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Lenin and the question of revolutionary violence

Svetlana M.
The question of revolutionary violence as Lenin taught of us, the cadets as human rights activists of the early 20th century.

(just my reflections out loud about Lenin's attitude to the issue of violence during the revolution, inspired by one question on the Internet forum.)

So, there was a question: "This is some kind of masochism - they drive us into the ground, they recommend freeing up living space and resources for more worthy connoisseurs of " rights and freedoms "- and here we are foolishly trying to reconcile and negotiate with these figures . " And how did Lenin feel about it?

I think they meant modern democrats, supporters of the Western path of development of Russia.

At the beginning of the 20th century, among the huge number of parties that appeared in Russia, only one party held such views, the so-called party of the Cadets. This is short for KD - Constitutional Democrats. In terms of social composition, they were, as it is now customary to call "eggheads," that is, the most abstruse intellectuals and part of the big bourgeoisie.

I really liked the quote from Kara-Murza: "As it is written in Western textbooks, democracy is a cold civil war of the rich against the poor, waged by the state . "

By the way, the same "eggheads" fooled us in the 90s. The people would not believe the newcomers, they believed their own clever people. I forgot that Lenin had warned us at one time:
“ But the influence of the intelligentsia, which is not directly involved in exploitation, is trained to operate with general words and concepts, carry on with all sorts of“ good ”precepts, sometimes, out of sincere stupidity, elevates its interclass position into the principle of non-class parties and non-class politics - the influence of this bourgeois intelligentsia on the people is dangerous. Here, and only here, is there an infection of the broad masses, capable of causing real harm, requiring the exertion of all the forces of socialism to fight this poison. "
At first, the Cadets were in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and when the monarchy was completely ... let's say it went wild, that is, by 1917, it was the cadets, with the help of their Western friends, who staged the February Revolution.

Lenin said that the overthrow of the monarchy was staged by the French and the British, relatives of the tsar and concurrently the closest allies in the war.
“The whole course of events of the February-March revolution shows clearly that the British and French embassies, with their agents and 'connections', have long been making the most desperate efforts to prevent the 'separate' agreements and the separate peace of Nicholas II ... with William II, directly organized a conspiracy together with the Octobrists and Cadets, together with part of the generals and officers of the army and the St. Petersburg garrison, especially for the removal of Nikolai Romanov . " (Lenin. "Letters from afar")
What these wiseacres managed to do with Russia in literally 8 months, having completely replaced the government four times, not counting individual resignations, is generally indescribable. Of course, the Tsar helped them a lot before that, but the guys also had a great time. They destroyed the army, economy, finances, agriculture, and what is there, destroyed the state. But the article is not about the activities of the Provisional Government. And about: 

“Who's temporary here - get off.

Your time is up "

To save the country, Lenin took power from them and the majority of the people supported him. And the Bolsheviks everywhere, throughout the country, with complete anarchy, had to restore order. We tried everything. At first, gently, and then I had to apply the power.
"Whoever did not understand the necessity of the dictatorship of any revolutionary class for its victory, did not understand anything in the history of revolutions or does not want to know anything in this area." (Lenin)
That's just where I come to what I started for. Here the "human rights activists" started voicing about humanism, about rights and freedoms.

And what does Lenin answer to these Novodvorsk ones? “ Your words about freedom and democracy are a false gloss, memorized phrases, fashionable chatter or hypocrisy. This is a painted sign. And by yourself you are burnt coffins. You have a boorish soul through and through, and all your education, culture and enlightenment is only a kind of qualified prostitution. For you sell your souls and sell not only out of need, but also out of "love for art "!

There is such an article by Lenin "On the history of the question of the dictatorship." It is precisely Lenin's answer to the Cadets.

It is very long, so I will outline it so briefly. Of course, what impresses me especially. Naturally and  basically  it is impossible to do without violence in the revolution with historical examples.

But what I would like to highlight in this article, as in a number of others, Lenin argues that the tsarist government was the first to start the civil war against his own people. It was the first to apply repressive measures to the people and forced them to defend themselves.

And now the people have thrown off the yoke, and they are accused of dictatorship. In a dictatorship, with what, with what instrument, with what apparatus? Created by the people themselves, by the majority of the people, from representatives nominated by the same people and accountable to them.

“Are you a working person? Do you want to fight to rid Russia of a handful of police rapists? You are our comrade. Choose your deputy, now, immediately; choose as you think convenient - we will gladly and joyfully accept him as a full member of our Council of Workers 'Deputies, the Peasant Committee, the Council of Soldiers' Deputies, etc., etc. This is a government open to everyone, doing everything in full view of the masses, accessible to the masses, emanating directly from the masses, a direct and direct organ of the masses and their will. "

To explain his idea of ​​dictatorship and violence, Lenin gives an example from life. A case from the biography of Maria Spiridonova, revolutionary head of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party.
“Imagine that Avramov would mutilate and torture Spiridonova. On the side of Spiridonova, for example, there are tens and hundreds of unarmed people. A handful of Cossacks are on Avramov's side. What would the people do if the torture of Spiridonova took place NOT in the dungeon? He would use violence against Avramov and his retinue. He would have sacrificed, perhaps, several fighters shot by Avramov, but he would have disarmed Avramov and the Cossacks by force, moreover, very likely, he would have killed some of these, if I may say so, people on the spot, and put the rest in some some prison, ... to take them to the people's court. "
"The revolution, in the narrow, direct meaning of this word, is precisely such a period of people's life, when the accumulated anger for the Avramovs' exploits for centuries breaks out in ACTIONS, and not in words, and in the actions of MILLION people, and not individuals."
All this is good for the masses, but it does not suit the democratic public, it did not suit it then, it does not suit it now. And then, as now the people were urged to unite, they called for humanism. And fight for your rights? Yes, please, only exclusively in the way that THEY chose for us.

"Fight" parliamentary ", that is, within the limits- boundaries that I prescribe to you by agreement with the monarchy, fight by means of organizations - only not such as general strike committees, Soviets of workers 'and soldiers' deputies, etc., but by means of those that are recognized and limited, are rendered harmless in relation to capital by the law issued by me in agreement with the monarchy. " Well, it was then with the monarchy, now you can correct the quote from Lenin ... by agreement with United Russia.

I admire Lenin - a hundred years have passed, and how everything he wrote coincides with the present.

They want to fool us, make us an illiterate nation, a nation of ruminants, so that we could not read it, could not understand it.

As many now think that we have freedom and democracy, we are intimidated with the words “totalitarianism and dictatorship”, and in the bottom of all these pretty fairy tales for fools: 
When the direct movement of the masses is crushed by shootings, executions, flogging, unemployment and hunger strike, when bugs crawl out of the cracks, kept on the Dubasov money of professorial science and begin to do business for the people on behalf of the masses, selling and betraying their interests to a handful of privileged ones - then it seems to the knights of the philistine that an era of calm and calm progress has begun, "the turn of thought and reason has come."
Oh, how we want a quiet, philistine life with a guinea pig, and somewhere up there, some kind uncles will think about us and take care of us. And we close our eyes to certain facts surrounding us, because this has not directly affected us yet. We, like ostriches, will hide our heads in the sand, someone will pray, someone will believe in the kindness of Medveput, someone in Western liberalism. And at this time terrible things happen very close to us.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, 33-year-old Yelena Uzbekova, having moved from Bashkiria to Chelyabinsk with two children - 10-year-old Yasha and 5-year-old Masha, rented a room in a communal apartment. She lived in isolation and practically did not communicate with her neighbors. When Olga, the owner of the room, came to Elena for the last time for money, it turned out that the door to the room was locked from the inside. Neighbors confirmed that no one has seen the woman or her children since the previous day. Alarmed Olga decided to break down the door. In the room, a terrible picture was revealed to those who burst in: dead children were lying on the sofa, and the body of their mother was hanging on the radiator. During a search of the apartment, a suicide note written in Elena's hand was found: “We left, we have no relatives. Lena. Sorry. It is very difficult when there is no one to help ”.

What will the Democrats tell you? Should the strongest survive? Are you sure you belong to the same breed? Me not. I don't need this kind of freedom, this kind of democracy.

And I will end with a quote from Loginov:

“ But in real life, when the question is about the fate of millions of people, this concern is only about saving one's own soul and preserving one's inner comfort of an anti-human. Rejection of violence, elevated to a principle in the conditions of the most severe social battles, is immoral, because it prolongs the existence and domination of such social relations, to which violence against a person is expectable and inevitable."

Violence is a bad thing. In itself, it is disgusting. However, the determination to apply it in the right cause, in the fight against rapists, is a sign of moral courage.

Recalling the words of Marx - "weakness has always been saved by faith in miracles" - Lenin, addressing the workers, wrote: "The revolution is the lot of the strong!" “If you want revolution, freedom ... YOU MUST BE STRONG ...The weak will always be slaves . "

Using Korolenko's expression, helping a slave to become a free man is that noble, humane goal, which, turns “the strength of the hand” into good. "

Source
https://leninism.su

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