Let’s start with Lenin’s Special Topic…

 

Gao Xiaohui    Published: 2011-10-24   

As the result of the implementation of the Marxist theory project by the Central Committee, the ten-volume "Collected Works of Marx and Engels" and the five-volume "Collected Works of Lenin" were published at the end of last year. This is a major event in the spread of Marxism in China. This year coincides with the 140th anniversary of Lenin's birth. The publication of "Collected Works of Lenin" is the best commemoration of Lenin. In the resolution commemorating the 140th anniversary of Lenin's birth, the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party said, "Lenin's thoughts and his works published in most languages ​​of the world have greatly influenced the fate of the people of the world. Some people try to erase his name from the memory of mankind, which is futile." Indeed. In our country, the translation and publication of Lenin's works has never stopped since Lenin's name was introduced to China. Especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the compilation and publication of Lenin's works has made great progress and even innovation. The publication of "Collected Works of Lenin" should be the product of this innovation. The editorial policy of "Collected Works of Lenin" is based on the second Chinese edition of "Collected Works of Lenin", and selects important works, articles, reports, notes and letters of Lenin from various periods. In terms of editing, in order to reflect the integrity and systematic nature of Lenin's thought, each volume, in addition to the most representative works collected in full or selected from partial excerpts, also compiles "Important Excerpts" as a supplement to the collected documents. In terms of editing style, each volume includes an editor's note, title note (placed under each page), notes and name index (placed at the end of the article). Every sentence here reflects the characteristics of this collection of works, and every sentence is noteworthy. Let's analyze them sentence by sentence.

First of all, this collection of works is based on the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin". In other words, if there is no second edition of the complete works as a source of literature, there is no collection of works.

Speaking of the publication of "The Complete Works of Lenin", there have been five editions in the Soviet Union and two editions in China. The first Chinese edition was a product after the founding of New China. The second Chinese edition was launched at the beginning of China's reform and opening up, reflecting the achievements of China's new stage of development. The first edition was a verbatim translation of the fourth edition of the Soviet Union's "Collected Works of Lenin", while the second edition was a complete works version edited by China based on the fifth edition of the Soviet Union's "Collected Works of Lenin". The first Chinese edition of "Collected Works of Lenin" published 39 volumes. The translation of this edition began in the second half of 1953, and all volumes were published between 1955 and 1959 (the 39th volume was published in 1963 and contained 4,285 documents, totaling about 15 million words. The translation and publication of the first edition in China undoubtedly has great theoretical and political significance, and has played a huge role in the dissemination, study and research of Marxism-Leninism in China. The important thing is to solve the problem of whether China has the complete works of Lenin. According to the recollections of old comrades from the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, during the period of Sino-Soviet hostility, during a meeting between the Chinese and Soviet parties, when the Soviet representative Xi When we said that we didn't even have the Complete Works of Lenin, and we were still talking about Leninism, our representatives immediately put the Complete Works of Lenin neatly on the table, leaving the Soviet representatives speechless. However, the first Chinese edition also has obvious shortcomings. First of all, this edition continues the obvious shortcomings of the fourth edition of the Soviet Complete Works of Lenin, that is, a large number of Lenin's documents are not included, especially a considerable number of documents after the October Revolution; the collation and arrangement of the documents are not entirely reasonable; the reference materials are not only too brief but also some expressions and formulations are not quite appropriate. ① Secondly, the preparation and translation of the first edition was very hasty and time was too tight, so many volumes were launched and completed at the same time in a very short period of time; in addition, the translation and proofreading team of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau was still a relatively young force at the time, with insufficient experience and level, so it was inevitable that there were many problems in the translation, including mistranslations, omissions and wrong translations.

Therefore, the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau began to plan to recompile and publish the second edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin" in 1975. At this time, the Soviet Union had already had a re-edited fifth edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin", and the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau's own team was also busy. It is also many times more mature than when the first edition was worked on. In 1982, after my country’s reform and opening up, the central government officially approved the re-publication of the second edition. If we start counting from 1975, then after more than 15 years of hard work, it has finally borne fruit. The second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin" began to be published in 1984 and was completed in 1990, with a total of 60 volumes. There are as many as 30 articles included in this edition, with a total of 29.98 million words. As a supporting book, this complete set also has three index volumes: "General Catalog", "Subject Index", and "Chinese and Russian Page Number Comparison". It is a very practical and convenient reference book. The second edition of the Complete Works of Lenin is far superior to the first Chinese edition in terms of the number of documents included, the quality of translation and proofreading, and the compilation of reference materials. In particular, in terms of the number of documents included, it is the complete works version with the most Lenin documents in the world, which is also recognized by Russian experts in editing Lenin's works. 

The second Chinese edition of the Complete Works of Lenin has several characteristics that are worth mentioning here. The first is the richness of the documents included. Compared with the first Chinese edition, the number of new documents has increased. Compared with the fifth Russian edition, the fifth Russian edition has added documents that were not included and newly discovered later, with about 5 volumes of content. Among these new documents are complete articles, speeches, draft resolutions, instructions, letters, telegrams, outlines and notes. Importantly, a large part of the new documents were written by Lenin after the October Revolution, covering aspects such as party building, political power building, economic construction, legal system construction, science and culture, foreign relations, and international communism during the socialist period. These documents show how Lenin, starting from the reality of Russia, applied and developed the basic theories of Marxism and creatively explored the theory and practice of socialist construction. 

Secondly, the translations of the first edition have been revised to make them more accurate. Many translations have been greatly changed, and some are almost equivalent to re-translation. There are many substantive revisions in the revision of the translation, some of which involve important theoretical viewpoints, such as the revision of the translation of "patriotism" and "bourgeois legal rights". Not only were the translators widely discussed, but also the opinions of the translation and theoretical circles were widely sought. Take the sentence "patriotism" as an example. Lenin's so-called definition of patriotism was once widely popular, which is: "Patriotism is the deepest feeling for one's own country that has been consolidated over thousands of years." (Volume 28 of the first Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin", pages 168-169) But this is a wrong translation. The correct translation is: "Patriotism is an extremely deep feeling formed by the isolation of their respective motherlands for thousands of years." (Volume 35, page 187, the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin") Lenin's words actually refer to a relatively narrow sentiment towards the country among the petty bourgeoisie in a particular era. After the new translation was changed, it became difficult for people to quote classics when writing articles, but this is a real return. There are many such translation examples. In addition, one point that reflects Chinese characteristics in the second Chinese edition is that reference materials are compiled independently. In terms of material compilation, it is of course based on the fifth Russian edition. However, due to ideological limitations, the Soviet Union deliberately avoided some controversial figures or events. In this regard, my country tried its best to correct them during the compilation process. 

Finally, the first Chinese edition contains 53 pages of illustrations of Lenin's works translated and published in my country in the early period, which reflects the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese version. The translations of Lenin's works published and published in various periods of the Chinese revolution have extremely precious historical value. These early rare books were widely collected from libraries, museums, and second-hand bookstores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places. These pictures vividly illustrate the spread of Lenin's works in China and reflect the influence of Lenin's thoughts on the Chinese revolution. The "Lenin Special Collection" is edited based on the second Chinese edition of the "Complete Works of Lenin" produced in this way. The collection directly adopts the translation of the second edition, and the attached notes and biographies also come from the second edition. In this way, it provides a solid guarantee for the quality of the collection.

Secondly, the compilation of this collection of essays reflects its own characteristics. The so-called collection of essays is not a complete collection, and the special collection of essays is also different from the ordinary collection of essays. The special collection of essays is to compile relevant articles on the same topic into a collection. This is not the first time to compile a collection of Lenin's works. Even Lenin himself compiled a collection of his own articles, such as the famous collection of "Twelve Years". This collection of essays collected Lenin's articles and pamphlets during this period, all of which discussed the program, strategy and organizational issues of the Russian Social Democratic Party. Due to the large number of Lenin's works, such collections are all special collections. For example, the February Revolution to the October Revolution (first published by Shanghai Yangtze River Bookstore in September 1927, Shanghai Huaxing Bookstore in September 1930, and Central Soviet Area in September 1931), which can be traced back to the 1920s and 1930s, includes Lenin's relevant works during the two revolutions, such as "Letters from Afar" and "April Theses" and 45 other articles. Of course, there are more collections of works after the founding of the People's Republic of China, such as "Lenin on Literature and Art" (1960 People's Publishing House edition); "Lenin's Military Selected Works" (1981 Warrior Publishing House edition), which includes 125 works of Lenin on war, army and military academics; "Lenin on the New Economic Policy" (the latest version is the 2001 People's Publishing House edition), etc. These collections can meet the needs of different readers and are also the research results of different researchers. The classic works of Marxism are profound and numerous. Selecting collections, anthologies and single volumes that meet different needs will help the majority of cadres learn and master Marxism, so this type of collection can continue to be compiled.

However, as far as this special collection is concerned, its significance lies not only in that it is a key topic of the Central Marxist Theory Research and Construction Project, but also in that it is the first attempt to cover Lenin's main ideas in a collection according to their most important aspects. And which aspects should be used to summarize Lenin's main ideas is a complex theoretical issue. For example, the theoretical community debates on how to define Leninism, and scholars have different views. Traditionally, people accept Stalin's definition that Leninism is Marxism in the era of imperialism. But this definition has been questioned and many different opinions have been raised not only in the Soviet Union at that time, but also in my country. In recent years, many scholars in my country believe that although Stalin's definition has its reasonable points, Lenin's important ideas for socialist construction practice are not included in Stalin's definition at all. Exploring how backward countries can adopt new economic policies and so on to gradually build a new socialist society is precisely Leninism's new and major contribution to Marxism. It is precisely because of these factors that a relatively macro-level plan was finally determined, which is the current five special topics. These five topics closely revolve around major theoretical and practical issues such as what is Marxism, how to treat Marxism, what is capitalism, how to understand and treat capitalism, what is socialism, how to build socialism, what kind of party to build, how to build the party, and how to understand and grasp the Marxist world outlook and methodology. They focus on reflecting Lenin's main theoretical achievements in upholding and developing Marxism throughout his life, as well as the scientific summary of the practical experience of proletarian revolution and socialist construction, especially the practical guiding significance for China's construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The reflection of Lenin's thoughts in the form of topics is mainly to be able to fully and systematically reflect the formation, development and evolution of Lenin's thoughts in a certain field. This is also the most prominent and distinctive feature of this form that is different from the complete works and the selected works. For a researcher, the complete works are of course necessary, but for the general readers and ordinary cadres to study, it is a bit too heavy, and they may not grasp the key points and don't know where to start learning. In a sense, the selected works can meet the learning needs of general readers and ordinary cadres. The selected contents are all key contents, but on systematic issues, learners need to grasp and summarize them by themselves. Thematic collections can serve as an important supplement to the complete works and the selected works, and can help learners deeply understand the relevant ideas within a specific topic.

Arranging in chronological order is the basic principle followed by both the complete works and the selected works. Thematic collections can reflect their own flexibility, and can be arranged in chronological order or according to logical connections. Therefore, the arrangement of the works in each volume of the five volumes of the collection is different according to the different characteristics of each volume. "On Capitalism", "On Socialism" and "On the Proletarian Party" adopt the principle of chronology, while "On Marxism" and "On Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism" adopt the arrangement method based on theoretical logic and key works.

In fact, any form is to help readers learn better. It cannot be said that one form is better or worse than another form, but each form should be considered as a supplement to another form. Each form is a way to understand and think about problems. The emergence of various forms also provides a way to think about and understand problems from multiple angles and directions. So for "Lenin's Special Collection", it provides a systematic thinking path for learning Lenin's thoughts on a certain aspect. Take "On the Proletarian Party" as an example. The selection of "What is to be done?", "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back", and "Two Strategies of the Social Democratic Party in the Democratic Revolution" makes the context of the early party-building activities of the Russian Social Democratic Party very clear, and Lenin's thoughts on party building in terms of ideology, organization and action are fully reflected.

Take "On Socialism" as an example. With "Documents of the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)" as the opening chapter, as well as articles including "On Grain Tax", "The Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution", "The New Economic Policy and the Tasks of the Political Education Committee", "Report on the New Economic Policy at the Seventh Party Conference of Moscow Province", "On the Role of Gold at Present and After the Complete Victory of Socialism", "Outlines on the Role and Tasks of Trade Unions in the New Economic Policy" and "On Cooperatives", it clearly reflects the historical process of Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) switching to the New Economic Policy. For example, it summarizes the experience and lessons of war communism, demonstrates the purpose and significance of implementing the New Economic Policy, and expounds the significance of the cooperative principle for socialist construction, etc. From these articles, we can also see Lenin's arduous exploration of the theory and practice of socialist construction. For example, in the article "On the Role of Gold at Present and After the Complete Victory of Socialism", we can read Lenin's dialectical thinking on the road of socialist construction and the conclusion that was once difficult for a revolutionary communist to accept, that is, the idea of ​​transitioning to socialism through reform, gradualism, and concessions. Lenin believed that "the greatest danger, and perhaps even the only danger, for a true revolutionary is to exaggerate the role of revolution." We should "calmly consider at what time and under what circumstances which tasks can be solved by revolutionary methods and which tasks should be solved by reform methods."

He clearly pointed out that in the three years before the spring of 1911, Russia adopted a revolutionary approach to some fundamental issues of economic construction, namely, "destroying the old things most thoroughly and fundamentally, rather than prudently, slowly and gradually transforming the old things, striving to destroy them as little as possible"; and from the spring of 1921, the difference from the previous stage was that the reform approach began to be adopted. Lenin said, "The new thing now is that our revolution must adopt a 'reformist', gradualist, cautious and roundabout way of action on some fundamental issues of economic construction", "not destroying the old social and economic structure - commerce, small economy, small enterprises, capitalism, but activating commerce, small enterprises, capitalism, prudently and gradually mastering them, or, in other words, making it possible to implement state regulation on them only within the scope of activating them." Here, Lenin also proposed a new understanding of socialism, namely the combination of socialism and commerce. In the process of changing business and implementing the new economic policy, Lenin's understanding of socialism has made many new developments. For example, Lenin raised the issue of building socialism in an economically backward country where the small peasant economy is dominant, the view that the road to socialism in such a country has changed from "direct transition" to "indirect transition"; the view of using state capitalism, commodity-money relations and market principles to carry out socialist construction; etc. Lenin's new understanding of socialism and socialist construction are all reflected in this volume. Of course, it cannot be assumed that all of Lenin's understanding of socialism can be covered in this topic. This involves the issue of choosing and rejecting Lenin's documents in the compilation process.

Generally speaking, to cover Lenin's thoughts on relevant issues in one volume is to give up more and take less. In the spirit of reflecting and embodying Lenin's most important thoughts, many of Lenin's brilliant or important articles were cut out. For example, Lenin wrote "Notes of a Political Commentator" at the end of February 1949 (published in Volume 42 of the second edition of the Complete Works of Lenin), which is an article I like very much. In this article, Lenin used rich and vivid metaphors but also sharp writing to prove the necessity of the Soviet Union's transition to the New Economic Policy, and expounded a profound and important idea in a prose style. Another example is "Letter to the Congress" dictated by Lenin during his serious illness (published in Volume 2 of the second edition of the Complete Works of Lenin). This letter has attracted widespread attention because it involves personal evaluations of Soviet leaders such as Stalin. Not only that, this letter also contains Lenin's high concern for the unity and stability of the party, the principle of collective leadership of the party, and whether the party can correctly implement the party's policy line.

Finally, let's talk about the title in the editing style. This is an important innovation in the editing process of the collection. The captions are designed to help readers grasp the theoretical essence of each work. They are introductory and strive to introduce the core content and theoretical points of each article in a concise and concise manner. The compilation of the captions is completed by editors and researchers on the basis of careful reading of the literature. It should not only reflect the key points related to this document, but also take into account the development and influence of ideas. When writing, it is also required to use Lenin's original words as much as possible. In this way, the captions are not many, and it can be said that every word is carefully considered, and every word is useful. In addition, opinions from all parties were sought many times, and revisions were made many times until the final draft was completed.

The author was fortunate to participate in the editing of the collection, and specifically participated in writing some captions for the volume "On Capitalism". The author has a deep understanding of the revision situation, for example. This is the caption that I originally provided for the article "The Development of Capitalism in Russia": "This is an important work completed in the 1890s as a result of Lenin's debate with the Russian populists on the question of whether capitalism could develop in Russia. Lenin used Marx's economic theory and a large amount of statistical data to analyze Russia's economic and social system and social class structure. He criticized the populists' erroneous view that capitalism could not develop in Russia, pointing out that capitalism had become the dominant mode of production in both cities and rural areas in Russia, and that Russia was already a capitalist country. However, compared with Western European capitalist countries, Russian capitalism developed more slowly. In the chapters selected here, Lenin summarized the development of capitalism, pointing out that capitalism has both its progressive historical role: the improvement of social labor productivity and the socialization of labor, and its historical temporary nature. In the preface to the second edition of this book, Lenin pointed out that the development of capitalism has created the most favorable conditions for the working class to further realize its real and fundamental socialist transformation tasks." By the time the book was finally officially published, the final draft had been greatly revised. The revised text is as follows: "This is an important work in which Lenin comprehensively examines the development of Russian capitalism and uses Marxist economic theory to scientifically analyze Russia's social and economic system and class structure. In the excerpt, Lenin analyzed and criticized the theoretical errors of populist economists. Based on the basic principles of Marxist political economy, he explained a series of major theoretical issues closely related to the development of Russian capitalism, such as social division of labor, capitalist commodity production and the conditions for realizing surplus value, and the process and conditions for establishing a capitalist domestic market; he pointed out that the Russian revolution carried out on this economic basis must be a bourgeois revolution. 

This careful consideration of the title not only reflects the editor's responsible attitude, but also shows the editor's efforts to promote the popularization of Marxism. However, the publication of Lenin's Special Collection does not complete its historical mission, it is just a beginning. According to the latest news, in March 2010, the People's Publishing House and the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau took the lead in deciding to revise and publish the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin". At present, the Central Propaganda Department and the State Press and Publication Administration have listed this revision and publication as a major national publishing funding project and arranged a special national publishing fund. There is a need to revise the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin". First, the work has been published for years, and some volumes are now out of stock. It is not easy to collect all 60 volumes. Second, after the publication of any publication, some existing problems or individual points worth discussing are found, and the revision opportunity is used to correct some regrets left at that time. Third, after the second Chinese edition was published, some new documents of Lenin were constantly discovered and excavated. Through research, it was decided to take the opportunity of revision to add about 100,000 words of Lenin's documents and include them in the corresponding volumes of the corresponding years. The revision and publication of the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin" does not conflict with the publication, achievement transformation and application of "Lenin's Special Collection". The revised publication of the second edition will provide a more reliable textual basis for Lenin's documents, which will be more helpful in understanding the full picture of Lenin's thought and promoting the study of Lenin's thought. In-depth research on Lenin will help us grasp the true insights of Marxism more comprehensively, systematically and deeply, and will also play a positive role in promoting the sinicization, modernization and popularization of Marxism.

Notes:

　 ① For the publication of the fourth edition of the Complete Works of Lenin in the Soviet Union, please see my article "On the Political Tendency of the Fourth Russian Edition of the Complete Works of Lenin - On the Influence of Stalinism on Ideology", published in Contemporary World and Socialism, No. 5, 2008.