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The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution
First published March 20, 1906
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Vladimir Lenin
2,746 books1,836 followersVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.
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November 3, 2025
Written immediately after Lenin’s return from exile, and also containing Lenin’s famous “April theses”, this work was Lenin’s presentation to the Bolshevik Party in a deeper, more succinct way on the questions facing the Russian Revolution which Lenin had already begun to elaborate in his Letters from Afar.
Lenin opens by giving a resounding characterisation of the revolution as it had developed so far. In his letters from afar, Lenin had already dwelt on the great service rendered to this revolution by the experience of 1905-07 and explained how the revolution was able to gain such ground so quickly. Now, here, Lenin summarises the victories so far won by the revolution and what policies it had born out in the provisional government which represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and landowners and presided over the workers and peasants by way of deception. But, though power at that moment rested in the hands of the provisional government, Lenin better than anyone understood the immense importance of the simultaneously existing Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, describing this dual power as “the main peculiarity of our revolution” (p. 5). At this time, there were those like Plekhanov and Axelrod who believed that, although the bourgeoisie had taken power for itself in the provisional government, the tasks of the bourgeois revolution were not completed. Later on, Lenin rails against this cowardly way of thinking, declaring that “the passing of state power from one class to another is the first, the main, the basic principle of a revolution, both in the strictly scientific and in the practical political meaning of the term. To that extent, the bourgeois… revolution in Russia is completed.” (p.38) With the bourgeoisie now in power, this class having played out its revolutionary role at last, paired with the existence of the Soviets, Lenin, restating what was said in his letters from afar, makes clear exactly why the October Revolution was a necessity: “Dual power expresses merely a transition moment in the development of the revolution, when it has gone farther than the usual bourgeois-democratic revolution, but has not yet reached a ‘pure’ dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry.” (p. 6)
Of great interest also is Lenin’s characterisation of the methods of rule employed by all reactionary classes at one time or another, “the method of deception, flattery, pretty phrases, innumerable promises, cheap sops, conceding the unimportant, retaining the important.” (p. 9) There is much to be learned in the art of agitation and how to approach the working class here from Lenin’s words. It is to be observed that even among Bolshevik agitators at the time, there was a certain impatience with the people that bred carelessness and nihilism in the party ranks, and this is all the more troubling today. Rushing too far ahead of things and failing to explain things properly, to reveal the real meaning behind the revolutionary slogans of the day, as Lenin would show in his dealing with the question of the slogan “down with the war”, could only alienate people and turn them against the party propagandists. These people, sincere in their convictions, have been taken for a ride by the pompous bourgeois talk. Lenin stresses that with these people “it must be explained very patiently that it is not a question of his personal wishes, but of mass, class, political relationships and conditions” (p. 11), revealing the key to overcoming this destructive rushing ahead and how to actually conduct effective agitational work on important questions among the working class.
But the part of this work which is definitely most well-known (and still retains an immense significance today) is Lenin’s description of the situation within the Socialist International. Of course, the question of the trends within the communist movement (social-chauvinist, centrist, internationalist) had been dealt with in great detail elsewhere, such as in Lenin’s famous article on the collapse of the Second International, but it is here that Lenin gives concisely a definition of each of the three trends, explaining their class character and what the politics of each trend really means. “Whoever declines to recognise the existence of these three tendencies, to analyse them, to fight persistently for real active internationalism, condemns himself to impotence, helplessness and errors” (p. 19). The description given here of the three trends, their programmes, their class characters, is undoubtedly the culmination of the years of struggle that the Bolshevik Party had waged in defence of real internationalism against the former two trends, and anyone who has studied, say, Lenin’s article on the collapse of the Second International or the centrist caricature of Marxism can definitely sense that Lenin’s writings on the topic were all leading to this conclusive point. And history — the October Revolution, the behaviour of the Second International, the social-chauvinists, the centrists thereafter — proved the correctness of Lenin’s words, and it is undoubtedly on the conclusions reached here, and with the descriptions of the three trends (and how the former two interact with one another and always lead toward reformism) that Bolshevism will reestablish itself as an international trend and the new Communist International will be built.
All in all, this work, for its elaborations on the experience of the Russian Revolution, the work and character of the proletarian dictatorship, the work of agitation, as well as the programme of the proletarian party and trends in the communist movement, remains one of Lenin’s most important works, needing, especially today when so many of the problems Lenin fights against here have returned, to be studied particularly closely by all communists.
Lenin opens by giving a resounding characterisation of the revolution as it had developed so far. In his letters from afar, Lenin had already dwelt on the great service rendered to this revolution by the experience of 1905-07 and explained how the revolution was able to gain such ground so quickly. Now, here, Lenin summarises the victories so far won by the revolution and what policies it had born out in the provisional government which represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and landowners and presided over the workers and peasants by way of deception. But, though power at that moment rested in the hands of the provisional government, Lenin better than anyone understood the immense importance of the simultaneously existing Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, describing this dual power as “the main peculiarity of our revolution” (p. 5). At this time, there were those like Plekhanov and Axelrod who believed that, although the bourgeoisie had taken power for itself in the provisional government, the tasks of the bourgeois revolution were not completed. Later on, Lenin rails against this cowardly way of thinking, declaring that “the passing of state power from one class to another is the first, the main, the basic principle of a revolution, both in the strictly scientific and in the practical political meaning of the term. To that extent, the bourgeois… revolution in Russia is completed.” (p.38) With the bourgeoisie now in power, this class having played out its revolutionary role at last, paired with the existence of the Soviets, Lenin, restating what was said in his letters from afar, makes clear exactly why the October Revolution was a necessity: “Dual power expresses merely a transition moment in the development of the revolution, when it has gone farther than the usual bourgeois-democratic revolution, but has not yet reached a ‘pure’ dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry.” (p. 6)
Of great interest also is Lenin’s characterisation of the methods of rule employed by all reactionary classes at one time or another, “the method of deception, flattery, pretty phrases, innumerable promises, cheap sops, conceding the unimportant, retaining the important.” (p. 9) There is much to be learned in the art of agitation and how to approach the working class here from Lenin’s words. It is to be observed that even among Bolshevik agitators at the time, there was a certain impatience with the people that bred carelessness and nihilism in the party ranks, and this is all the more troubling today. Rushing too far ahead of things and failing to explain things properly, to reveal the real meaning behind the revolutionary slogans of the day, as Lenin would show in his dealing with the question of the slogan “down with the war”, could only alienate people and turn them against the party propagandists. These people, sincere in their convictions, have been taken for a ride by the pompous bourgeois talk. Lenin stresses that with these people “it must be explained very patiently that it is not a question of his personal wishes, but of mass, class, political relationships and conditions” (p. 11), revealing the key to overcoming this destructive rushing ahead and how to actually conduct effective agitational work on important questions among the working class.
But the part of this work which is definitely most well-known (and still retains an immense significance today) is Lenin’s description of the situation within the Socialist International. Of course, the question of the trends within the communist movement (social-chauvinist, centrist, internationalist) had been dealt with in great detail elsewhere, such as in Lenin’s famous article on the collapse of the Second International, but it is here that Lenin gives concisely a definition of each of the three trends, explaining their class character and what the politics of each trend really means. “Whoever declines to recognise the existence of these three tendencies, to analyse them, to fight persistently for real active internationalism, condemns himself to impotence, helplessness and errors” (p. 19). The description given here of the three trends, their programmes, their class characters, is undoubtedly the culmination of the years of struggle that the Bolshevik Party had waged in defence of real internationalism against the former two trends, and anyone who has studied, say, Lenin’s article on the collapse of the Second International or the centrist caricature of Marxism can definitely sense that Lenin’s writings on the topic were all leading to this conclusive point. And history — the October Revolution, the behaviour of the Second International, the social-chauvinists, the centrists thereafter — proved the correctness of Lenin’s words, and it is undoubtedly on the conclusions reached here, and with the descriptions of the three trends (and how the former two interact with one another and always lead toward reformism) that Bolshevism will reestablish itself as an international trend and the new Communist International will be built.
All in all, this work, for its elaborations on the experience of the Russian Revolution, the work and character of the proletarian dictatorship, the work of agitation, as well as the programme of the proletarian party and trends in the communist movement, remains one of Lenin’s most important works, needing, especially today when so many of the problems Lenin fights against here have returned, to be studied particularly closely by all communists.
May 18, 2025
One of Lenin's finest works. It's succinct in presentation but grand in scope. This, not What is To Be Done? is the blueprint for establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat. The tasks of doing that are not small, as Lenin adroitly puts forth, but they can be accomplished. The Task of the Proletariat in Our Revolution maintains it's sharp edge throughout and until the very end Lenin offers hope through his barbed cuts, which is the books biggest strength.
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