Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

206V. I. LENIN16, 20, 21). It is common knowledge that even outrightopponents of Marxism lay claim to this latter term in Russia.In the second place, if the task of developing “proletarianscience” is introduced in the platform, it is necessary tostate plainly just what ideological and theoretical struggleof our day is meant here and whose side the authors of theplatform take. Silence on this point is a naïve subterfuge,for the essence of the matter is obvious to everyone who isacquainted with the Social-Democratic literature of 1908-09.In our day a struggle between the Marxists and the Machistshas come to the fore and is being waged in the domainof science, philosophy and art. It is ridiculous, to say theleast, to shut one’s eyes to this commonly known fact.“Platforms” should be written not in order to gloss overdifferences but in order to explain them.Our authors clumsily give themselves away by the abovequotedpassage of the platform. Everyone knows thatit is Machism that is in fact implied by the term “proletarianphilosophy”—and every intelligent Social-Democrat willat once decipher the “new” pseudonym. There was no pointin inventing this pseudonym, no point in trying to hidebehind it. In actual fact, the most influential literary nucleusof the new group is Machist, and it regards non-Machistphilosophy as non-“proletarian”.Had they wanted to speak of it in the platform, theyshould have said: the new group unites those who willfight against non-”proletarian”, i.e., non-Machist, theoriesin philosophy and art. That would have been a straightforward,truthful and open declaration of a well-knownideological trend, an open challenge to the other tendencies.When an ideological struggle is held to be of great importancefor the Party, one does not hide but comes out with an opendeclaration of war.And we shall call upon everyone to give a definite andclear answer to the platform’s veiled declaration of a philosophicalstruggle against Marxism. In reality, all thephraseology about “proletarian culture” is just a screen forthe struggle against Marxism. The “original” feature ofthe new group is that it has introduced philosophy intothe Party platform without stating frankly what tendencyin philosophy it advocates.