From J. V. Stalin, Problems of Leninism,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1976
pp. 253-65.
Vol. 9, pp. 274-87.
Based on J. V. Stalin, Works,
Foreign Languages Publishing House,
Moscow, 1954
The present English edition of J. V. Stalin's Problems of Leninism corresponds to the eleventh Russian edition of 1952. The English translation up to page 766 (including the relevant notes at the end of the book) is taken from Stalin's Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953-55, Vol. 6 and Vols. 8-13, while the rest is taken from the same publishers' 1953 edition of Problems of Leninism. Minor changes have been made in the translation and the notes.
   
Volume and page references to Lenin's Works made in the text are to the third Russian edition. References to English translations are added, as footnotes, by the present publisher.
page 253
Reply to S. Pokrovsky
    I think that your letter of May 2 of this year provides neither occasion nor grounds for a reply in detail, point by point, so to speak.
    As a matter of fact, it offers nothing particularly new as compared with Yan-sky's letter.
    If, nevertheless, I am replying to your letter it is because it contains certain elements of a direct revival of Kamenev's ideas of the period of April-May 1917. It is only in order to expose these elements of a revival of Kamenev's ideas that I consider it necessary to reply briefly to your letter.
    1) You say in your letter that "in fact, in the period from February to October we had the slogan of alliance with the whole of the peasantry," that "in the period from February to October the Party upheld and defended its old slogan in
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relation to the peasantry -- Alliance with the whole peasantry."
    It follows, firstly, that in the period of preparation for October (April-October 1917) the Bolsheviks did not set themselves the task of drawing a demarcation line between the poor peasants and the well-to-do peasants, but treated the peasantry as an integral whole.
    It follows, secondly, that in the period of preparation for October the Bolsheviks did not replace the old slogan, "Dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry," by a new slogan, "Dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry," but maintained the old position laid down in Lenin's pamphlet Two Tactics in 1905.
    It follows, thirdly, that the Bolshevik policy of combating the vacillations and compromising policy of the Soviets in the period of preparation for October (March-October 1917), the vacillations of the middle peasantry in the Soviets and at the front, the vacillations between revolution and counter-revolution, the vacillations and compromising policy which assumed a particularly acute character in the July days, when the Soviets, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik compromisers, joined hands with the counter-revolutionary generals in the attempt to isolate the Bolsheviks -- it appears that the Bolshevik fight against these vacillations and the compromising policy of certain strata of the peasantry was pointless and absolutely unnecessary.
    It follows, finally, that Kamenev was right when, in April May 1917, he defended the old slogan of dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, while Lenin, who regarded this slogan as already out-of-date and who proclaimed the new slogan of dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry, was wrong.
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    One need only raise these issues to realize the utter absurdity of your letter as a whole.
    But since you are very fond of isolated quotations from Lenin's works, let us turn to quotations.
    It does not require much effort to prove that what Lenin regarded as new in the agrarian relations in Russia after the February Revolution, from the point of view of the further development of the revolution, was not a community of interests of the proletariat and the peasantry as a whole, but the cleavage between the poor peasantry and the well-to-do peasantry, of whom the former, i.e., the poor peasantry, gravitated towards the proletariat, whereas the latter, i.e., the well-to-do peasantry, followed the Provisional Government.
   
Here is what Lenin said on this score in April 1917, in his polemic against Kamenev and Kamenev's ideas:
   
"It would be impermissible for the proletarian party now [*] to place hopes in a community of interests with the peasantry." (See Lenin's speech at the April Conference, 1917, Vol. XX, p. 245.)
   
Further:
   
"Already we can discern in the decisions of a number of peasant congresses the idea of postponing the solution of the agrarian question until the Constituent Assembly; this represents a victory for the well-to-do peasantry,* which inclines towards the Cadets." (See Lenin's speech at the Petrograd City Conference, April 1917, Vol. XX, p. 176.)
   
Further:
   
"It is possible that the peasantry may seize all the land and the entire power. Far from forgetting this possibility, far from limiting my outlook to the present day alone, I definitely and clearly formulate the agrarian programme, taking into account the new phenomenon, i.e., the deeper cleavage * between the agricultural labourers and poor peasants on the one hand, and the prosperous peasants on the other." (See Lenin's article written in April, "Letters on Tactics," Vol. XX, p. 103.) page 256
   
That is what Lenin regarded as new and important in the new situation in the countryside after the February Revolution.
   
That was Lenin's starting point in shaping the Party's policy in the period after February 1917.
   
That thesis was Lenin's starting point when, at the Petrograd City Conference in April I917, he said:
   
"It was only here, on the spot, that we learnt that the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies had surrendered its power to the Provisional Government. The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies represents the realization of the dictatorship of the proletariat and soldiers; among the latter, the majority are peasants. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. But this 'dictatorship' has entered into an agreement with the bourgeoisie. And it is here that a revision of the 'old' Bolsbevism is needed."[*] (See Vol. XX, p. 176.)
   
That thesis also was Lenin's starting point when, in April 1917, he wrote:
   
"Whoever speaks now only of a 'revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry' is behind the times, has consequently in fact gone over to the side of the petty bourgeoisie against the proletarian class struggle. He deserves to be consigned to the archive of 'Bolshevik' pre-revolutionary antiques (which might be called the archive of 'Old Bolsheviks')." (See Vol. XX, p. 101.)[1]
   
It was on this basis that there arose the slogan of dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry in place of the old slogan of dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry.
   
You may say, as indeed you do in your letter, that this is a Trotskyite skipping over of the still uncompleted peasant revolution; but that would be just as convincing as the similar objection which Kamenev raised against Lenin in April 1917.
page 257
   
Lenin took this objection fully into account when he said:
   
"Trotskyism says: 'No tsar, but a workers' government.' That is incorrect. The petty bourgeoisie exists, and it cannot be left out of account. But it consists of two sections. The poorer [*] section follows the working class." (See Vol. XX, p. 182.)[1]
   
Kamenev's error, and now yours, consists in the inability to discern and emphasize the difference between the two sections of the petty bourgeoisie, in this case the peasantry; in the inability to single out the poor section of the peasantry from the mass of the peasantry as a whole, and on that basis to shape the Party's policy in the situation of the transition from the first stage of the revolution in 1917 to its second stage, in the inability to deduce from this the new slogan, the Party's second strategic slogan, concerning the dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry.
   
Let us trace in consecutive order in Lenin's works the practical history of the slogan "Dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry" from April to October 1917.
   
April 1917:
   
"The specific feature of the present situation in Russia consists in the transition from the first* stage of tbe revolution -- which, owing to the insufficient class consciousness and organization of the proletariat, placed the power in the hands of the bourgeoisie -- to the second stage, which must place the power in the hands of the proletariat and the "poor strata of tbe peasantry.*" (See Lenin's April Theses, Vol. XX, p. 88.)[2] page 258
   
July 19I7:
   
"Only the revolutionary workers, if they are supported by the poor peasants,[*] are capable of smashing the resistance of the capitalists and leading the people to win the land v,ithout compensation, to complete freedom, to victory over famine, to victory over war, and to a just and lasting peace." (See Vol. XXI, p. 77.)[1]
   
August 1917:
   
"Only the proletariat, leading the poor peasantry [*] (the semi-proletarians, as our programme says), can end the war by a democratic peace, heal the wounds it has caused, and begin to take steps towards socialism, which have become absolutely essential and urgent -- such is the definition of our class policy now." (See Vol. XXI, p. 111.)[2]
   
September 1917:
   
"Only a dictatorship of the proletarians and the poor peasants [*] is capable of smashing the resistance of the capitalists, of displaying really supreme courage and determination in the exercise of power, and of securing the enthusiastic, selfless and truly heroic support of the masses both in the army and among the peasantry." (See Vol. XXI, p. 147.)[3]
   
September-October 1917, the pamphlet Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?, in which Lenin, in controversy with Novaya Zhizn,[52] says:
   
"Either * all power to the bourgeoisie -- which you have long ceased to advocate, and which the bourgeoisie itself dare not even hint at, for it knows that already on April 20-21 the people overthrew that power with one heave of the shoulder, and would overthrow it now with thrice that determination and ruthlessness. Or * power to the petty bourgeoisie, i.e., a coalition (alliance, agreement) between it and the bourgeoisie, for the petty bourgeoisie does not wish to and cannot take power alone and independently, as has been proved by the experience of all revolutions, and as is proved by economic science, which explains that in a capitalist
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country it is possible to stand for capital and it is possible to stand for labour, but it is impossible to stand in between. In Russia this coalition has for six months tried scores of ways but failed. Or,* finally, all power to the proletarians and the poor peasants * against the bourgeoisie in order to break its resistance. This has not yet been tried, and you, gentlemen of Novaya Zhizn, are dissuading the people from this, trying to frighten them with your own fear of the bourgeoisie. No fourth way can be invented." (See Vol. XXI, p. 275.)
   
Such are the facts.
   
You "successfully" evade all these facts and events in the history of the preparation for October; you "successfully" erase from the history of Bolshevism the struggle waged by the Bolsheviks in the period of preparation for October against the vacillations and the compromising policy of the "prosperous peasants" who were in the Soviets at that time; you "successfully" bury Lenin's slogan of dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry, and at the same time imagine that this is not to do violence to history, to Leninism.
   
From these quotations, which could be multiplied, you must see that the Bolsheviks took as their starting point after February 1917 not the peasantry as a whole, but the poor section of the peasantry; that they marched towards October not under the old slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, but under the new slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry.
   
From this it is evident that the Bolsheviks put this slogan into effect in a fight against the vacillations and compromising policy of the Soviets, against the vacillations and compromising policy of a certain section of the peasantry inside the Soviets, against the vacillations and compromising policy of
page 260
certain parties representing petty-bourgeois democracy and known as Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.
   
From this it is evident that without the new slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry we would have been unable to assemble a sufficiently powerful political army, one capable of overcoming the compromising policy of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks, of neutralizing the vacillations of a certain section of the peasantry, of overthrowing the power of the bourgeoisie, and of thus making it possible to carry the bourgeois revolution to completion.
   
From this it is evident that "we marched towards October and achieved victory in October together with the poor peasantry against the resistance of the kulaks (also peasants) and with the middle peasantry vacillating." (See my reply to Yan-sky.)[*]
   
Thus, it follows that in April 1917, as also during the whole period of preparation for October, it was Lenin who was right, and not Kamenev; and you, by now reviving Kamenev's ideas, seem to be getting into not very good company.
   
* My italics. -- J. St.
   
* My italics. -- J. St.
   
[1]
"Letters on Tactics."
   
* My italics. -- J. St.
   
[1]
The Petrograd City Conference of tbe R.S.D.L.P.(B.), April 27-May 5, 1917. "2. Concluding Remarks in the Debate Concerning the Report on the Present Situation."
   
[2]
"The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution."
   
* My italics. -- J. St.
   
[1]
"Lessons of the Revolution."
   
[2]
"From a Publicist's Diary. Peasants and Workers."
   
[3]
"0ne of the Fundamental Questions of the Revolution."
   
* My italics. -- J. St.
Notes on |
page 947
[52]
Novaya Zhizn (New Life ) -- a Menshevik newspaper published in Petrograd from April 1917 to July 1918.
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