120-502: Post-independence and Cold War Contemporary history Shripad Amrit Dange OL (10 October 1899 – 22 May 1991) was an Indian politician who was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a stalwart of Indian trade union movement . During the 20th century, Dange was arrested by the authorities for communist and trade union activities and was jailed for an overall period of 13 years. After India's Independence,
240-467: A dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by definition because the bourgeoisie, by the very condition of their class and its interests, would promote and implement policies in their class interests and thus in defense of capitalism. There was a difference, though; Lenin, after the failures of the world revolutions , argued that this did not necessarily have to change under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The reasoning came from wholly practical considerations:
360-562: A Soviet ally naturally did so via a legitimate voluntary desire, even if the requesters needed Soviet help to accomplish it. The principal examples were the Soviet invasion of Finland yielding the annexation of Finnish parts of Karelia , the Soviet invasion of Poland , the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states , and the postwar de facto dominance over the satellite states of the Eastern Bloc under
480-639: A conspiracy to establish a branch of Comintern in India and they were helped by various persons, including the accused Philip Spratt and Benjamin Francis Bradley, sent to India by the Communist International. The aim of the accused persons, according to the charges raised against them was to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India, and for such purpose to use the methods and carry out
600-502: A flour mill owner from Mumbai who 'concerned himself for radical causes', also read this treatise and was impressed by its contents. Lotvala sponsored Dange's study of Marxism for several years, and together they built up a library of Marxist Literature and published translations of classics. In 1922, with Lotvala's help, Dange launched the English weekly, Socialist , the first Indian Marxist journal. Later Mohit Sen , Dange's contemporary and
720-468: A pretense of total independence. In the post-Soviet era even many Ukrainians, Georgians, and Armenians feel that their countries were forcibly annexed by the Bolsheviks, but this has been a problematic view because the pro-Soviet factions in these societies were once sizable as well. Each faction felt that the other did not represent the true national interest. This civil war –like paradox has been seen in
840-731: A resolution adopted in the Founding Congress of the Comintern its stated objective was to fight 'by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State'. M. N. Roy, an ex-member of the Anushilan Samiti , perhaps the most important secret revolutionary organisation operating in East Bengal in
960-617: A series of events like Sino-Soviet split , Sino-Indian war , and dispute over the stand of the party towards Indian National Congress led to a split in the Communist Party of India, in 1964. The breakaway Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) emerged stronger both in terms of membership and their performance in the Indian Elections . Dange, who remained the Chairman of the CPI till 1978,
1080-566: A stage in which the "correlations of forces" were moving towards socialism. Also, with the establishment of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and Asia, Soviet foreign policy-planners believed that capitalism had lost its dominance as an economic system. The concept of "socialism in one country" was conceived by Stalin in his struggle against Leon Trotsky and his concept of permanent revolution . In 1924, Trotsky published his pamphlet Lessons of October in which he stated that socialism in
1200-506: A well-known communist intellectual, wrote that Dange's articles in the Socialist impressed Lenin himself. The third decade of the 20th century proved to be formative years for young Dange. The period also witnessed worldwide economic crises. There were long strikes in the industrialized world, especially in Britain. In India, the working class movement gained steady momentum during this period. It
1320-534: Is completely possible and probable". Stalin held the view common amongst most Bolsheviks at the time; there was possibility of real success for socialism in the Soviet Union despite the country's backwardness and international isolation. While Grigoriy Zinoviev , Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Bukharin , together with Stalin, opposed Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, they diverged on how socialism could be built. According to Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev supported
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#17328557090751440-424: Is indispensable, democracy is not", further arguing that "we do not promise any democracy or any freedom". Imperialism is capitalism at a stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance-capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun; in which the divisions of all territories of
1560-437: Is toward even greater changes in the correlation of forces in the world arena in favour of socialism." — Nikolay Inozemtsev , a Soviet foreign policy analyst, referring to series of events (which he believed) would lead to the ultimate victory of socialism. "Peaceful coexistence" was an ideological concept introduced under Khrushchev's rule. While the concept has been interpreted by fellow communists as proposing an end to
1680-559: The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed at Mumbai by N.M. Joshi and others. Joshi was a philanthropist who was sympathetic to the workers'cause. At that time AITUC did not have a cohesive ideology, but it was sympathetic to the Indian National Congress. When Dange wrote about the founding session of AITUC at Mumbai, he brought out the organisation's Congress roots: The AITUC was guided principally by
1800-724: The All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) . At the 19th Congress in October 1952, the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . In 1990, at the last, 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , during the legalization of political platforms within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik Platform was formed, giving rise to several modern political parties and social movements. Realizing
1920-821: The British rule in India . Bal Gangadhar Tilak , a veteran leader of Indian National Congress from Maharashtra, the earliest proponent of swaraj (complete independence) greatly inspired young Dange. Later, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, Dange gave up his studies and joined the Independence movement. He became interested in Marxism , while following the Russian Revolution of 1917. He grew increasingly skeptical about Gandhism , especially about Gandhi's promotion of cottage industries as
2040-530: The Congress Socialist Party . The Raj re-banned the CPI in 1939, for its initial anti-War stance. The line was changed when, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact . The Communist Party of India did not take an active stance against Adolf Hitler and his policies. But when Hitler attacked Poland, the Communist Party of India had called World War II, an 'Imperialist War'. But when he attacked
2160-627: The February Revolution . It subsequently organized the October Revolution , which overthrew the Provisional Government and replaced it with a state power under the control of the soviets , led by the Bolsheviks along with other left-wing socialists. Some researchers attribute to Bolshevik theory the program of Joseph Stalin, who headed the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and at the same time possessed full state power in
2280-753: The Indian Penal Code , which declares, Whoever within or without British India conspires to commit any of the offenses punishable by Section 121 or to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India or any part thereof, or conspires to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Government of India or any local Government, shall be punished with transportation for life, or any shorter term, or with imprisonment of either description which may extend to ten years. The main charges were that in 1921 Dange, Shaukat Usmani and Muzaffar Ahmad entered into
2400-525: The Soviet Union . However, others (both Stalin's contemporaries and later) do not confuse "Bolshevism" and " Stalinism " proper, considering them to be multidirectional (revolutionary and thermidorian ) phenomena. The expression "Bolshevism", and later "Communism", has become established in Western historiography in the sense of a certain set of features of Soviet power in a certain political period. At present,
2520-482: The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , as pro-Russian Crimeans have been viewed as illegitimate by pro-Ukrainian Crimeans, and vice versa. The loss by imperialism of its dominating role in world affairs and the utmost expansion of the sphere in which the laws of socialist foreign policy operate are a distinctive feature of the present stage of social development. The main direction of this development
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#17328557090752640-833: The soviets were now given to the Council of People's Commissars ; the central government was in turn to be governed by "an army of steeled revolutionary Communists [by Communists he referred to the Party]". In a letter to Gavril Myasnikov , Lenin in late 1920 explained his new reinterpretation of the term "dictatorship of the proletariat"; Dictatorship means nothing more nor less than authority untrammelled by any laws, absolutely unrestricted by any rules whatever, and based directly on force. The term 'dictatorship' has no other meaning but this . Lenin justified these policies by claiming that all states were class states by nature, and that these states were maintained through class struggle . This meant that
2760-441: The 1940s the growing polarization which was occurring in the capitalist and socialist systems. Khrushchev's peaceful coexistence was based on practical changes which had occurred; he accused the old "two camp" theory of neglecting the non-aligned movement and the national liberation movements . Khrushchev considered these "grey areas", in which the conflict between capitalism and socialism would be fought. He still stressed that
2880-502: The 19th century. According to Lenin, imperialism was a specific stage of development of capitalism; a stage he referred to as state monopoly capitalism . The Marxist movement was split on how to solve capitalism's resurgence and revitalisation after the great depression of the late-19th century. Eduard Bernstein , from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP), considered capitalism' revitalisation as proof that capitalism
3000-618: The Bolshevik organizations of the party. At the Sixth (Prague) Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party , held on January 18–30, 1912, which constituted itself as the all–party conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and the supreme organ of the party, almost exclusively Lenin's supporters were represented. By this time, the central committee of the party had virtually ceased to exist (its last plenum
3120-566: The Bolshevik party was decisive but the October insurrection was carried out according to Trotsky’s, not to Lenin’s plan. According to the British historian Orlando Figes , the opinion that the Bolsheviks were raised to the top of power by massive popular support for their party was not true. According to Figes, the October Uprising in Petrograd was a coup d'état supported by only a small part of
3240-539: The Bolshevik party – the April Theses – in which he put on the agenda the demand for the transfer of all power to the Soviets in the interests of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry. Faced with resistance even among the representatives of "theoretical", "scientific" Bolshevism, Lenin managed to overcome it, relying on the support of the lower classes – local party organizations, adherents of immediate practical action. In
3360-543: The British Communist Party, notably Philip Spratt and Ben Bradley, came to India. mandated by Comintern to work among the industrial labourers of Bombay and Calcutta (present spelling: Kolkata ). Workers' and Peasants' Parties were started in those cities and in the United Provinces . The communists were addressing ground level problems and as a result "N.M. Joshi, in spite of money and no persecution from
3480-793: The CPI. In October 1944 he attended the XVII Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain in London as a fraternal representative from the Communist Party of India. Between 1929 and 1935, Dange remained in jail for role in Meerut conspiracy case. After being released from jail in 1935, Dange went on a speaking tour in Andhra Pradesh on the invitation of the Congress Socialist Party leadership from there. His tour resulted in that many prominent Congress Socialist Party leaders from Andhra Pradesh joining
3600-551: The Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union . The order was awarded to: From 1944 to 1957, before the institution of specific length of service medals, the Order of Lenin was also used to reward 25 years of conspicuous military service. Those who were awarded the titles " Hero of the Soviet Union " and " Hero of Socialist Labour " were also given
3720-536: The Communist Party. After he came out of the jail, up to 1939, he was working for the Party and was trying increase its hold over the trade union movement. Around this time Dange's legislative career also took off. He was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly as Communist candidate in 1946. In 1939, Dange was convicted to four months of rigorous imprisonment for organising a strike of textile workers. He
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3840-636: The Congress leaders. The masses at this period were being led by Lokmanya Tilak and his group, in which Lala Lajpat Rai from Punjab, Bepinchandra Pal from Bengal and others had a big place. Mahatma Gandhi had refused to sponsor the idea of founding the AITUC and so he did not attend. Communists were also largely excluded when, again in Mumbai, in 1923, jobbers and mill clerks came together and started Girni Kamgar Mahamandal (Great Association of Mill-Workers). They participated in
3960-459: The Kanpur case. Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned such a large scale about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India." Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was out of the country and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from
4080-484: The Leninist slogan "plunder the loot", the Bolsheviks en masse carried out a complete confiscation (expropriation) from the owners of private property, which they considered acquired through the exploitation of the working people, that is, the robbery of the workers. At the same time, the Bolsheviks never found out whether private property was obtained through their own labor, or through the exploitation of other people, whether
4200-502: The Order on 17 May 1932 – comprised a German and four US citizens , one of whom was Frank Bruno Honey . They received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry and agriculture, during 1931–1934. In total, 431,418 orders were awarded, with the last on 21 December 1991. Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik ) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with
4320-530: The Provisional Government. From the very beginning, while still abroad, Lenin insisted on the immediate break of the Petrograd Soviet with the Provisional Government in order to actively prepare for the transition from the bourgeois–democratic to the next, "proletarian" stage of the revolution, the seizure of power and the end of the war. Returning to Russia, he came up with a new program of action for
4440-683: The Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to the Indian masses. Dange was released from prison in 1925. The industrial town of Kanpur, in December 1925, witnessed a conference of different communist groups, under the chairmanship of Singaravelu Chettiar. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani were among
4560-442: The Soviet Union without a world revolution. Bukharin, by now, began arguing for the creation of an autarkic economic model, while Trotsky, in contrast, claimed that the Soviet Union had to participate in the international division of labour to develop. In contrast to Trotsky and Bukharin, Stalin did not believe a world revolution was possible, claiming in 1938 that a world revolution was in fact impossible, and claiming that Engels
4680-419: The Soviet Union would fail because of the backward state of economic development unless a world revolution began. Stalin responded to Trotsky's pamphlet with his article, " October and Comrade Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution ". In it, Stalin stated, that he did not believe an inevitable conflict between the working class and the peasants would take place, further adding that "socialism in one country
4800-501: The Soviet Union, the same Communist Party of India decided to call the war, a people's war . After the USSR had sided with the Great Britain in the war, the Communist Party of India was legalised for the first time. Saying that the freedom struggle would impede the war against fascism, the CPI stayed away from the freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress was able to politically corner
4920-468: The basis of the policy of the entire party. The Bolshevik faction became known as the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks). The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was renamed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) at the 7th (April) Conference in 1917. In March 1918, the party adopted the name of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) , and in December 1925,
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5040-399: The capitalist and socialist worlds, just not one based on armed conflict. Khrushchev believed that the conflict, in its current phase, was mainly economical. The emphasis on peaceful coexistence did not mean that the Soviet Union accepted a static world, with clear lines. They continued to uphold the creed that socialism was inevitable, and they sincerely believed that the world had reached
5160-602: The capitalist blockade of the country. After the conference, Stalin wrote " Concerning the Results of the XIV Conference of the RCP(b) ", in which he stated that the peasantry would not turn against the socialist system because he believed they had a self-interest in preserving. The contradictions which would arise with the peasantry during the socialist transition, Stalin surmised, could "be overcome by our own efforts". He concluded that
5280-459: The chairman of All India Trade Union Congress and continued to be at the helm of that organisation either as general secretary or chairman. Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin ( Russian : Орден Ленина , romanized : Orden Lenina , pronounced [ˈordʲɪn ˈlʲenʲɪnə] ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin , the leader of the October Revolution . It was established by
5400-517: The class struggle". By the beginning of the February Revolution, the leading figures of the Bolshevik faction were mainly in exile or in emigration, and therefore the Bolsheviks did not take an organized part in it. The Bolshevik leaders who returned from exile, who, along with the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, became members of the Petrograd Soviet, at first tended to cooperate with
5520-476: The communist movement, provided the opportunity for Communists to propagate their ideas. It came out with its own manifesto and was affiliated to the Communist International in 1934. During the period, prior to India's Independence, the Communist Party of India's responses to freedom struggle were dictated by the Comintern's views. After its admission to the Third International, the Communist Party of India
5640-468: The communists firmly in control of the Girni Kamgar Mahamandal and enabled them to dominate trade union movement. They were now forced to confront problems forced by the structure of industrial relations. The initiative taken by the communist leadership in reflecting working class-militancy enabled them to establish their presence at the level of industry as a whole. To consolidate this position it
5760-480: The communists, as the popular sentiments were overwhelmingly supporting Gandhi 's Quit India Movement . After the sudden arrest of then Somnath Lahiri, Secretary of CPI, during end-1935, Puran Chand Joshi became the first general secretary of Communist Party of India, for a period from 1935 to 1947—or as it was called the "P. C. Joshi era". In 1943, Dange for the first was elected to the Central Committee of
5880-472: The concentration of industry and banking, which led to the transformation of the finance capital connection to industry into the monopoly of large banks." In Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism , Lenin wrote; "the twentieth century marks the turning-point from the old capitalism to the new, from the domination of capital in general to the domination of finance capital." Lenin's defines imperialism as
6000-424: The conditions of an uneven, abrupt development of the capitalist countries." From 1925 onwards, Bukharin began writing extensively on the subject, and in 1926, Stalin wrote On Questions of Leninism , which contained his best-known writings on the subject. Trotsky, with the publishing of Leninism , began countering Bukharin's and Stalin's arguments, claiming that socialism in one country was possible, but only in
6120-493: The conflict between the systems of capitalism and socialism, Khrushchev saw it instead as a continuation of the conflict in every area with the exception in the military field. The concept claimed that the two systems were developed "by way of diametrically opposed laws", which led to "opposite principles in foreign policy." The concept was steeped in Leninist and Stalinist thought. Lenin believed that international politics were dominated by class struggle , and Stalin stressed in
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#17328557090756240-457: The course of the unfolding controversy about the possibility of socialism in Russia, Lenin rejected all the critical arguments of the Mensheviks, socialist revolutionaries and other political opponents about the country's unpreparedness for a socialist revolution due to its economic backwardness, weakness, lack of culture and organization of the working masses, including the proletariat, about the danger
6360-531: The courtroom into a public platform to espouse their cause. As a result, the trial saw strengthening of the communist movement in the country. Harkishan Singh Surjeet , a former General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wrote about the aftermath of the Meerut Conspiracy case thus: a Party with a centralised apparatus, came into being only after the release of the Meerut prisoners, in 1933. The Meerut Conspiracy Case, though launched to suppress
6480-433: The degenerate forces of capitalism". The Russian Revolution of 1917 was already a failure according to its original aim, which was to act as an inspiration for a world revolution. As a result, the initial anti-statist posture and the active campaigning for direct democracy was replaced with dictatorship. From the perspective of the Bolsheviks, the rationale for this change was Russia's lack of development, its status as
6600-409: The dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union could only be "won and maintained by the use of violence against the bourgeoisie". The main problem with this analysis is that the Party came to view anyone opposing or holding alternate views of the party as bourgeoisie. The worst enemy remained the moderates, however, which were "objectively" considered to be "the real agents of the bourgeoisie in
6720-414: The epoch of imperialism was expressed and theoretically grounded, which leads to the conclusion about the possibility of the victory of socialism initially in a few or in one single country, which is not yet economically developed enough – such as Russia – provided that the head of the revolutionary movement will be a disciplined avant–garde, ready to go all the way to the establishment of the dictatorship of
6840-632: The file notes that 'The evidence collected clearly shows that Dange has been an important figure in the conspiracy as constant reference to his name would be unavoidable in any event in the prosecution to be instituted against other members of the conspiracy at [Allahabad]. The conspiracy referred to here is the Kanpur Conspiracy Case that would catapult Dange to a leader with national prominence. On 17 March 1924, M. N. Roy, S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed , Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani , Singaravelu Chettiar , Ghulam Hussain and others were charged, in what
6960-464: The form of government which had existed in the Paris Commune . With the ensuing Russian Civil War and the social and material devastation that followed, however, its meaning was transformed from communal democracy to disciplined totalitarian rule. By now, Lenin had concluded that only a proletarian regime as oppressive as its opponents could survive in this world. The powers previously bestowed upon
7080-581: The formation of a Soviet government. At the same time, the authors of the resolutions understood "the power of the Soviets" as the All–Russian Council with the participation of all socialist parties. Meanwhile, the commitment of the Bolsheviks to the principle of Soviet power was not at all so unconditional. In July 1917, when the Bolshevik Party was unable to obtain a majority in the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, it "temporarily removed"
7200-783: The formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, focused on overthrowing the existing capitalist state system, seizing power and establishing the " dictatorship of the proletariat ". Bolshevism originated at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia and was associated with the activities of the Bolshevik faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party led by Vladimir Lenin , Bolshevism's main theorist. Other theoreticians included Joseph Stalin , Leon Trotsky , Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky . While Bolshevism
7320-463: The globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed. —Lenin, citing the main features of capitalism in the age of imperialism in Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism . The Marxist theory on imperialism was conceived by Lenin in his book, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism (published in 1917). It was written in response to the theoretical crisis within Marxist thought, which occurred due to capitalism's recovery in
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#17328557090757440-413: The government lost the leadership (of AITUC) to the communists." The communists took over the leadership of the AITUC in December 1929, when their rivals, led by N.M.Joshi, walked out of the session, and founded a rival organisation. Like rest of the world, it was a period of great unrest in India too. In India throughout 1928 and 1929 there was a strong wave of strikes, on the railroads, in ironworks and in
7560-416: The intermediate stage to communism, with the latter being the final stage which follows after socialism. By now, the party leaders believed that universal mass participation and true democracy could only take form in the last stage, if only because of Russia's current conditions at the time. [Because] the proletariat is still so divided, so degraded, so corrupted in parts [...] that an organization taking in
7680-399: The key organisers of the meeting. The meeting adopted a resolution for the formation of the Communist Party of India with its headquarters in Bombay., The British Government's extreme hostility towards communists, made them to decide not to openly function as a communist party; instead, they chose a more open and non-federated platform, under the name the Workers and Peasants Parties. In 1920
7800-435: The left chest without a ribbon. Later it was worn as a medal suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges (see image above). The ribbon bar is of the same design. The portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a one-piece gold badge, but finally returned as a separate platinum piece until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The first Order of Lenin
7920-431: The long textile strike in 1924. The early trade union movement in India was not directly inspired by communists. Dange played an important role in bringing the labour activists amongst Bombay textile workers under the communist umbrella. Girni Kamgar Mahamandal was split and the communists formed their own union, the Girni Kamgar Union during the general strike of 1928. The linkages which were forged in this strike placed
8040-421: The main contradiction in international relations were those of capitalism and socialism. The Soviet Government under Khrushchev stressed the importance of peaceful coexistence, claiming it had to form the basis of Soviet foreign policy. Failure to do, they believed, would lead to nuclear conflict . Despite this, Soviet theorists still considered peaceful coexistence as a continuation of the class struggle between
8160-410: The majority of the country's inhabitants were not communists and the party could not introduce parliamentary democracy since that was inconsistent with their ideology and would lead to the party losing power. He therefore concluded that "[t]he form of government has absolutely nothing to do with" the nature of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Bukharin and Trotsky agreed with Lenin, both claiming that
8280-407: The minority, they were assigned the politically advantageous name "Bolsheviks". As Lenin's biographer Robert Service points out, the division of the newly created party into two factions "plunged Russian Marxists into a state of shock". All but the extreme left Petersburg Marxists disagreed with Lenin's party policy. At the Fourth Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1906,
8400-634: The monopoly stage of capitalism. Despite radical anti-imperialism being an original core value of Bolshevism, the Soviet Union from 1939 onward was widely viewed as a de facto imperial power whose ideology could not allow it to admit its own imperialism. Through the Soviet ideological viewpoint, pro-Soviet factions in each country were the only legitimate voice of "the people" regardless of whether they were minority factions. All other factions were simply class enemies of "the people", inherently illegitimate rulers regardless of whether they were majority factions. Thus, in this view, any country that became Soviet or
8520-489: The name "Bolsheviks" is actively used by various groups of Marxist–Leninists and Trotskyists . Either the dictatorship of the landowners and capitalists, or the dictatorship of the proletariat [...] There is no middle course [...] There is no middle course anywhere in the world, nor can there be. —Lenin, claiming that people had only two choices; a choice between two different, but distinct class dictatorships. Lenin, according to his interpretation of Marx's theory of
8640-483: The only viable threat to socialism in the Soviet Union was a military intervention. In late 1925, Stalin received a letter from a party official which stated that his position of "Socialism in One Country" was in contradiction with Friedrich Engels own writings on the subject. Stalin countered, stating that Engels' writings 'reflected' "the era of pre-monopoly capitalism, the pre-imperialist era when there were not yet
8760-508: The opening years of the 20th century, went to Moscow in by the end of April 1920. The new Russian government under Lenin evinced interest in him and encouraged him to form an Indian Communist Party. Roy went on to found the émigré Communist Party of India on 17 October 1920 in Tashkent . On his return to India, M.N. Roy who had read Gandhi Vs. Lenin met Dange in 1922. Dange at that time was closely associating with Lotvala to spread Marxian ideas. It
8880-469: The order as part of the award. It was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units, and ships. Various educational institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles. The first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov . It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features. It
9000-526: The organizational unity of the party was temporarily restored. At the Fifth Congress , the Central Committee was elected, which, due to disagreements between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, turned out to be unworkable, and the Bolshevik Center , headed by Vladimir Lenin, which was created during the Congress by Bolshevik delegates at one of its factional meetings, arbitrarily took over the leadership of
9120-490: The owners adequately paid for hired labor, what part of the confiscated private property the owner created with his own labor. During and before the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks and their ideology led up to the formation of the Communist Party. Vladimir Lenin and his ideas for "a workers' socialist state" heavily dominated the movement. This is how the famous Social Democrat Alexander Parvus wrote about
9240-447: The party organizations. Martov suggested limiting the charter to the first two requirements. During the elections to the central organs of the party, the majority was won by supporters of the Leninist formulation, after which Lenin began to call his faction "Bolsheviks", while Martov called his supporters "Mensheviks". Although in the subsequent history of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, Lenin's supporters often found themselves in
9360-424: The period of 1920–1921 that Soviet leaders and ideologists began differentiating between socialism and communism; hitherto the two terms had been used to describe similar conditions. From then, the two terms developed separate meanings. According to Soviet ideology, Russia was in the transition from capitalism to socialism (referred to interchangeably under Lenin as the dictatorship of the proletariat), socialism being
9480-416: The population. Figes explains the success of the Bolsheviks by the fact that the latter were the only political party that uncompromisingly advocated the slogan "all power to the Soviets", which gained great popularity in 1917 after the unsuccessful Revolt of General Kornilov . As Figes points out, in the fall of 1917, there was a stream of resolutions from factories, from villages, from army units, calling for
9600-538: The programme and plan of campaign outlined and ordained by the Communist International. The Sessions Court in Meerut awarded stringent sentences to the accused in January 1933. Out of the accused 27 persons were convicted with various durations of 'transportation'. While Muzaffar Ahmed was transported for life, Dange, Spratt, Ghate, Joglekar and Nimbkar were each awarded transportation for a period of 12 years. On appeal, in July 1933,
9720-508: The proletariat . Immediately after the outbreak of the World War , Lenin and his supporters advanced the slogan of the defeat of tsarism in the war and the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war. It was with this that Lenin's criticism of the so–called " social–chauvinists ", who supported their governments in the world war, was connected. Lenin viewed the civil war as "an inevitable continuation, development and intensification of
9840-459: The reactionary bourgeoisie politicians. The British government had banned communist activities from 1934 to 1938. When the Comintern adopted the Georgi Dimitrov thesis of popular front against fascism , CPI declared support for the Congress in 1938. The communist leaders like Dinkar Mehta, Sajjad Zaheer , E.M.S. Namboodiripad , and Soli Batliwala became members of the national executive of
9960-403: The resolution of the 14th Conference (held in 1925) which stated that "we cannot complete the building of socialism due to our technological backwardness." Despite the rather cynical attitude, Zinoviev and Kamenev did believe that a defective form of socialism could be constructed. At the 14th Conference, Stalin reiterated his position, claiming that socialism in one country was feasible despite
10080-464: The rest. One of the main reasons for the split was the question of a party of a new type. In the course of work on the Charter of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, Vladimir Lenin and Yuliy Martov proposed two different wordings of the clause on party membership. According to Lenin's wording, a party member is a citizen who recognizes the program and charter, pays membership fees and works in one of
10200-403: The revolution had only destroyed the old, but failing completely in creating anything sort of new. Lenin had now concluded that the dictatorship of the proletariat would not alter the relationship of power between persons, but rather "transform their productive relations so that, in the long run, the realm of necessity could be overcome and, with that, genuine social freedom realised". It was in
10320-408: The sentences of Ahmed, Dange and Usmani were reduced three years. Reductions were also made in the sentences of other convicts. Though all the accused were not communists, the charges framed against them betrayed the British government's fear for growth of communist ideas in India. In the trial the accused were all labeled as Bolsheviks. During the trial of four and a half years, the defendants turned
10440-402: The short-run, and claimed that without a world revolution it would be impossible to safeguard the Soviet Union from the "restoration of bourgeoisie relations". Zinoviev on the other hand, disagreed with both Trotsky and Bukharin and Stalin, holding instead steadfast to Lenin's own position from 1917 to 1922, and continued to claim that only a defecting form of socialism could be constructed in
10560-467: The situation, the party believed it had to use the same powers as the bourgeoisie to transform Russia, for there was no other alternative. Lenin began arguing that the proletariat, similar to the bourgeoisie, did not have a single preference for a form of government, and because of that dictatorship was acceptable to both the party and the proletariat. In a meeting with party officials, Lenin stated—in line with his economist view of socialism—that "[i]ndustry
10680-585: The slogan "all Power to the Soviets!". After the October coup, during the so–called " triumphal march of Soviet power " in those cases when individual Soviets did not agree to become the organs of the dictatorship of the Russian Social–Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks), the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to disperse them and replace them by emergency bodies – revolutionary committees , military revolutionary committees, etc. Alexander Parvus wrote in 1918: The present Soviets terrorize not only
10800-501: The sole socialist state in the world, its encirclement by imperialist powers, and its internal encirclement by the peasantry. Marx, similar to Lenin, considered it fundamentally irrelevant whether a bourgeois state was ruled according to a republican , parliamentarian , or constitutionally monarchic political system because this did not change the mode of production itself. These systems, regardless of whether they are ruled by an oligarchy or by mass participation, were ultimately all
10920-512: The sole solution for India's economic ills, while overlooking possibilities of an industrial economy. In 1921, Dange published a pamphlet titled Gandhi Vs. Lenin , a comparative study of approaches of both the leaders; but, Lenin coming out as better of the two. This work proved to be a turning point in Dange's life. Prominent Marxist leader M. N. Roy read the work and went on to meet its young author, when he came to Mumbai. Ranchoddas Bhavan Lotvala,
11040-469: The split of the revolutionary democratic forces and the inevitability of a civil war. In April 1917, the split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was finalized. During a heated discussion at the 7th All–Russian (April) Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) ( April 24–29), the April Theses received the support of the majority of delegates from the localities and formed
11160-514: The spokesperson of the Comintern, was seen as the most dangerous of Indian communists. During that time all the letters written by Roy from Moscow to Dange were intercepted and delivered. The British government initially did not think Dange was dangerous. In 1923, they came to the conclusion that they did not have enough to prove anti-government activity as "Dange is a pure doctrinaire and nothing here seen of him indicate any real power of organisation." The Government of India soon changed its mind and
11280-418: The state , believed democracy to be unattainable anywhere in the world before the proletariat seized power. According to Marxist theory, the state is a vehicle for oppression and is headed by a ruling class , an "organ of class rule". He believed that during his lifetime, the only viable solution was dictatorship since the war was heading into a final conflict between the "progressive forces of socialism and
11400-553: The strikes he was arrested along with Muzaffar Ahmed and Shaukat Usmani. Dange edited the Marathi journal, Kranti , the official organ of the Girni Kamgar Union from the time of its inception. Believing that the world capitalism was in crisis, during the 1920s the Comintern deployed its workers to various countries. Indian communists had forged a close relationship with Communist Party of Great Britain . In 1926 and 1927 members of
11520-409: The textile industry. 31 million working days lost in 1928, through industrial disputes. Trade union numbers and organisation grew rapidly during this period." Muzaffar Ahmed, Usmani and Dange joined these later campaigns on their release from jail. The British government was clearly worried about the growing influence of the Communist International. Its ultimate objective, so the government perceived,
11640-452: The topic in 1918: The essence of Bolshevism is simple – to ignite the revolution everywhere, not choosing the time, regardless of the political situation and other historical realities. Whoever is against is the enemy, and the conversation with the enemies is short – they are subject to urgent and unconditional destruction. Bolshevik figures such as Anatoly Lunacharsky , Moisei Uritsky and Dmitry Manuilsky agreed that Lenin’s influence on
11760-399: The whole proletariat cannot directly exercise proletarian dictatorship. It can be exercised only by a vanguard that has absorbed the revolutionary energy of the class. — Lenin, explaining the increasingly dictatorial nature of the regime. In early Bolshevik discourse, the term "dictatorship of the proletariat" was of little significance; the few times it was mentioned, it was likened to
11880-552: The working class movement, the labour lieutenants of the capitalist class". Consequently, "bourgeoisie" became synonymous with "opponent" and with people who disagreed with the party in general. These oppressive measures led to another reinterpretation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism in general; it was now defined as a purely economic system. Slogans and theoretical works about democratic mass participation and collective decision-making were now replaced with texts which supported authoritarian management. Considering
12000-853: The year 1943– 1944 Dange was elected for the first time as the chairman of the All India Trade Unions Congress. In 1944–1945, he was a delegate to the World Trade Union Conference in London. In 1945–1947 he became the vice chairman of the All India Trade Union Congress. Also in October 1945 he became a member of the Executive Committee and chairman of the General Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions . In February 1947, Dange again became
12120-478: Was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenin 's profile surrounded by smokestacks , a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc. At the top was a gold-plated " hammer and sickle " emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for "USSR" ( Russian : СССР ) in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted. It
12240-532: Was also a well-known writer and was the founder of Socialist the first socialist weekly in India. Dange played an important role in the formation of Maharashtra state. Shripad Amritpant Dange was born in Marathi Deshastha Yajurvedi Brahman family in 1899, in the village of Karanjgaon in Niphad Taluka of Nashik District, Maharashtra. His father worked in Mumbai as government officer and
12360-533: Was arrested on 11 March 1940 for leading a general strike of textile workers in Bombay and interned in the Deoli Detention Camp. At Deoli, several other communist leaders were also jailed along with him. In prison he started a political study circle among the prisoners. He was released in 1943. Even before the takeover of the AITUC by the communists, in 1927, Dange was elected Assistant Secretary of AITUC." During
12480-483: Was awarded between 1930 and 1932. The second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a solid gold badge, featuring a silver plated disc bearing Lenin's portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat , and a red flag with "LENIN" in Cyrillic script ( Russian : ЛЕНИН ). A red star is placed on the left and the "hammer and sickle" emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel. The third design
12600-406: Was awarded from 1936 until 1943. The design was the same as previous, but the central disc was gray enamelled and Lenin's portrait was a separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets . The fourth design was awarded from 1943 until 1991. Design was the same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon (all previous were screwback). The badge was originally worn by screwback on
12720-602: Was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930. Also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze . The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936. Another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki , became the first to receive a third Order in 1939. The first five foreign recipients – who were presented with
12840-512: Was based on Marxist philosophy, it also absorbed elements of the ideology and practice of the socialist revolutionaries of the second half of the 19th century ( Sergey Nechaev , Pyotr Tkachev , Nikolay Chernyshevsky ) and was influenced by Russian agrarian socialist movements like the Narodniks . In October 1917, the Bolshevik Party won a majority in the revolutionary workers' councils ( soviets ) which had been formed throughout Russia following
12960-616: Was called the Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur ) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution." The case attracted interest of the people towards Comintern plan to bring about violent revolution in India. Communist trials had taken place in India, in frontier towns like Peshawar where Russian trained muhajir communists were put on trial. "But no case had attracted public gaze like
13080-684: Was during one of the long textile mill strikes that Dange got himself acquainted with the conditions of labourers. The period also coincided with influence of Bolshevist ideas, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, manifesting in political events in countries outside Russia. This process was quickened by the establishment of the Third International or the Communist International, or in popular parlance—its abbreviated form – Comintern, an international communist organisation founded in Moscow in March 1919. As
13200-540: Was during this period that Dange grew in prominence as a Marxist; a sure way those days to invite antagonism from the British Government. The British Empire saw the founding of Comintern as a disruptive force that would cause internal disorder. It viewed the nascent leftism in India with great suspicion. During the 1920s, the Government foisted a series of 'conspiracy cases' against persons whom they suspected to have communist leanings. During this period M.N. Roy,
13320-562: Was evolving into a more humane system, further adding that the basic aims of socialists were not to overthrow the state, but rather to take power through elections. On the other hand, Karl Kautsky , from the SDP, held a highly dogmatic view, claiming that there was no crisis within Marxist theory. Both of them, however, denied or belittled the role of class contradictions in society after the crisis. In contrast, Lenin believed that capitalism' resurgence
13440-511: Was held in January 1910), and the party found itself without an official leading center. In this regard, a Bolshevik Central Committee was elected at the Prague Conference. In 1916, Lenin wrote his work Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism , which was a major contribution to the development of classical Marxism in the new conditions. In this work the thesis about the unevenness of economic and political development of capitalism in
13560-402: Was imperative that the Girni Kamgar Union as it is now called to penetrate the level of the individual mill...On 30 October 1928 the Girni Kamgar Union had a membership of 324; by the end of that they boasted 54000 members. Two long and bitter strikes in 1928 and 1929 involving the members of Girni Kamgar Union followed. Dange was the general secretary of the Girni Kamgar Union. For their role in
13680-573: Was major landowner of the area and lived in one palace like house in Karanjgaon. Dange was sent to study in Pune. He was expelled from college for organising a movement against compulsory teaching of the Bible. While in work, Dange was exposed to conditions of workers when he undertook voluntary work in the textile mill areas of Mumbai. Dange was drawn into active politics by the fervour of nationalist movement against
13800-534: Was only possible in a large country like the Soviet Union, and that the other states, in order to survive, had to follow the Soviet line. Bolshevism has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903. The concept of Bolshevism arose at the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (1903) as a result of the split of the party into two factions: supporters of Lenin and
13920-543: Was removed in that year because the majority of party workers were against Dange's political line of supporting Indian National Congress, and Indira Gandhi , the then Congress Prime Minister. He was expelled from the CPI in 1981. He joined the All India Communist Party (AICP), and later, United Communist Party of India . Towards the end, Dange got increasingly marginalised in the Indian Communist movement. He
14040-405: Was seen to be guided by the policies imposed by Joseph Stalin on the international communist movement. Stalin's policies were, in turn, dictated by Russia's geopolitical interests. As a result the positions taken by the CPI ran many times counter to popular nationalist sentiments, leading to erosion of the Party's popular base. Up to 1934, the CPI viewed India's freedom struggle as a movement of
14160-500: Was the beginning of a new phase of capitalism; this stage being created because of a strengthening of class contradiction, not because of its reduction. Lenin did not know when the imperialist stage of capitalism began, and claimed it would be foolish to look for a specific year, however he did assert it began at the beginning of the 20th century (at least in Europe). Lenin believed that the economic crisis of 1900 accelerated and intensified
14280-577: Was to achieve "complete paralysis and overthrow of existing Governments in every country (including India) by means of a general strike and armed uprising.". The government's immediate response was to foist yet another conspiracy case—the Meerut Conspiracy Case. In more than one way the Meerut Conspiracy case trial helped the Communist Party of India to consolidate its position among workers. Dange along with 32 persons were arrested on or about 20 March 1929 and were put on trial under Section 121A of
14400-461: Was wrong on the matter. At the 18th Congress , Stalin took the theory to its inevitable conclusion, claiming that the communist mode of production could be conceived in one country. He rationalised this by claiming that the state could exist in a communist society, as long as the Soviet Union was encircled by capitalism. However, surprisingly, with the establishment of satellite states in Eastern Europe , Stalin claimed that socialism in one country
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