[Nasional-f] [koran-salatiga] Re: Nationalism in Lenin

[enjoy_aje]

--- In koran-salatiga@y..., Soebakat <soebakat@y...> wrote:
> Leon Trotsky's Lenin Nationalism In Lenin[1] 
> 
> LENIN'S internationalism needs no recommendation. Its
> distinguishing mark is the irreconcilable break, in
> the first days of the world war, with that
> falsification of internationalism that prevailed in
> the Second International. The official leaders of
> "Socialism," from the parliamentary tribune, by
> abstract arguments in the spirit of the old
> Cosmopolites, brought the interests of the fatherland
> into harmony with the interests of humanity. In
> practice this led, as we know, to the support of the
> rapacious fatherland through the proletariat. 
> 
> Lenin's internationalism is by no means a form of
> reconciliation of Nationalism and Internationalism in
> words but a form of international revolutionary
> action. The territory of the earth inhabited by
> so-called civilized man is looked upon as a coherent
> field of combat on which the separate peoples and
> classes wage gigantic warfare against each other. No
> single question of importance can be forced into a
> national frame. Visible and invisible threads connect
> this question with dozens of phenomena at all ends of
> the world. In his appreciation of international
> factors and powers Lenin is freer than most people
> from national prejudices. 
> 
> Marx was of the opinion that the philosophers had
> declared the world satisfactory and believed it to be
> his task to transform it. But he, the prophet of
> genius, had not lived to see it. The transformation of
> the old world is now in full swing and Lenin is its
> first worker. His internationalism is a practical
> appreciation of historical events and a practical
> adaptation to their course on an international scale
> and for international aims. Russia and her fate are
> only one element in this great historical struggle
> upon whose outcome the fate of humanity depends. 
> 
> Lenin's internationalism needs no recommendation.
> Withal Lenin himself is national to a high degree. He
> is deeply rooted in the new Russian history, makes it
> his own, gives it its most pregnant expression, and
> thereby reaches the height of international action and
> international influence. 
> 
> At first the characterization of Lenin as "national"
> may seem surprising, and yet it is, fundamentally
> considered, a matter of course. To be able to direct
> such a revolution, without precedent in the history of
> peoples, as is now taking place [n Russia, it is most
> evidently necessary to have an indissoluble organic
> connection with the main strength of popular life, a
> connection which springs from the deepest roots. 
> 
> Lenin embodies in himself the Russian proletariat, a
> youthful class, that politically is scarcely older
> than Lenin himself, withal a deeply national class,
> for the whole past development of Russia is bound up
> with it, in it lies Russia's entire future, with it
> lives and dies the Russian nation. Lack of routine and
> example, of falseness and convention, moreover,
> firmness of thought and boldness of action, a boldness
> that never degenerates into want of understanding,
> characterize the Russian proletariat and also Lenin. 
> 
> The nature of the Russian proletariat, that has
> actually made it the most important power in the
> international revolution, had been prepared beforehand
> by the course of Russian national history, by the
> barbaric cruelty of the most absolute of states, the
> insignificance of the privileged classes, the feverish
> development of capitalism in the dregs of exchange,
> the deterioration of the Russian bourgeoisie and their
> ideology, the degeneration of their politics. Our
> "Third Estate" knew neither a reformation nor a great
> revolution and could not know them. So the
> revolutionary problems of the proletariat assumed a
> more comprehensive character. Our historical past
> knows 
> 
> neither a Luther, nor a Thomas Munzer, neither a
> Mirabean nor a Danton, nor a Robespierre. For that
> very reason the Russian proletariat has its Lenin.
> What was lacking in tradition was gained in
> revolutionary energy. 
> 
> Lenin reflects in himself the Russian workman's class,
> not only in its political present but also in its
> rustic past which is so recent. This man, who is
> indisputably the leader of the proletariat, not only
> outwardly resembles a peasant, but has also something
> about him which is strongly suggestive of a peasant.
> Facing Smolny stands the statue of the other hero of
> the proletariat of the world: Marx on a pedestal in a
> black frock coat. To be sure, this is a trifle, but it
> is quite impossible to imagine Lenin in a black frock
> coat. In some pictures Marx is represented in a broad
> shirt front on which a monocle dangles. 
> 
> That Marx was not inclined to coquetry is clear to all
> who have an idea of the Marxian spirit. But Marx grew
> up on a different basis of national culture, lived in
> a different atmosphere, as did also the leading
> personalities of the German workman's class, with
> their roots reaching back, not to the village, but to
> the corporation guilds and the complicated city
> culture of the middle ages. 
> 
> Marx's style also, which is rich and beautiful, in
> which strength and flexibility, anger and irony,
> harshness and elegance are combined, betrays the
> literary and ethical strata of all the past German
> socialistic literature since the reformation and even
> before. Lenin's literary and oratorical style is
> extremely simple, ascetic, as is his whole nature. But
> this strong asceticism has not a shade of moral
> preaching about it. This is not a principle, no
> thought-out system and assuredly no affectation, but
> is simply the outward expression of inward
> concentration of strength for action. It is an
> economic peasant-like reality on a very large scale. 
> 
> The entire Marx is contained in the "Communistic
> Manifesto," in the foreword to his "Critique," in
> "Capital." Even if he had not been the founder of the
> First International he would always remain what he is.
> Lenin, on the other hand, expands at once into
> revolutionary action. His works as a scholar mean only
> a preparation for action. If he had never published a
> single book in the past he would still appear in
> history what he now is: the leader of the proletarian
> revolution, the founder of the Third International. 
> 
> A clear, scholarly system-materialistic dialectics-was
> necessary, to be able to renounce deeds of this kind
> that devolved upon Lenin; it was necessary but not
> sufficient. Here was needed that mysterious creative
> power that we call intuition: the ability to grasp
> appearances correctly at once, to distinguish the
> essential and important from the unessential and
> insignificant, to imagine the missing parts of a
> picture, to weigh well the thoughts of others and
> above all of the enemy, to put all this into a united
> whole and the moment the "formula" for it comes to his
> mind, to deal the blow. This is intuition to action.
> On the one side it corresponds with what we call
> penetration. 
> 
> When Lenin, his left eye closed, receives b3~ radio
> the parliamentary speech of a leader of imperialistic
> history or the expected diplomatic note, a web of
> bloodthirsty reserve and political cant, he resembles
> a damnably proud moujik who won't be imposed upon.
> This is the high-powered peasant cunning, which
> amounts almost to genius, equipped with the latest
> acquisitions of a scholarly mind. 
> 
> The young Russian proletariat is able to accomplish
> what only he accomplishes who has plowed up the heavy
> sod of the peasantry to its depths. Our whole national
> past has prepared this fact. But just because the
> proletariat came into power through the course of
> events has our revolution suddenly and radically been
> able to overcome the national narrowness and
> provincial backwardness; Soviet Russia became not only
> the place of refuge of the Communistic International,
> but also the living embodiment of its program and
> methods. 
> 
> By unknown paths, not yet explored by science, on
> which the personality of man acquires its form, Lenin
> has taken from nationalism all that he needed for the
> greatest revolutionary action in the history of
> humanity. Just because the social revolution, that has
> long had its international theoretical expression,
> found for the first time in Lenin its national
> embodiment, he became, in the true sense of the word,
> the revolutionary leader of the proletariat of the
> world. 
> 
> 
> Footnotes
> [1] Pravda No. 86, April 23rd. 192O. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ___________________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!? -- Une adresse @yahoo.fr gratuite et en français !
> Yahoo! Mail : http://fr.mail.yahoo.com


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/MVfIAA/x3XolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
koran-salatiga-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/