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classes. The ruling class enforces its rule by means ofthe state, which is an organ for the forcible repressionof one class by another. Its chief instruments are thearmy and the police :The distinctive feature of the state is the existenceof a separate class of people in whose hands pozuer isconcentrated. (LCW I.4Ig)According to Marx, the state is an organ of classrule, an organ for the oppression of one class byanother; it is the creation of 'order', which legalisesand perpetuates this oppression by moderating theconflict between the classes. (LCW 2SAB7.)A standing army and police are the chief instrumentsof state power. (LCW 25.389.)Thus, every form of class society-slave-owning,feudal, capitalist-is a dictatorship of the ruling class.The form of state varies. In capitalist-that is,bourgeois-society it may be more or less democratic; itmay allow for parliamentary elections based on universalsuffrage; but it is still a dictatorship-'a dictatorshipof the bourgeoisie masked by parliamentary forms'(LCW 3o.roo):Bourgeois democracy, which is invaluable for educatingthe proletariat and training it for struggle, isalways narrow, hypocritical, spurious and false; italways remains democracy for the rich and a swindlefor the poor. (LCW zB.roB.)Accordingly, while urging the workers to make fulluse of bourgeois democratic rights 'in the spirit of thernost consisten,t and resolutely revolutionary democracy'(LCW zr.4og), Lenin warned them that it was anillusion to suppose that they could win power by parliamentarymeans. This was the main issue betweenhim and the revisionists of his day :it l,i,I,l,iIi{iIIIiI{IThe most dangerous thing about the BerneInternational is its verrbal recognition of the dictatorshipof the proletariat.. .. Attempts are being madeto recognise the diotatorship of the proletariat inwords in order to smuggle in along with it the 'willof the majority', 'universal suffrage' (this is exactlywhat Kautsky does), ibourgeois parliamentarism,rejection of the idea that the entire hourgeois maohineryof the state must be destroyed, smashed, blownup. These new evasions, new loopholes of reformism,are most of all to be feared.The dictatorship of the proletariat would be impossibleif the majority of the population did notconsist of proletarians and semi-proletarians. Kautskyand Co. try to falsify this truth by arguing that 'thevote of the majority' is required for the dictatorshipof the proletariat to be recognised as 'valid'. Comicalpedants ! They fail to understand that voting withinthe bounds, institutions and customs of bourgeoisparliamentarism is a part of the bourgeois statemachinery that Lras to ibe broken and smashed fromtop to bottom in order to pass from bourgeois democracyto proletarian democracy. (LCW zg.5lo.)It follows that all attempts to use the apparatus of thebourgeois state, which seryes to protect bourgeoisrigh,ts, for the purpose of abolishing those rights, aredoomed to failure :It is the greatest delusion, the greatest selfdeception,and a deception of the people, to attemPtby means of this state aPparatus to carry outsuch reforms as the abolition of landed estateswithout compensation, of the grain monopoly, etc.This apparatus . . . is absolutely incapable of carryingout reforms which would even seriously curtail orlimit the rights of 'sacred private property', much lessabolish those rights. That is why it always happens,
under all sorts of 'coalition' cabinets, which include'socialists', that these socialists, even when individualsamong them are perfectly honest, in reality turn outto be either a useless ornament or a screen for thebourgeois government, a sort of lightning conductor,to divert the people's indignation from the government,a tool for the government to deceive thepeople. .. . So it has been and so it always will be solong as the old bourgeois, bureaucratic state apparatusremains intact. (LCW 25.369.)Consequently, the bourgeois state can only be overthrownby force. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisiemust be replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat :The essence of Marx's theory of the state has beenmastered only by those who realise that the dictatorshipof a single class is necessary not only for everyclass society in general, not only for the proletariatwhich has overthrown the bourgeoisie, but also forthe entire historical period which separates capitalismfrom 'classless society', from communism. Bourgeoisstates are most varied in form, but their essence is'the same: all these states, whatever their form, inthe final analysis are inevitably the dictatorship ofthe bourgeoisie. The transition from capitalism tocommunism is certainly bound to yield a trernendousaibundance and variety of political forms, but theessence will inevitably be the same; the dictatorshipof the proletariat. (LCW 25.+ry.)The form in which this dictatorship emerged in Russiawas one in which the proletariat, supported by the poorpeasantry, seized state power from- the feudal lindownersand the big bourgeoisie or capitalist class(LCW es.r rs).In this way, having seized power, the proletariatabolishes bourgeois democracy and replaces it withprotretarian democracy :t/t,lt)it1,ir/liThe proletariat takes Power, becomes the ru'lingclass, smashes bourgeois parliarnentarism and bourgeoisdemocracy, suPPresses the -bourgeoisie, supp.etsesall attempts of all othet classes to return toLapitalitm, gives real freedom and democracy to -theworking people (which is practicahle only whenprivate ownership of the means of production hasbeen abolished) and gives them, not just the right to,but the real ttse of, what has heen taken |tom thebourgeoisie. (LCW z9'5r r.)Thus, the dictatorship of the proletariat means democracyfor the peoplJ and dictatorship over the capitalists:Bolshevism has popularised throughout the worldthe idea of the 'dictatorship of the proletariatr' hastranslated these words from the Latin, firs't intoRussian, and then into all the languages of theworld, and has shown by the example of Sooietgoaernnlent that the workers and poor Peasants,iam of a backward country, even with the leastexperience, education and habits of organisation,have been able for a whole year amidst giganticdifficulties and amidst a struggle against the exploiters(who were supported by the bourgeoisie oft]n. white wor'ld) to maintain the power of theworking people, to create a democracy which isi-measrribly frigher and broader than all previousdemocracies-in the world, and to start the creativework of tens of millions of workers and peasants forthe practical cbnstruction of socialism' (LCWzB.z93.)Siiultaneously with an immense expansion ofd.emocracy, which for the first time becomes demo'cracy for the poor, democracy for the.people,-andnot democracy lor the moneybags, the dictatorship ofthe proletariai irnposes a series of restrictions on the
Page 1 and 2: x\rsE-TUN
Page 3 and 4: PrefaceTo the memory ofDOUGLAS GARM
Page 5: iY. Socialism in One Countryr Marx'
Page 9 and 10: contingent of the working people, o
Page 11 and 12: asis-all this is bound to be experi
Page 13 and 14: In speakins of 'opportunism' here,
Page 15 and 16: the essence of the process remain u
Page 17 and 18: their exploitation of the peasantry
Page 19 and 20: With atl the peasants right through
Page 21 and 22: established a commercial network fo
Page 23 and 24: CHAPTER IIIThe Proletariat and the
Page 25 and 26: question-but in the sense of being
Page 27 and 28: ourgeois-dernocratic revolution and
Page 29 and 30: of the war, the vagabond and semi-v
Page 31 and 32: lation participants in the division
Page 33 and 34: as in Russia and so rapid that the
Page 35 and 36: the coming phases of the world revo
Page 37 and 38: on the part of the capitalists. Trh
Page 39 and 40: so is always ready, as in Greece an
Page 41 and 42: The era of imperialism, or monopoly
Page 43 and 44: with all the old repressive machine
Page 45 and 46: perialism; that the world economy i
Page 47 and 48: subjective forces of revolution are
Page 49 and 50: the most democratic republics, and
Page 51 and 52: eally able to lead the whole mass f
Page 53 and 54: This is where the proletarian who h
Page 55 and 56: trheir interests. It must serve in
Page 57 and 58:
in the world an'd in China, a great
Page 59 and 60:
profound changes, and there{ore gre
Page 61 and 62:
ing class in the countryside. That
Page 63 and 64:
important question of Marxism. He a
Page 65 and 66:
4.The New BourgeoisieThe proletaria
Page 67 and 68:
operative and all other organisatio
Page 69 and 70:
etreat only if the proletariat and
Page 71 and 72:
that we make the class struggle her
Page 73 and 74:
ad,ministration'*which had already
Page 75 and 76:
to declare a 'state of emergency' a
Page 77 and 78:
Very soon we shall be victorious th
Page 79 and 80:
tradictions exist in socialist soci
Page 81 and 82:
working class and the national bour
Page 83 and 84:
tral as well as the provincial, mun
Page 85 and 86:
{Ipoint, the final victory of a soc
Page 87 and 88:
necessary not only to ,bring about
Page 89 and 90:
tools are wheelbarrows, shovels, pi
Page 91 and 92:
LCW ro.z77-3o9. The UnitYApril 19o6
Page 93 and 94:
LCW zg.387-gr. Greetings to the Hun
Page 95 and 96:
Mao Tse-tungMSW. Selected works ofr
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