RO00100080002-0
The final upshot of this international rivalry in the bourgeois
camp will be the internal disintegration of capitalist strength
to the point where conditions will be ripe for the seizure of
power by the proletariat.
c. Imperialism has also sharpened the conflict of colonial
people vs. the imporialist powers who are exploiting them, and the
bourgeoisie of the advanced capitalist countries are faced with their
constant opposition and hostility. The colonial peoples as a whole
therefore represent additional "reserves" of the proletarian revo-
lution within the advanced capitalist countries.
A 'broad portrayal of this Leninist analysis has been sketched
by Stalin in his Foundations of Leninism:
"The domination of finance capital in the advanced capitalist
countries; the issue of stocks and bonds as the principal
operation of finance capital; the export of capital to the
sources of raw materials, which is one of the bases of
imperialism; the omnipotence of a financial oligarchy, a con-
sequence of the dofnihation of finance capital -- all these
reveal the parasitic a.hd brutal character of monopolist
capitalism, make the yoke of the capitalist syndicates and
trusts much more intolerable, increase the indignation of
the working class against the foundations of capitalism
and drive the masses to the proletarian revolution in which
they see their only means of escape...
The growth of the export of capital to the colonies and
subject countries, the extension of 'spheres of influence'
and colonization to the extent of seizing all the territory
of the globe, the transformation of capitalism into a world
system of financial bondage and of the colonial oppression
of the vast majority of mankind by a few 'advanced' countries--
these factors have reduced the several national economic
systems and national territories to links in a single chain
called world economy and have divided the population of the
world into two camps: on the one hand, a small number of
'advanced' capitalist countries which exploit and oppress vast
colonies and dependencies; on the other hand, the immense
majority in the colonial and subject countries, compelled to
fight to liberate themselves from the imperialist yoke. In
consequence we have an intensification of the revolutionary
crisis in the colonial countries and strengthening of the
spirit of revolt against imperialism on the external front,
the colonial front. The monopolistic sway over 'spheres of
influence' and over colonies; the uneven development of the
different capitalist countries which loads to a bitter
struggle between the countries which have already seized
the territories of the globe, and those countries which want
to receive their 'share'; imperialist wars, the only method
of restoring the disturbed 'equilibrium' -- all these reinforce
the third front, the inter-capitalist battle-line, which
weakens imperialism and facilitates the union of the first
two fronts against imperialism, the front of the revolutionary
proletariat and that of colonial emancipation,
From this we come to the inevitability of wars under imperialism
and to the inevitability of a coalition between the proletarian
revolution in Europe and the colonial revolution in the East,
loading to the formation of a united world front of the revolu-
tion as against the world front of imperialism. From these
deductions Lenin draws the general conclusion that 'imperialism
is the eve of the socialist revolution'."
Approved For Re NW.WTIMMINIM15ROO0100080002-0
 Approved For Relal 000100080002-0
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT: MARXIST-LENINISTPOLTIC.AL STRATEGY
Necessity of 14. THE BREAKDOWN OF CAPITALISM, THOUGH INEVITABLE, WILL NOT
Revolutionary
4ction OF ITSELF PAVE THE WAY FOR THE COMING OF SOCIALISM, BUT MUST
BE ASSISTED AND ENGINEERED BY THE PROLETARIAT? EMPLOYING
REVOLUTIONARY ACTION AGAINST THE BOURGEOIS STATE.
Since the bourgeois state will resist by force (police, army) any
attacks on the capitalist system, it is axiomatic for the communist that
socialism can be achieved only by the use of force:
"The weapons of criticism cannot replace the criticism of
weapons. Physical force must be overthrown by physical
force." (Marx)
"Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with
the new." (Marx)
"Revolutions are the locomotives of history." (Marx)
As Marx pointed out, the bourgeoisie themselves came into power by a
revolutionary overthrow of the old feudal ruling class (Revolution of 1688
in England, of 1789 in France, of March 1917 in Russia), but, once in
power, they use the state to preserve "order", that is, the "order" of
their system.
The basic goal in the class-struggle pursued by all socialist
parties in all countries is the appropriation of the moans of production
and the means of exchange by the proletariat and the abolition of the
wage-system and the production relations of capitalism. The fundamental
split on the method of achieving this goal has divided socialists for
the past century into two hostile, warring camps; the forceful,
revolutionary, anti-parliamentary, dictatorial method of Communism:
i.e., the Communist and Revolutionary Communist (Trotskyi't) parties,
and the so-called peaceful, evolutionary, parliamentary, "democratic"
method of social democracy: i.e., the various Socialist, Social-
Democratic, Democratic Socialist, and Christian Socialist Parties.
The Communist case for the necessity of revolution has figured in the.
forefront of communist-socialist polemics from the time of Marx to
the present--a very few both theoretical and "practical" arguments
have been monotonously repeated in-the Communists' highly emotional
and vituperative fight against the Social Democratic "revisionists",
"opportunists", "lackeys of the bourgeoisie", "renegades", "social
fascists", "reactionaries", ad infinitum.
Approved For Rele . I 15R000100080002-0
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
On the theoretical level Communist doctrine attacks with its
heaviest weapons the "theory of spontaneity", the theory that the
labor movement should be allowed to confine its efforts to the
parliamentary struggle and to demand only such changes and reforms
as are "acceptable to and can be carried out under capitalism" (Stalin
For the Communists this following of the "line of least resistance",
this "pure and simple trade unionism", fails to arouse the workers
to an awareness of their class interests and keeps them hoodwinked by
the liberal bourgeoisie who will permit them only suph concessions
as they can afford to make without seriously affecting their own
interests and power. For the revolutionary Marxist this "opportunism's
means confining the workers' party to a party of "social reform which
presupposes the preservation of capitalist rule" -- it is a betrayal
of the working-class to the interests of the bourgeoisie, "a renunciation
of the revolutionary struggle, of Socialism and of the dictatorship of
the proletariat" (Stalin).
"The substitution of the proletarian state for the bourgeois
state is impossible without a violent revolution." (Lenin)
eninist -15? THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION PROVIDES THE ONLY MEANS OF
theory of
rolet:rian SEIZING AND DESTROYING THE BOURGEOIS STATE.AND THE CAPITALISTIC
evolution
ECONOMY IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH THE BASIS FOR A SOCIALIST SOCIETY.
A major "progressive" contribution of capitalism has been the
development of the urban factory workers into a powerful, organized
group which not only has the greatest class interest in promoting the
overthrow of the bourgeoisie, but is the only class (as opposed to the
peasants and the petty bourgeoisie) capable of defeating them:
"The position of the factory worker in the general system
of capitalist relations makes him the solo fighter for
the emancipation of the working class, because only the
higher stage of development of capitalism, largo-scale
machine industry, creates the material conditions and the
social forces necessary for this struggle." (Lenin)
The monopolistic-imperialistic stage of capitalism has provided the
following "conditions" highly favorable to the success of the proletarian
revolution:
a. The "parasitic and brutal character of monopolist
capitalism" has intensified the revolutionary crisis on the
domestic proletarian front in the "mother-countries""
- 28 -
Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Rel 915R000100080002-0
b. The world-front of capitalist exploitation of colonies
has intensified the revolutionary crisis on the colonial front,
c. The "inter-capitalist battle-linen weakens imperialism
and contributes to the union of the first two fronts,
Where will the revolution begin:
"Formerly, the reply used to be--where industry is most
perfected, where the proletariat forms the majority,
where civilization is most advanced, where democracy is
most developed.
The Leninist theory of the revolution says--no! The front
of capital will not necessarily be pierced where industry
is most developed, and so forth; it will be broken where
the chain of imperialism is weakest, for the proletarian
revolution is the result of the breaking of the chain of
the imperialist world front at its weakest point...
In 1917 the chain of the imperialist world front happened
to be weaker in Russia than in the other countries. It
was there that it was broken and afforded an outlet to
the proletarian revolution." (Stalin)
Once .be.gun, how will the revolution continue? The answer, from
Marx to Stalin, is that the revolution will be "permanent" (uninterrupted),
"that it will continue from country to country until the complete victory
of Socialism is guaranteed":
"It is our aim to make the revolution permanent, until
all the more or less proportiod classes have been
deprived of power, until the proletariat has conquered
state power, until the a_svcir,t_on of proletarians not
only in one country but in al.'. 6n leading countries
of the world will be suffica_ na .y advanced to put an
end to competition among proloi ri.ans of all these
countries and until at least the chief forces of
production are concentrated in the hands of the
proletarians." (Marx)
The sonfli_ct between Stalin and Trotsky in the 20's over the strategic
line to be adopted by the now Soviet state (the development of socialism
in the USSR cL the promotion of revolution in other countries) essentially
involved a difference in timing and not a theoretical difference over
%P-f-uture course of the revolution. Stalin's thesis that "Socialism is
}possible in one country" provided a short-torn, answer: the final victory
-of'$sotialism is possible only with successful revolutions "in at least
s WIF -r 1...countries" :
"t,,tho task of the victorious revolution consists in
doing the utmost attainable in one country for the
development, support and stirring up of the revolution
all countries;" (Stalin, quoting Lenin)
Approved For Relea e A- 915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
".,,.overthrowing the power of the bourgeoisie and estab-
li:,hing the pwor' of the prolctc ri' .t in a' single country
does not yet guar^ntoo--'the.-~ompl-cto victory of Socialism,.,
It is...tho esscnti'.l t-,.sk of the victorious revolution
in one country to develop and support.the revolution
in others. The revolution in a victorious country ought not
to be considered as a self-contained unit, but as an
auxiliary and a means of hastening the victory of the
proletariat in other countries." (Stalin)
The goal: of the proletarian revolution is to destroy the bourgeois
state and to transform the means of production into state property:
",,,.the first step in the revolution by the working class
is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling
class, to win the battle of democracy.
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest
by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize
all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i,e.,
in the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to
increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as
possible." (Marx)
The revolution cannot simply "take over" the bourgeois state, but must
destroy it:
"A:Ll the revolutions which have occurred up to now have
ho:Lpod to perfect the state machine, whereas it must be
smashed, broken. This conclusion is the chief and
fundamental thesis in the Marxian doctrine of the state."
(Lenin)
"...if the state is the product of irreconcilable class
antagonisms... it is clear that the liberation of the
oppressed class is impossible, not only without a violent
revolution, but also without the destruction of the
ap.pa.ra'aus of state power which was created by the ruling
class,.." (Lenin)
The bourgeois state apparatus, however, must be replaced by another
instrument of power:
"The proletariat needs state power, the centralized organiza-
tion of force, the organization of violence, for the purpose
of 1cad?,ng the groat mass of the population--the peasantry,
the petty bourgeoisie, the semi-proletarians---in the work of
organizing socialist economy." (Lenin)
Thcor of the 16. THE PROLETARIAT WILL CONSOLIDATE THE VICTORIOUS REVOLUTION
D ctstgr -hi
of ': BY ESTABLISHING A DICTATORSHIP AGAINST THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY
Prc:: c rriat
(BOURGEOIS) FORCES AND WILL MAINTAIN THAT DICTATORSHIP DURING
THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM.
After the proletariat has captured power, it is faced with three
immediate tasks:
"(a) to break the resistance of the landed proprietors and
capitalists now overthrown and expropriated by the revolution,
and to liquidate every attompt they make to restore the
power of, capital;
Approved For
8-009158000100080002-0
rk K
A AIR
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
(4QW&1Q6",WE IN 9W
%
L
(b) to organize construction in such a way as will rally all
toilers around the proletariat and prepare the way for the
liquidation of classes;
(c) to arm the revolution and to organize the army of the
revolution for the struggle against the external enemy and
for the struggle against imperialism." (Stalin)
The "special organ" created to carry out those tasks is the dictatorship
of the proletariat which employs state power to break the resistance of
its class enemies:
"The dictatorship of the proletariat is the fiercest,
sharpest and most merciless war of the new class against
its more nowerfu enemy, the bourgeoisie, whose resistance
is increased ton-fold by its ovorthrow...The dictatorship
of the proletariat is a stubborn struggle--sanguinary
and. bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic,
educational and administrative--against the forces and
traditions of the old society." (Lenin)
The strength of the overthrown bourgeoisie resides in its international
tics ("the power of international capital"), in its retention of money,
movable property, technical and managerial ability, and superior
education, and in the continued existence in post-re 'olutionary
society of innumerable small-scale producers who must be "converted"
to socialist principles to avoid the rebirth of capitalism. The
dictatorship of the proletariat is "a revolutionary power based on
violence against the bourgeoisie", a
"dominatj.oi 2f, the,grol Lariat over the bgfirgoo sic, a
domination; that is unttrammclcd by law and used on violengg
and en ' s the spathv. id pupport of the, ; toiling..and
0
asses," Stalin)
In short, there cannot be "democracy for ,li'M under the dictatorship,
but democracy for the proletariat and the poor and dictatorship for the
bourgeoisie:
".,..the period of transition from capitalism to communism...
inevitably becomes a period of unusually violent class
struggles in their sharpest possible forms and, therefore,
during this period, the state must inevitably be a state
that is democratic in a new way (for the proletariat and
the propertyless in general) and dictatorial in new way
(against the bourgeoisie)." (Lenin)
The organizational form of this dictatorship will be the soviets,
or "peoples' councils":
"The soviets are the organizations which organize the masses
themselves directly, i.e., the most democratic, signifying
the most authoritative, organizations of the masses, that
provide them with the maximum facilities for participating
in the building up of the now state and its administration...
The Soviet power combines the logisl.tivo and executive
Approved For a 15R000100080002-0
- 31 -
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
functions in a single state body and replaces territorial
electoral divisions by units of production, i.e., factories
and workshops, and thereby connects the workers and the
laboring masses in general directly with the apparatus of
state administration and teaches them how to administer the
country." (Stalin)
"The republic of soviets of workers', soldiers' and peasants'
deputies not only represents a higher type of democratic
institution.,.but is also the only form capable of insuring
the least painful transition to Socialism." (Lenin)
The soviet power is also
"the most international of all state organizations in class
society, for by extirpating every kind of national
oppression and basing itself on the cooperation of the
toiling masses of the various nationalities, it facilitates
the unification of these masses into a single union of
states." (Stalin)
The period of the dictatorship of the proletariat will be a pro-
longed and dynamic struggle:
"You will have to go through fifteen, twenty or even fifty
years of civil and international war, not only to change
relationships but also to change your ot?rn solves, to render
yourselves fit to assume the political reins." (Marx)
"The transition from capitalism to Communism represents
an entire historical epoch. Until this epoch has terminated,
the exploiters will inevitably cherish the hope of restoration,
and this hope will be converted into attempts at restoration.
And after their first serious defeat, the overthrown ex-
ploiters...will throw themselves with redoubled energy
and implacable hatred into the battle for the recovery of
their lost 'paradise'.,." (Lenin)
"We must...rogard the dictatorship of the proletariat, the
transition from capitalism to Communism, not as a fleeting
period replete with "super-revolutionary" deeds and decrees,
but as an entire historical epoch full of civil wars and
external conflicts, of persistent organizational work and
economic construction, of attacks and retreats, of victories
and defeats." (Stalin)
"...the dictatorship of a single class is necessary not only
for class society in general, not only for the proletariat
which has overthrown the bourgeoisie, but for the entire
historical period between capitalism and 'classless society',
communism." (Lenin)
Role of 17. THE REVOLUTION AND THE DICTATORSHIP CAN;?OT BE EFFECTIVELY
the Party
CA:RRIED OUT AND MAINTAINED BY THE PROLETARIAT AS A WHOLE, BUT
REQUIRES THE LEADERSHIP OF A "VANGUARD" OF THE PROLETARIAT, THE
PARTY, WHICH ALONE CAN PROVIDE THE ORGANIZATION AND THEORETICAL
KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT WHICH REVOLUTIONARY ACTION AND RULE CANNOT
BE SUCCESSFUL,
Approved For Re I - -00915R000100080002-0
. -32_
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
&W r%
L
The Party is a "detachment of the working class", not an ordinary
detachment, but
"the van rd detachment, a class-conscious detachment, a
Marxist detachment of the working class, armed with a
knowledge of the life of society, of the laws of its
development and of the laws of the class struggle, and for
this reason able to lead the working class and to direct
its struggle." (Short History)
The Party is not a mass party, a "circle" of sympathizers and coworkers,
but an ideological and action elite, "the political leader of the
working-class". In addition, the Party provides "the military staff
of the proletariat":
"I have spoken..,of the difficulties encountered in the
struggle of the working class, of the complicated nature
of this struggle, of strategy and tactics, of reserves and
maneuvering operations of attack and defence. Who can
understand these complicated conditions, who can give
correct guidance to the vast masses of the proletariat?
Every army at war must have an experienced staff, if it is
to avoid certain defeat. All the more reason, therefore,
why the proletariat must have such a general staff if it
is to prevent itself from being routed by its accursed
enemies. But whore is this general staff? Only the
revolutionary party of the proletariat can serve as this
general staff. A working class without a revolutionary
party is like an army without a general staff. The Party
is the military staff of the proletariat." (Stalin)
In order to play this role, the Party must be a highly organize
detachment, with its own discipline binding upon all its members,
for if it were simply a loose political association of members, it
could never achieve the "united will" and the "united action" required
to direct the proletarian struggle. In order to function properly
and "to guide the masses systematically", it must be organized on the
principle of centralism.
"having one set of rules and uniform Party discipline, one
leading organ--the Party Congress, and in the intervals
between congresses--the Central Committee of.the Party;
the minority must submit to the majority, the various
organizations must submit to the center, and lower
organizations to higher organizations." (Short History)
In order to preserve the unity of its ranks, "the Party must impose
a common proletarian discipline, equally binding on all Party members,
both leaders and rank-and-file",
The "iron discipline" demanded of all
Party members
"does not preclude but presupposes criticism and conflicts
of opinion within the Party,, Least of all does it mean
that this discipline must be 'blind' discipline. On the
contrary, iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes
Approved For iPc!!Jk?Jp78-0091 5R0001 00080002-0
- 33 -
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
conscious and voluntary submission, for only conscious
discipline can be truly iron discipline. But after a
discussion has boon closed, after criticism has run its
course and a decision has boon made, unity of will and
unity of action become indispensable conditions without
which Party unity and iron discipline in the Party are
inconceivable." (Stalin)
There is therefore no room for "factions" in the Party, and an uncon-
ditional "duty" of the Center is to exterminate completely all faction-
alism, just as it must continuously purge the Party of all "opportunist
elements",, notably the petty-bourgeois groups (trade-union leaders,
peasants, small tradesmen and intellectuals) who join the ranks of the
proletariat and "introduce an element of hesitancy and opportunism, of
disintegration and lack of self-confidence", Only thus can the Party
remain single-minded and powerful.
All Party members must be active members of some Party organization:
"the Party does not need members who shrink from Party discipline and
fear to join the Party organization". The Party is, further, "the
highest of all forms of organization" of the working class and "guides"
all the other organizations which the working class has developed in
its struggle against the capitalist system: trade unions, cooperatives,
factory and shop organizations, parliamentary fractions, non-party
women's associations, the press, cultural and educational organizations,
youth leagues, etc. The Party is,
"by reason of its oxp(rionco and authority, the only
organization capable of centralizing the leadership of
the struggle of the proletariat and in this way transform
each and every non-party organization of the working
class into a serviceable functioning body, a transmission
belt linking it with the class...
This does not mean, of course, that non-party organizations
like trade unions, co-operatives, etc., must be formally sub-
ordinated to Party leadership. It means simply that the
members of the Party who belong to these organizations and
doubtless exercise influence in them, should do all they
can to persuade these non-party organizations to draw
nearer to the Party of the proletariat in their work and
voluntarily accept its political guidance." (Stalin)
It therefore becomes obligatory for the Party to maintain the
closest possible connections with the "masses", for without the confidence
and support of the "working-class millions" the Party can do nothing:
"The distinction between the vanguard end the main body
of the working class, between Party members and non-Party
members, will continue as long as classes exist...But
the Party would cease to be a party if this distinction
were widened into a rupture; if it wore to isolate itself
Approved For 8-00915R000100080002-0
-34-
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
WLUTTTTTL
and break away from the non-Party masses. The Party cannot
load the class if it is not connected with the non-Party
masses, if there is no close union between the Party
and the non-Party masses, if those masses do not accept
its leadership, if the Party does not enjoy moral and
political authority among the masses." (Stalin)
This highly organized, highly disciplined, theoretically expert,
and practically experienced vanguard Party is a "woapon in the hands
of the proletariat for the conquest of the dictatorship where that
has not yet been achieved; for the consolidation and extension of the
dictatorship where it has been already achieved" (Stalin).
"The Party would not rank so high in importance and it could
not overshadow all other forms of organization of the proletariat
if the lattor were not face to face With the question of power,
if the existence of imperialism, the inevitability of wars and
the presence of a crisis did not demand the concentration of
all the forces of the proletariat on one point and the gathering
together of all the threads of the evolutionary movement to
repose them in one hand, to ovorthrow the bourgeoisie and to
establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The working
class needs the Party first of all as its general staff, which
it must have to effect a successful revolution...
The proletariat needs the Party not only to achieve the
dictatorship, it needs it still more to maintain and extend
its dictatorship in order to attain complete victory for
Socialism." (Stalin)
COMMUNIST ;SOCIETY: MARXIST MYTH AND STALINIST REALITY
"Socialism", :L8. THE.TRANSITION FROM CAPITALISM TO COMMUNISM UNDER THE
the First
Phase DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT IS A PERIOD OF POLITICAL AND
ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION TO THE FIRST, OR "LOWER", PHASE OF
COMMUNIST SOCIETY: SOCIALISM.
The extended transition period to Communism is initiated political
with the replacement of the bourgeois state by the dictatorship of the
proletariat, economically with the seizure of the moans of production
by the state (para. 16). The society which will emerge from this
revolutionary period, primarily dedicated to the complete destruction
of all remnants of capitalist institutions and habits of mind, will
not be a fully developed communist society, but only its ap rtia1 ful-
fillment:
"What we have to deal with here is a communist society not
as it has developed on its own foundations, but on the
contrary as it emerges from capitalist society; which is
thus in every respect economically, morally and intellectually
still stamped with the birth marks of the old society from
whose womb it emerges." (Marx)
Approved For - 8-00915R000100080002-0
-35-
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
1r^k1P1F%rk1T1 Al
Economically, with the means of production now belonging to "the whole
of society", each member of society performs a certain amount of
"socially necessary" labor and is "paid" according to the work he
performs. Since men are "unequal" in ability, health, number of
dependents, etc., this apparent equality still represents a basic
inequality among men., for "equal right" is made to apply to different
people with varying abilities and needs:
"...with an equal output and hence an equal share in the'
social consumption fund, one will in fact receive more than
another, one will be richer than another and so on. To
avoid all these defects, right, instead of being equal,
would have to be unequal." (Marx)
Hence, according to Lenin, "the first phase of communism cannot
produce justice and equality; differences, and unjust differences,
in wealth will still exist..." In short, although the means of
production are owned "in common", the unequal distribution of goods
and the inequality of "bourgeois rights" continue to exist so long
as goods are divided according to the amount of work performed,
"The socialist principle: -'rHe who does not work, neither
shall he eat", is already realized; the other socialist
principle: "An equal amount of labor for an equal quantity
of products', is also already realized. But this is not yet
communism, and it does not abolish "bourgeois right", which
gives to unequal individuals, in return for an unequal
amount of work, an equal quantity of products." (Lenin)
These defects, according to Marx,
"are inevitable in the first phase of communist society
as it is when it has just emerged after prolonged birthpangs
from capitalist society. Right can never be higher than
the economic structure of society and the culture development
thereby determined."
Since this "bourgeois right" is the only practicable standard of
economic justice at this stage of development, 'there is politically
still need for the state, not only to safeguard the public ownership
of the means of production, but also to safeguard the "equality" of
labor and the "equality" in the distribution of goods which, in
socialist terms, are actually inequality, and therefore require
force to protect them. This increasingly "democratic" state provides
an apparatus for the people themselves to manage society during this
socialist phase:
Approved For 7R - -3b-
 Approved For ase : CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
L
"Accounting and control--these are the principal things
that are necessary for the "setting up" and correct
functioning of the first -phase of communist society. All
citizens are transformed into the salaried employees of
the state, which consists of the armed workers. All
citizens become employees and workers of a single national
state 'syndicate', All that is required is that they
should work equally--do their proper share of work--
and got paid equally. The accounting and control necessary
for this have been so utterly simplified by capitalism
that they have become the extraordinarily simple operations
of checking, recording, and issuing roceipts, which anyone
who can read and write and who knows the first four rules
of arithmetic can perform.,:
The whole of society will have become a single office
and, a single factory with equality of work and equality
of pay.
But this 'factory' discipline, which the proletariat will
extend to the whole of society after the defeat of the
capitalists and the overthrow of the exploiters, is by no
means our ideal, or our ultimata goals It is but a necessary
step for the purpose of thoroughly purging society of all
the hideousness arpl foulness of capitalist exploitation,
and for the purpose of advancing further." (Lenin)
' -ism" 19. THIS FIRST PHASE OF SOCIALISM WILL GRADUALLY DEVELOP
thy? Socond
INTO THE HIGHER PHASE OF COA' IMTISM IN I?JHICH GOODS ARE
DISTRIBUTED ACCORDING TO NEED, THE STATE AND THE PARTY
DISAPPEAR, AND 14EN LIVE IN COMPLET'E'EQUALITY AND FREEDOM.
As the first phase of socialist society progresses, the conditions
for complete communism will be gradually achieved:
"In a higher phase of communist society after the enslaving
subordination of individuals under division of labor, and
therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical
labor, has vanished; after labor has become not merely a
means to live but has become itself the primary necessity
of life; after the productive forces have also increased
with the all-round development of the individual, and all
the springs of co-operative' wealth flow more abundai tly--
only than can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right- be
fully loft behind and society inscribe on its banners: 'from
each according to his ability, to each according to his
noods'." (Marx)
The higher phase of communism will have boon reached economically
when people have progressed socially and psychologically to a point
when they do not work simply "for a living" and no longer demand to
be rewarded according to performance, to a point
"when people have become so accustomed to observing the
fundamental rules of social life and when their labor
is so productive that they will voluntarily work according
to their ability. "The narrow horizon of bourgeois right",
which compels one to calculate with the shrewdness of a
Shylock whether he has not worked half an hour more than
another, whether he is not getting less pay than another--
this narrow horizon will than be left behind. There will
than be no need for society to make an exact calculation
of the quantity of products to be distributed to each of
its members; each will take freely 'according to his neodst+'1
(Lenin)
Approved For e - 37 T - 78-00915R000100080002-0
 Approved For Release _ CIA-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0
Lenin, countering the "bourgeois savants" who declare such a society
to be a "pure utopia", insists that
"it has never entered the head of any Socialist to 'promise'
that the higher phase of communism will arrive; and that great
Socialists, in foreseeing its arrival, presupposed both a
productivity of labor unlike the present and a person unlike
the present man in the street who...is capable of damaging the
stores of social wealth 'just for fun1, and of demanding the
impossible."
With the achievement of economic communism both in production and
distribution;, the State becomes superfluous, and government is replaced
by administration:
"As soon as there is no longer any class of society to be
hold in subjection...there is nothing more to be repressed,
which would make a special repressive force, a state,
nocessary...The interference of the state power in social
relations becomes superfluous in one sphere after another,
and then ceases of itself. The government of persons is
replaced by the administration of things and the direction
of the process of production. The state is not 'abolished',
it withers away." (Engels)
"Only in communist society, when the resistance of the
capitalists has been completely broken, when the capitalists
have disappeared, when there are no classes, only then does
'the state..,ceaso to exists, and it 'becomes possible to
speak of freedom'. Only then will really complete democracy,
democracy without any exceptions, be possible and be realized.,
Communism alone is capable of giving really complete democracy,
and the more complete it is the more quickly will it become
unnecessary and wither away of itself." (Lenin)
With the disappearance of the state (and of the Party, which also no
longer has a function), democracy, or "formal equality", is superseded
by real equality:
"As soon as equality is obtained for all members of
society in relation to the ownership of the moans of
production, that is, equality of labor and equality
of wages, humanity will inevitably be confronted with
the question of going beyond formal equality to real
oquality, i.e., to applying the rule, "from each according
to his ability, to each according to his needs". By what
stages, by what practical measures humanity will proceed
to this higher aim--we do not and cannot know."
With the achievement of the higher phase of Communism, society reaches
the goal of its long development: men live in perfect political and
economic freedom and equality, the inexorable law of the historical dialectic
apparently ceases to operate, and the "prehistory of the human race" comes to
an end as human life is for the first time guided by human (Marxist)
intelligence.
Approved For Rel"eage r:1A'-RDP78-00915R000100080002-0