(A Fundamental Thesis)
I hope that the reader will not object if,to end up ti book, I attempt,without fear of repetition to formulate briefly most fundainental conclusions.
I. ‘The theory of the permanent revolution now demands greatist attention of every Marxist,for the course of the ideolo; and class struggle has finally and conclusively raised this quest from the realm of reminiscences over the old differences of opini among Russian Marxists and converted it into a auestion of the ct acter,the inner coherence and the methods of the international re ution in general.
2. With regard to the countries with a belated bourge development,especially the colonial and semi-colonial countries,t theory of the permanent revolution signifies that the complete ar genuine solution of their tasks,democratic and national emancipat is conceivable only through the dictatorship of the pealetariat a leader of the subjugated ration,above all of its peasant masses.
3. Not only the agrarian,but also the national questi assigns to the pessantry,the overwhelming majority of the populat of the backward countries,an important place in the democratic re ution. Without an alliance of the proletariat with the pcasantry sasks of the democratic revolution cannot be solved,nor even seri posed. But the alliance of these two classes can be realiscd in other way than through an intransigent struggle against the influ of the national liberal bourgeoisie.
4. No matter what the first episodic stages of the re ion nay be in the indivigual countries,the realisation of the rev ionary alliance between proletariat and the peasantryis concei only under the political direction of the proletarian vanguard,or iscd in the Communist party. This in turn means that the victory the democratic revolution is conceivable onl through the dictato of the proletariat which bases itself upon the allianceWiththe pe and first solves the problems of the democratic revolution.
5. The old slogan of Bolshevism-"the democratic dicta of the proletariat and peasantry" expresses precisely the above ¢ erised relationship of the proletariat,the peasantry and the libe: bourgeoisie. This has been confirmed by the experience of Octobe: But the old formula of Lenin does not settle in advance the probl what the mutual relations between the proletariat and the peasant: inside of the revolutionary bloc will be. In other words,the for has unknown algebraic quantities waich have to make way for preci: arithmetic quantities in the process of historical experience. 1 latter showed,under the cirecumstanccs that exclude every other in: pretation,that no matter how great the revolutionary role of the ; santry may be,it can nevertheless not be a leading one. The peas: follows either the worker or the bourgeois. This means that the "democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry" is onl;
coneeivable as a dictatorship of the proletariat that leads the pe masses behind it.
6. A democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and pe antry, aS a regime that is distinguished from the dictatorship of proletariat by its class content,might berealised only in case an independent revolutionaty party could te constituted which express interests of the peasants and in general of petty bourgeois democr a party that is capable of conquering power with this or that aid the proletariat and of determining its revolutionary program. As modern history teaches -especiallythe history of Russia in the las twenty-five years-an insurmountable obstacle on the road to the cr of a peasants' party is the econo ic and political dependance of t petty bourgeoisie and its decp internal differentiation, thanks to the upper sections of the petty bourgeoisic (the peasantry) go wi big bourgeoisie in all decisive cases,especially in war and in rev and the lower sections- with the proletariat,while the intermediat tion has the choice between two extreme poles. Between the Kerens and the Bolshevik power, between the Kuo Min Tang and the dictator of the proletariat there cannot and does not lie any intermediate that is,no democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants.
7. The endeavour of the Comintern to foist upon the Ea; countries the slogan of the democratic dictatorship of the <proleta: and peasantry,finally and long ago exausted by history,can Rave on. reactionary effect. In so far as this slogan is counter-posc@-to ~ slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat,it contributes to th dissolution of the proletariat into the petty bourgeois masses and this manner creates better conditions for the hegemony of the nati bourgeoisie and consequently for the collapse of the democratic re olution. The introduction of this slogan into the progran of the | tern is a direct betrayal of Marxism and of the October traditions Bolshevism.
8. The dictatorship of the proletariat which has risen power as the leader of the democratic revolution is inevitably and very quickly placed before tasks that are bound up with deep inroa into the rights of bourgeois property. The democratic revolution | over immediately into the socialist, and therby becomes a Permanen: revolution. aoe
9. The conquest of power by the proletariat does not t ate the revolution,but only opens it. ‘Socialist constructionis coz ceivable only on the foundation of the class strugglc,on a nationa: international scale , This struggle,under the conditions of an ove whelming predominance of capitalist relationships on the world ar will inevitably lead to explosions,that is,internally to civil war Therein lies the permanent character of the socialist revolutior such,regardless of whether it is a backward country that is involv which only yesterday accomplished its democratic revolution,or an capitalist country,which already has behind it a long epoch of den racy and parliamentarism. — _ IQ. The completion of the socialist revolution within yr limits is unthinkable. One of the basic reasons for the crisis ji bourgeois society is the fact that the productive forces created 1 conflict with the framework of the national state.
Pr v4
Af "rom this follow,on the one hand,imperialist wars,and on the other, Utopia of the bourgeois United States of Europe. The socialist rev ion commences on the national arena,is developed further on the int state and finally on the world arena. Thus,the socialist revolutioi becomes a permanent revolution in a newer and broader sense of the | it attains completion only in the final victory of the new society « entire planet.
II. The above outlined scheme of developmentof the wor: revolutioneliminates the questionof the countries that are "wature" socialism in the spirit of that pedantic,lifeless classification git by the present program of the Comintern. In so far as capitalism he created the world market,the division of labour and productive force throughout the world, it has also prepared the world economy for sox ialist transformation.
The various countries will go through this process at di erent tempos. Backward countries,under certain conditions,can arriv the dictatorship of the proletariat sooner than the advanced countri but they come later than the latter to socialism.
A backward colonial or semi-colonial country,whose prole iat is insufficiently prepared to unite the peasantry and seize powe thereby incapable of bringing the democratic revolution to its concl On the contrary,in a country where tne proletariat has power in its as the result of the democratic revolution,the subsequent fate of th dictatorship and socialism is not only and not so much depencent in final analysis upon the national productive forces,as it is upon th development of international socialist revolution.
I2. The theory of socialism in one country which rose o yeast of the reaction against October is the only theory that consis and to the very end,opposes the theory of the permanent revolution.
The attempt by the epigmanes,under the blows of our criti to confing the application of the theory of socialism in one countr clusively to RussSia,because of its specific characteristics(its exc iveness and its natural resources) does not improve matters but only worse. The break with the international position always to a nation messianisu,that is,to attribute special prerogatives and peculiariti
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The world division of labour,the dependence of Soviet ir try upon foreign teenique,the dependence of the productive forces of advanced countries of Europe upon Asiatic raw materials etc.,etc., me the construction of a socialist society in any single country impossi
I3. The theory of Stalin/Bucharin not only contrasts th democratic revolution quite mechanically to the socialist revolution, also tears the national revolution from the international path.
This theary sets the revolution in the backward countrie the task of establishing an unrealisable regime of the democratic dic orship,it contrasts this regine to the dictatorship of the proletaris thus introducing illusion and fiction into politics paralysing the st for power of the proletariat in the East,and hampering the victory of colonial revolution.
The very seizure of power by the proleteriat signifies,f the standpoint of of the theory of the epigénes,the completion.of uthe revolution(to 'nine-tenths according to Stalins formula) and the oper of the epoch of national reform. ‘the theory of the kulak growing int socialism and the theory of the 'neutralisation' of the world bourgec are consequently inseperable from the theory of socialism in one cour
They stand and fall together.
By the theory of national socialism,the Communist International is degraded to a weapon useful only for the struggle agai military intervention. The present policy of the Comintern,its regime, and the selection of its lexding personnel,corresvond snti ly to the debasement of the Communist Interntioneal to an auxiliar corps which is not destined to solve independent tasks.
I4. The program of the Cotlintern created by Bucharin is thoroughly ecleetic. It makes the hopeless attempt to reconcile t the theory of socialism in one country with Marxian internationali which is,however,inseperuble frou the pernaneht character of the w revolution. The strugele of the Communist Left Opposition ror a correct policy and a healthy regime in the Communist Internstional is inseperably cozbined with a struggle for a Marxian progran. The question of the program in turn is inseperable from the questi of the two mutually exclusive theories:the theory of permanent rev ution and the theory of socialism in one country. The problem of permanent revolution has long outgrown the episodic differences of opinion between Lenin and Vrotsky,which were completely exhausted by history. The struggle is between the basic ideas of Marx and Lenin on the one side and the eclectics of the Centrists on the ot
Constantinople, November 30,