Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

A CARICATURE OF MARXISM69development is towards the merging of nations? For thesame reason—we reply—that we advocate and, when in power,will implement the dictatorship of the proletariat, thoughthe entire trend of development is towards abolition ofcoercive domination of one part of society over another.Dictatorship is domination of one part of society over therest of society, and domination, moreover, that rests directlyon coercion. Dictatorship of the proletariat, the only consistentlyrevolutionary class, is necessary to overthrow thebourgeoisie and repel its attempts at counter-revolution. Thequestion of proletarian dictatorship is of such overridingimportance that he who denies the need for such dictatorship,or recognises it only in words, cannot be a member ofthe Social-Democratic Party. However, it cannot be deniedthat in individual cases, by way of exception, for instance,in some small country after the social revolution has beenaccomplished in a neighbouring big country, peaceful surrenderof power by the bourgeoisie is possible, if it is convincedthat resistance is hopeless and if it prefers to save itsskin. It is much more likely, of course, that even in smallstates socialism will not be achieved without civil war, andfor that reason the only programme of international Social-Democracy must be recognition of civil war, though violenceis, of course, alien to our ideals. The same, mutatis mutandis(with the necessary alterations), is applicable to nations.We favour their merger, but now there can be no transitionfrom forcible merger and annexation to voluntary mergerwithout freedom of secession. We recognise—and quite rightly—the predominance of the economic factor, but to interpretit à la Kievsky is to make a caricature of Marxism. Eventhe trusts and banks of modern imperialism, though inevitableeverywhere as part of developed capitalism, differ intheir concrete aspects from country to country. There isa still greater difference, despite homogeneity in essentials,between political forms in the advanced imperialist countries—America,England, France, Germany. The samevariety will manifest itself also in the path mankind willfollow from the imperialism of today to the socialist revolutionof tomorrow. All nations will arrive at socialism—thisis inevitable, but all will do so in not exactly the same way,each will contribute something of its own to some form of