The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 9
from the latter in his insistence upon a more precise formulation of the nature of the future revolution,
arguing that the proletariat once having come to power, in alliance with the rural masses, would be
unable to halt at the "democratic" stage and would have to continue to the "socialist stage," i.e., would
make the revolution permanent. [BACK TO TEXT]
56. In defending his (that is, Trotsky's) amendment, Krassin said at the third congress of the Bolsheviks:
"As regards the resolu tion of Comrade Lenin, I see its weak point in its failure to stress the question of
the provisional government, and to indicate with sufficient clarity the connection between provisional
government and armed uprising. As a matter of fact, the provisional gov ernment is established by the
popular uprising as its own organ.
I further find in the resolution the incorrect opinion that the provisional revolutionary government will
appear only after the final victory of the armed uprising and after the overthrow of autocracy. No-it arises
in the very process of the uprising and takes the most active part in the conduct of the uprising, insuring
the latter's victory by its organized action. It is naive to think that the social democracy will be able to
take part in the provi sional revolutionary government the moment the autocracy is completely
overthrown; when the chestnuts have been removed from the fire by other hands than ours, nobody will
ever dream of sharing them with us." In dealing with Krassin's remarks, Lenin said: "Taking it by and
large, I subscribe to the opinion of Comrade Krassin. It is natural that as a literary man, I should
concentrate my attention on the literary shaping of the question. The importance of the object of the
struggle is pointed out by Comrade Krassin very exactly, and I wholly subscribe to his view. One cannot
engage in a struggle without expecting to cap ture the position for which one is fighting." Commenting
on the episode twenty-four years later, Trotsky wrote: "The resolution was correspondingly amended. It
may not be superfluous to remark that during the polemics of the last few years, the reso lution of the
Third Congress on the question of provisional gov ernment has been quoted hun~reds of times as
something opposed to 'Trotskyism.' The 'Red Professors' of the Stalin school have not the ghost of an
idea that they are quoting against me, as an example of Leninism, the very lines that I wrote myself." (My
Life, New York, 1930, p. 173.) [BACK TO TEXT]
57. In reply to an article in the bourgeois liberal journal, Nasha Zhizn [Our Life], which sought to
contrast the "reasonable" views of Lenin to the "permanent revolution" of Trotsky, the Bolshevik organ,
Novaya Zhizn [New Life] replied, on Novem ber 27, 1905: "This gratuitous report is of course slicer
nonsense. Comrade Trotsky said that the proletarian revolution, without standing still at the first stage, by
pressing hard upon the ex ploiters, can continue on its road, while Lenin pointed out that the political
revolution is only the first step. The publicist of Nasha Zhizn would like to perceive a contradiction there.
.
The whole misunderstanding comes, first, from the fear with which the name alone of the social
revolution fills Nasha Zhizn, secondiy, out of the desire of this paper to discover some sort of sharp and
piquant difference of opinion among the social demo crats and, thirdly, in the metaphorical expression of
Comrade Trotsky: 'at one fell swoop.' In No. 10 of Nachalo [The Beginning], Comrade Trotsky explains
his ideas quite unequivocally:
'The complete victory of the revolution signifies the victory of the proletariat,' writes Comrade Trotsky.
'But this victory in turn signifies the further uninterruptedness of the revolution. The proletariat realizes
the fundamental tasks of democracy and the logic of its immediate struggle for the safeguarding of politi
cal domination causes purely socialist problems to arise at the given moment. Between the minimum and
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