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Leninism
Meyer, Alfred G.
324 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1986
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September 5, 2026
My first draft of notes.
Introduction:
The merit of flexible adaption to conditions (14, 253)
Lenin also uses Marxist theory to rationalize the changes in his novel course of action (252). Although Lenin acknowledges, as early as 1912, the likelihood of the proletarian revolution beginning in a backwards nation, as late as spring 1917, he is regarding October as accidental to history (253).
Organizing the party means imposing a bureaucracy onto the movement (14).
Part One--The Party
Chapter 1: Class Consciousness
Marxist theory of determination/voluntarism (21)
Promethean man, transforming nature (22)
Origins of ideology (22)
Work in a factory trains the workers for socialism (25).
New ideas arise from after revolution (25).
Compared to the other influential Marxists, Lenin competes against revisionists and democratic socialists (27).
Knowledge frees (28).
Lenin: the working class is not conscious (29, 247).
The Party should lead the class, not tail behind it, like in WWI, when the Social-Democratic Parties of the world followed their working classes into the war of their bourgeoisie (33). It was this experience which disillusioned Lenin, losing his confidence in the Second International.
The party should be a bureaucracy (34).
Julius Martov split at the 1903 Congress, over the Iskra editorial board (34)
Chapter 2: The Party and the Masses
When to tail (40)
Revolution and line development (42)
Mass unrest and Hegel's God (43)
The masses' irrationality (44)
Revolution is never too early (45)
Propaganda and agitation (50)
The front organization with party control (52)
Chapter 3: Democracy
The withering state is replaced by stateless democracy (60).
The form of a democratic republic (61)
Forms of fascist reaction (62)
Lenin's view on democracy (60)
Liberal democracy is only classless in principle, not in actuality (64).
The democratic republic is still an aim for socialists (70) because (66) it is the best setting for the class struggle to complete itself (72). Until then, semivictories are the surest token for success (73).
On its own, democracy represents a civil war, showing class divisions of the nation (72).
Chapter 4: The Operational Code
In the Leninist code (81) allies are distrusted (82).
The reason for expedience in everything is the desperate conditions of capitalism (83). Socialists will not have to be so expedient in the future, a distinction of the long- and short-term situation (84).
The fighting code (85)
Even the party is part of the evil of capitalism (88).
Means become ends in themselves, and an end is a myth (86).
Any means necessary, hell before heaven (87)
Unity of theory and practice (88)
No means is dependable (88).
Chapter 5: Democratic Centralism
The party aims at a synthesis of opposites, of democracy and organization, dissent and unanimity. The purpose is to prevent blind conformity (93). Debate precedes a decision, binding all (93). Dissent is allowed only before a decision becomes party law (94). Meyer dismisses this as a verbal solution (95). What if a decision outlives its usefulness?
Debate becomes an empty formality (96).
Only the local conditions of Russian tsarism enforced the strict need for party centralism to evade the police (96). Footnote: under free political conditions, centralism outlives its usefulness, except Lenin admits the democratic republic is not a free enough political setting until the withering away of the state (96?).
A decision of the party acquires an aura of infallibility (97).
Frequent zig-zag of political line (103).
Part Two--The Russian Revolution
Chapter 6: The Task of the Proletariat and Its Auxiliary Forces
Under Russian conditions (109) the task is a deconstructive task (112) of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. The movement has already oustripped the political capacity of the Narodniks (112) and the middle class (115).
Bourgeois revolutionary demands (117)
The powers that be already slander you as communistic no matter what, so do not appease them, but have the courage to make extreme demands (119).
Meyer traces a shift in Lenin's language from the proletariat to a more general term for the masses of toilers (127).
Nationalization is not socialism (135-136).
At first, the Bolsheviks are ambivalent over early the Soviet, which will "lose significance" after October 1917 (138).
Surpassing any peasant revolution(139-140)
Permanent revolution (141)
Chapter 7: Nationalism
Nationalization in Austro-Hungary (147)
Internationalism = sacrifice (151-152)
Collapse of the second international (156)
Chapter 8: Eight Months of Revolution
Marxist model for transition (164, 166)
Almost telescoping (167, 169)
Bourgeois Revolution accomplished (169)
Role of soviets (170-171)
Moderates discredited in July Days 1917 (173)
On Slogans (174)
The revolution (176)
Meaning and reflection (179)
Sparrow and dove (180)
Engels' foresight (181)
Part Three--Leninism In Power
Chapter 9: The Leninist State in Theory and in Practice
Spontaneous (186)
Rightward shift, the NEP, and 3 phases of Lenin after the October Revolution (187)
Emphasis has shifted (189)
Immediate tasks of the Soviet state of a new type of new democracy (189)
Trotsky: "Work, discipline, and order will save the Soviet regime." (185)
Early measures of economic reforms were mild, as resistance required (192)
War communism (193) военный коммунизм
Meyer's hypothesis on the terror after a honeymoon phase following the October Revolution (194)
Footnote on immediate socialism (194)
State and Revolution (195-196)
Scrapped (196)
Ambiguous or both sides of war communism (197)
Contrasting early months with subsequent Soviet period (198)
Extent of war communism (199)
Class struggle and coercion is required (200)
The class struggle continues into the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat because no class ever gives up power (201).
Soviet democracy as empty (202)
To each according to work, not according to need (203)
Economic program takes precedence (203)
Work, not higher wages (205)
The conquest of the unions (206)
Absolute unity (207) and competition
Dictatorship of advanced workers (208)
Peasant resistance to grain seizure (209)
The internal enemy of sabotage (214)
Chapter 10: Socialism in One Country
Socialism in one country (220)
Surrender to Germany (221)
When caught in a holdup, it is ordinary to hand over your wallet, rather than your life (225).
Brest-Litovsk, trading territory for time (226)
The Polish campaign (227)
Early harbingers of the Cold War (228, 249)
Patriotism and just war (229)
New militarism and world interests (230)
Part Four--The New Image Of Capitalist Society
Chapter 11: The Theory of Imperialism
Lenin's theory of imperialism (245) is pessimistic (246), yet revolutionary (247).
Although doubting and distrusting of the proletariat, Lenin is a confident Marxist (247-248).
The term for state capitalism (244) means there is no more planlessness (254). Gone are the days of anarch in production, as Engels terms it, something he himself admitted had gone extinct in the development of state capitalism.
Capitalism banishes its own anarchy of competition, which returns, but at the level between nations (248, 251).
The world is divided twice over, first by European colonialism, then by capitalism (249). Imperialism is characterized the export of capital (249-250).
Wars and capital exports are the temporary relief from economic crisis (250)
The return of anarchy in production and the chaotic development of technology (255).
The bourgeoisie is forced into scrapping its pretensions to deliver the promise for liberal democracy, opting instead to roll back what legal protections there were already (255). The ruling class is not conservative because it would fall behind, it is reactionary for turning backwards the wheel of history. (I am paraphrasing Manifesto in which Marx and Engels criticize bourgeois socialists).
Chapter 12: The Dialectics of Backwardness
Considering whether the law of uneven development admits Marxist theory is inadequate to history, Meyer concludes it is also a "positive" contribution to the theory (258-259).
Two revolutions (266) of combined development, in which capitalism develops alongside the tsarist regime, for an example of surviving pre-capitalist forms.
Chapter 13: Leninism after Lenin
Leninism, plural (274, 279) clique (280) flip-flop (282)
The question of Stalin (283)
Backwardness (284)
Emotional sources or motivations (284)
Leninist alternatives (284-285)
Dualism and the rebel who joins the party (286)
Expedience (287)
By the proletariat, true knowledge (288)
Perception and blindness (288) of regarding Marxist doctrine as a guide to action.
Particular conditions may as well imply maximum autonomy for national parties (289) which was not the fate of the comintern.
The religious element of salvation in Marxism as promethean (291).
The theodicy Leninism turned into (292)
Introduction:
The merit of flexible adaption to conditions (14, 253)
Lenin also uses Marxist theory to rationalize the changes in his novel course of action (252). Although Lenin acknowledges, as early as 1912, the likelihood of the proletarian revolution beginning in a backwards nation, as late as spring 1917, he is regarding October as accidental to history (253).
Organizing the party means imposing a bureaucracy onto the movement (14).
Part One--The Party
Chapter 1: Class Consciousness
Marxist theory of determination/voluntarism (21)
Promethean man, transforming nature (22)
Origins of ideology (22)
Work in a factory trains the workers for socialism (25).
New ideas arise from after revolution (25).
Compared to the other influential Marxists, Lenin competes against revisionists and democratic socialists (27).
Knowledge frees (28).
Lenin: the working class is not conscious (29, 247).
The Party should lead the class, not tail behind it, like in WWI, when the Social-Democratic Parties of the world followed their working classes into the war of their bourgeoisie (33). It was this experience which disillusioned Lenin, losing his confidence in the Second International.
The party should be a bureaucracy (34).
Julius Martov split at the 1903 Congress, over the Iskra editorial board (34)
Chapter 2: The Party and the Masses
When to tail (40)
Revolution and line development (42)
Mass unrest and Hegel's God (43)
The masses' irrationality (44)
Revolution is never too early (45)
Propaganda and agitation (50)
The front organization with party control (52)
Chapter 3: Democracy
The withering state is replaced by stateless democracy (60).
The form of a democratic republic (61)
Forms of fascist reaction (62)
Lenin's view on democracy (60)
Liberal democracy is only classless in principle, not in actuality (64).
The democratic republic is still an aim for socialists (70) because (66) it is the best setting for the class struggle to complete itself (72). Until then, semivictories are the surest token for success (73).
On its own, democracy represents a civil war, showing class divisions of the nation (72).
Chapter 4: The Operational Code
In the Leninist code (81) allies are distrusted (82).
The reason for expedience in everything is the desperate conditions of capitalism (83). Socialists will not have to be so expedient in the future, a distinction of the long- and short-term situation (84).
The fighting code (85)
Even the party is part of the evil of capitalism (88).
Means become ends in themselves, and an end is a myth (86).
Any means necessary, hell before heaven (87)
Unity of theory and practice (88)
No means is dependable (88).
Chapter 5: Democratic Centralism
The party aims at a synthesis of opposites, of democracy and organization, dissent and unanimity. The purpose is to prevent blind conformity (93). Debate precedes a decision, binding all (93). Dissent is allowed only before a decision becomes party law (94). Meyer dismisses this as a verbal solution (95). What if a decision outlives its usefulness?
Debate becomes an empty formality (96).
Only the local conditions of Russian tsarism enforced the strict need for party centralism to evade the police (96). Footnote: under free political conditions, centralism outlives its usefulness, except Lenin admits the democratic republic is not a free enough political setting until the withering away of the state (96?).
A decision of the party acquires an aura of infallibility (97).
Frequent zig-zag of political line (103).
Part Two--The Russian Revolution
Chapter 6: The Task of the Proletariat and Its Auxiliary Forces
Under Russian conditions (109) the task is a deconstructive task (112) of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. The movement has already oustripped the political capacity of the Narodniks (112) and the middle class (115).
Bourgeois revolutionary demands (117)
The powers that be already slander you as communistic no matter what, so do not appease them, but have the courage to make extreme demands (119).
Meyer traces a shift in Lenin's language from the proletariat to a more general term for the masses of toilers (127).
Nationalization is not socialism (135-136).
At first, the Bolsheviks are ambivalent over early the Soviet, which will "lose significance" after October 1917 (138).
Surpassing any peasant revolution(139-140)
Permanent revolution (141)
Chapter 7: Nationalism
Nationalization in Austro-Hungary (147)
Internationalism = sacrifice (151-152)
Collapse of the second international (156)
Chapter 8: Eight Months of Revolution
Marxist model for transition (164, 166)
Almost telescoping (167, 169)
Bourgeois Revolution accomplished (169)
Role of soviets (170-171)
Moderates discredited in July Days 1917 (173)
On Slogans (174)
The revolution (176)
Meaning and reflection (179)
Sparrow and dove (180)
Engels' foresight (181)
Part Three--Leninism In Power
Chapter 9: The Leninist State in Theory and in Practice
Spontaneous (186)
Rightward shift, the NEP, and 3 phases of Lenin after the October Revolution (187)
Emphasis has shifted (189)
Immediate tasks of the Soviet state of a new type of new democracy (189)
Trotsky: "Work, discipline, and order will save the Soviet regime." (185)
Early measures of economic reforms were mild, as resistance required (192)
War communism (193) военный коммунизм
Meyer's hypothesis on the terror after a honeymoon phase following the October Revolution (194)
Footnote on immediate socialism (194)
State and Revolution (195-196)
Scrapped (196)
Ambiguous or both sides of war communism (197)
Contrasting early months with subsequent Soviet period (198)
Extent of war communism (199)
Class struggle and coercion is required (200)
The class struggle continues into the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat because no class ever gives up power (201).
Soviet democracy as empty (202)
To each according to work, not according to need (203)
Economic program takes precedence (203)
Work, not higher wages (205)
The conquest of the unions (206)
Absolute unity (207) and competition
Dictatorship of advanced workers (208)
Peasant resistance to grain seizure (209)
The internal enemy of sabotage (214)
Chapter 10: Socialism in One Country
Socialism in one country (220)
Surrender to Germany (221)
When caught in a holdup, it is ordinary to hand over your wallet, rather than your life (225).
Brest-Litovsk, trading territory for time (226)
The Polish campaign (227)
Early harbingers of the Cold War (228, 249)
Patriotism and just war (229)
New militarism and world interests (230)
Part Four--The New Image Of Capitalist Society
Chapter 11: The Theory of Imperialism
Lenin's theory of imperialism (245) is pessimistic (246), yet revolutionary (247).
Although doubting and distrusting of the proletariat, Lenin is a confident Marxist (247-248).
The term for state capitalism (244) means there is no more planlessness (254). Gone are the days of anarch in production, as Engels terms it, something he himself admitted had gone extinct in the development of state capitalism.
Capitalism banishes its own anarchy of competition, which returns, but at the level between nations (248, 251).
The world is divided twice over, first by European colonialism, then by capitalism (249). Imperialism is characterized the export of capital (249-250).
Wars and capital exports are the temporary relief from economic crisis (250)
The return of anarchy in production and the chaotic development of technology (255).
The bourgeoisie is forced into scrapping its pretensions to deliver the promise for liberal democracy, opting instead to roll back what legal protections there were already (255). The ruling class is not conservative because it would fall behind, it is reactionary for turning backwards the wheel of history. (I am paraphrasing Manifesto in which Marx and Engels criticize bourgeois socialists).
Chapter 12: The Dialectics of Backwardness
Considering whether the law of uneven development admits Marxist theory is inadequate to history, Meyer concludes it is also a "positive" contribution to the theory (258-259).
Two revolutions (266) of combined development, in which capitalism develops alongside the tsarist regime, for an example of surviving pre-capitalist forms.
Chapter 13: Leninism after Lenin
Leninism, plural (274, 279) clique (280) flip-flop (282)
The question of Stalin (283)
Backwardness (284)
Emotional sources or motivations (284)
Leninist alternatives (284-285)
Dualism and the rebel who joins the party (286)
Expedience (287)
By the proletariat, true knowledge (288)
Perception and blindness (288) of regarding Marxist doctrine as a guide to action.
Particular conditions may as well imply maximum autonomy for national parties (289) which was not the fate of the comintern.
The religious element of salvation in Marxism as promethean (291).
The theodicy Leninism turned into (292)
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