Socialism and religion

by Vladimir Lenin

Bu kitap, Lenin'in militan materyalizm ve proletarya partisinin din karşısındaki tutumu üzerine bütün yazı ve konuşmalarını içeriyor.

Genres: Politics, Religion, Philosophy, Theory

6 pages, Unknown Binding

First published December 3, 1905

About the author

Vladimir 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.

Reviews

[Reid tries to read]

Good quotes from this one:

- "The workers may secure a greater or lesser degree of political liberty to fight for their economic emancipation, but no amount of liberty will rid them of poverty, unemployment, and oppression until the power of capital is overthrown. Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation"

-"Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image"

-"Religion must be declared a private affair... We demand that religion be held a private affair so far as the state is concerned. But by no means can we consider religion a private affair so far as our Party is concerned. Religion must be of no concern to the state... Everyone must be absolutely free to profess any religion he pleases, or no religion whatever, i.e., to be an atheist, which every socialist is, as a rule. Discrimination among citizens on account of their religious convictions is wholly intolerable. Even the bare mention of a citizen’s religion in official documents should unquestionably be eliminated. No subsidies should be granted to the established church nor state allowances made to ecclesiastical and religious societies. These should become absolutely free associations of like-minded citizens, associations independent of the state. Only the complete fulfilment of these demands can put an end to the shameful and accursed past when the church lived in feudal dependence on the state, and Russian citizens lived in feudal dependence on the established church,"

- "Complete separation of Church and State is what the socialist proletariat demands of the modern state and the modern church."

- "as the party of the socialist proletariat is concerned, religion is not a private affair. Our Party is an association of class-conscious, advanced fighters for the emancipation of the working class. Such an association cannot and must not be indifferent to lack of class-consciousness, ignorance or obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs. We demand complete disestablishment of the Church so as to be able to combat the religious fog with purely ideological and solely ideological weapons"

- "why do we not declare in our Programme that we are atheists? Why do we not forbid Christians and other believers in God to join our Party? ... It would be stupid to think that, in a society based on the endless oppression and coarsening of the worker masses, religious prejudices could be dispelled by purely propaganda methods. It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society... that is why we do not and should not prohibit proletarians who still retain vestiges of their old prejudices from associating themselves with our Party. We shall always preach the scientific world-outlook, and it is essential for us to combat the inconsistency of various “Christians”. But that does not mean in the least that the religious question ought to be advanced to first place"

- "The revolutionary proletariat will succeed in making religion a really private affair, so far as the state is concerned. And in this political system, cleansed of medieval mildew, the proletariat will wage a broad and open struggle for the elimination of economic slavery, the true source of the religious humbugging of mankind."

[Kaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Türban eylemleri tartışması canlanınca tekrar okudum. Bu konuya çok açıklık getirmediğini düşünüyorum çünkü zaten Rusya'nın böyle bir sorunu yoktu. Ancak din karşısında alınması gereken, genel pozisyonu anlatma ve kavratma açısından sade ve başarılı sayılabilir.

[Çağatay Coşkun · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Din, her yerde, başkaları için sürekli çalışmalarıyla, yokluk ve kendi başına bırakılmışlıklarlıyla çekilmez bir yük altına sokulmuş halk yığınlarının üzerine amansızca çöken ruhsal baskı araçlarından biridir."

[Sisyphus00]

was very antagonistic towards religion before, thinking that it is by default corruptive and a fascist weapon. but i failed to see that it is only such because of how elected officials use them for political corruption. as a country that is still semi-feudal and semi-colonial, this should not be surprising; church is still being used by the ruling class.

these mfs dont represent these religions, i realized. this should be a challenge for us to organize people of religions to stand against exploitation of the ruling class. the church people are not enemy and we should respect their beliefs. the path towards scientific progress will organize them towards scientific beliefs.

[Vadzianyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tek kelimeyle harika. Tutarlı bir biçimde Marksistlerin din konusundaki tutumunu, partinin dinle alakasını ve dinin sınıf mücadelesinde nereye konacağını anlatmanın dışında Tolstoy’un Marksist bir analizinden, yeni kuşakları komünist bilinçle yetiştirmenin gereğinden ve materyalizmin nasıl öğretilmesi gerektiğinden de bahsediyor. Özellikle gençlik birliğindeki konuşması kafa açıcıydı. Böylesine küçük bir kitapçık için fazlasıyla yararlı bir derleme.

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, I disagree in some points but get where he is coming from

[Samir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find Lenin's works good but difficult to read