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

A CARICATURE OF MARXISM73elect their “own” people’s judges, officials, school-teachers,jurymen, etc., is likewise in most cases unrealisable undercapitalism precisely because of the economic subjection ofthe workers and peasants. The same applies to the democraticrepublic: our programme defines it as “government by thepeople”, though all Social-Democrats know perfectly wellthat under capitalism, even in the most democratic republic,there is bound to be bribery of officials by the bourgeoisieand an alliance of stock exchange and the government.Only those who cannot think straight or have no knowledgeof Marxism will conclude: so there is no point inhaving a republic, no point in freedom of divorce, no pointin democracy, no point in self-determination of nations!But Marxists know that democracy does not abolish classoppression. It only makes the class struggle more direct,wider, more open and pronounced, and that is what we need.The fuller the freedom of divorce, the clearer will womensee that the source of their “domestic slavery” is capitalism,not lack of rights. The more democratic the system ofgovernment, the clearer will the workers see that the root evilis capitalism, not lack of rights. The fuller national equality(and it is not complete without freedom of secession), theclearer will the workers of the oppressed nations see thatthe cause of their oppression is capitalism, not lack ofrights, etc.It must be said again and again: It is embarrassing tohave to drive home the ABC of Marxism, but what is one todo if Kievsky does not know it?He discusses divorce in much the same way as one ofthe secretaries of the Organising Committee abroad, Semkovsky,discussed it, if I remember rightly, in the ParisGolos. 31 His line of reasoning was that freedom of divorceis not, it is true, an invitation to all wives to leave theirhusbands, but if it is proved that all other husbands arebetter than yours, madame, then it amounts to one and thesame thing!!In taking that line of argument Semkovsky forgot thatcrank thinking is not a violation of socialist or democraticprinciples. If Semkovsky were to tell a woman that all otherhusbands were better than hers, no one would regard this asviolation of democratic principles. At most people would