Misplaced Pages

#603396

156-775: The tasks for the Ulbricht Group and the other communist cadres who were to return to Germany were defined at a meeting between Wilhelm Pieck and Georgi Dimitrov held in Moscow on April 25, 1945. Dimitrov was then a high-level functionary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , working as the assistant division leader of the International Information Division. They were to prepare

312-440: A constitution , universal manhood suffrage , press freedom , freedom of expression and other democratic rights, the establishment of civilian militia, liberation of peasants, liberalization of the economy, abolition of tariff barriers and the abolition of monarchical power structures in favour of the establishment of republican states , or at least the restriction of the prince power in the form of constitutional monarchies. In

468-453: A federation . In The Question of Nationalities, or 'Autonomisation' (1923), Lenin said: [N]othing holds up the development and strengthening of proletarian class solidarity so much as national injustice; "offended" nationals are not sensitive to anything, so much as to the feeling of equality, and the violation of this equality, if only through negligence or jest – to the violation of that equality by their proletarian comrades. The role of

624-454: A sovietization of Germany. It said the goal was to "continue to its conclusion the civil-democratic transformation begun with the revolutions of 1848 " and, through land reform , to eliminate the "remnants of feudalism ". The goal the Party named was as the "establishment of an anti-fascist, democratic republic with all democratic rights and freedoms for the people". With the re-establishment of

780-506: A Soviet officer, who drove away with Ulbricht. The rest left by truck for Bruchmühle , about 30 kilometers (19 mi) east of Berlin and the offices of Marshal Georgy Zhukov , the first commander of the Soviet occupation zone. The Ulbricht Group began working from there on May 2, 1945, though not much could be done with the city in flames after the Battle of Berlin . In the evening, Ulbricht met with

936-503: A bicameral parliament called the Rigsdag . It is said that the Danish king's first words after signing away his absolute power were, "that was nice, now I can sleep in the mornings". Although army officers were dissatisfied, they accepted the new arrangement which, in contrast to the rest of Europe, was not overturned by reactionaries. The liberal constitution did not extend to Schleswig , leaving

1092-484: A capitalist stage of development and government. Hence, revolutionary workers should ally politically with peasant political organisations, not capitalist political parties. In contrast, Stalin and his allies proposed that alliances with capitalist political parties were essential to realising a revolution where communists were too few. Said Stalinist practice failed, especially in the Northern Expedition portion of

1248-605: A counter-revolution in Soviet cultural life which revived patriotic propaganda , the Tsarist programme of Russification and traditional, military ranks which had been criticized by Lenin as expressions of "Great Russian chauvinism". Daniels also regarded Stalinism to represent an abrupt break with the Leninist period in terms of economic policies in which a deliberated, scientific system of economic planning that featured former Menshevik economists at Gosplan had been replaced with

1404-572: A definite action; it rules out all criticism which disrupts or makes difficult the unity of an action decided on by the Party. Before the October Revolution , despite supporting moderate political reform—including Bolsheviks elected to the Duma when opportune—Lenin said that capitalism could only be overthrown with proletarian revolution , not with gradual reforms—from within ( Fabianism ) and from without ( social democracy )—which would fail because

1560-457: A desire for reform, and agreed on many of the specific aims. Their participation in the revolutions, however, differed. While much of the impetus came from the middle classes, the physical backbone of the movement came from the lower classes. The revolts first erupted in the cities. The population in French rural areas had risen rapidly , causing many peasants to seek a living in the cities. Many in

1716-437: A domestic labour aristocracy with a slightly higher standard of living than most workers, ensuring peaceful labour–capital relations in the capitalist homeland. Therefore, a proletarian revolution of workers and peasants could not occur in capitalist countries whilst the imperialist global-finance system remained in place. The first proletarian revolution would have to occur in an underdeveloped country, such as Imperial Russia,

SECTION 10

#1732858130604

1872-457: A fairly considerable period of time and in fairly varied political situations, their ability to apply this truth in practice have not yet learned to help the revolutionary class in its struggle to emancipate all toiling humanity from the exploiters. And this applies equally to the period before and after the proletariat has won political power. In Chapter II, "Proletarians and Communists", of The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels present

2028-613: A form of Marxism, revolutionary Leninism was criticised as an undemocratic interpretation of socialism . In The Nationalities Question in the Russian Revolution (1918), Rosa Luxemburg criticised the Bolsheviks for the suppression of the All Russian Constituent Assembly (January 1918); the partitioning of the feudal estates to the peasant communes; and the right of self-determination of every national people of

2184-600: A hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, bottlenecks and shortages . Revisionist historians and some post–Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians, including Roy Medvedev , argue that "one could list the various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin", but that "in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them." In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism to undermine

2340-506: A national bank, a Hungarian army, the withdrawal of foreign (Austrian) troops from Hungary, the freeing of political prisoners, and union with Transylvania . On that morning, the demands were read aloud along with poetry by Sándor Petőfi with the simple lines of "We swear by the God of the Hungarians. We swear, we shall be slaves no more". Lajos Kossuth and some other liberal nobility that made up

2496-588: A symptom of the undemocratic nature of a ruling bureaucracy. During the 1920s and the 1930s, Stalin fought and defeated the political influence of Trotsky and the Trotskyists in Russia using slander, antisemitism , censorship , expulsions, exile (internal and external), and imprisonment. The anti-Trotsky campaign culminated in the executions (official and unofficial) of the Moscow Trials (1936–1938), which were part of

2652-465: A united, working-class proletariat in a predominantly agrarian society. Moreover, because industrialisation was financed chiefly with foreign capital, Imperial Russia did not possess a revolutionary bourgeoisie with political and economic influence upon the workers and the peasants, as had been the case in the French Revolution (1789–1799) in the 18th century. Although Russia's political economy

2808-517: Is based upon The Communist Manifesto (1848), identifying the communist party as "the most advanced and resolute section of the working class parties of every country; that section which pushes forward all others." As the vanguard party, the Bolsheviks viewed history through the theoretical framework of dialectical materialism , which sanctioned political commitment to the successful overthrow of capitalism, and then to instituting socialism ; and, as

2964-704: Is critical of Leninism. Contemporary left-communist organisations, such as the Internationalist Communist Tendency and the International Communist Current , view Lenin as an essential and influential theorist but remain critical of Leninism as political praxis for the proletarian revolution . Nonetheless, the Bordigism of the International Communist Party abides Bordiga's strict Leninism. Ideologically aligned with

3120-493: Is directed against oppression, and it is this content that we unconditionally support. At the same time, we strictly distinguish it from the tendency towards national exclusiveness. ... Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot. The socialist internationalism of Marxism and Bolshevism is based upon class struggle and a people's transcending nationalism, ethnocentrism , and religion—the intellectual obstacles to progressive class consciousness —which are

3276-644: Is nonsense”. Conversely, Trotsky held that socialism in one country would economically constrain the industrial development of the Soviet Union and thus required assistance from the new socialist countries in the developed world—which was essential for maintaining soviet democracy—in 1924, much undermined by the Russian Civil War of White Army counter-revolution. Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution proposed that socialist revolutions in underdeveloped countries would further dismantle feudal régimes and establish socialist democracies that would not pass through

SECTION 20

#1732858130604

3432-585: Is today the basis of party activity. The party follows revolutionary tradition and experiences in this work during these periods of revolutionary reflux and the proliferation of opportunist theories, which had as their violent and inflexible opponents Marx, Engels, Lenin, and the Italian Left." In The Lenin Legend (1935), Paul Mattick said that the council communist tradition, begun by the Dutch-German leftists, also

3588-524: The Regulamentul Organic regime, and, through many of its leaders, demanded the abolition of boyar privilege. Led by a group of young intellectuals and officers in the Wallachian military forces , the movement succeeded in toppling the ruling Prince Gheorghe Bibescu , whom it replaced with a provisional government and a regency , and in passing a series of major liberal reforms, first announced in

3744-537: The Communist Party , each ideological faction denied the political legitimacy of the opposing faction. Until shortly before his death, Lenin countered Stalin's disproportionate political influence in the Communist Party and the bureaucracy of the Soviet government, partly because of abuses he had committed against the populace of Georgia and partly because the autocratic Stalin had accumulated administrative power disproportionate to his office of General Secretary of

3900-696: The Diet appealed to the Habsburg court with demands for representative government and civil liberties. These events resulted in Klemens von Metternich , the Austrian chancellor and foreign minister, resigning. The demands of the Diet were agreed upon on 18 March by Emperor Ferdinand . Although Hungary would remain part of the monarchy through personal union with the emperor, a constitutional government would be founded. The Diet then passed

4056-531: The Great Purge of Old Bolsheviks who had led the Revolution. Some historians such as Richard Pipes consider Stalinism as the natural consequence of Leninism, that Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs". Robert Service notes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin ... but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism

4212-688: The Habsburg Austrian Empire , the Republic of San Marco later joined the Kingdom of Sardinia in an attempt, led by the latter, to unite northern Italy against foreign (mainly Austrian but also French) domination. However, the First Italian War of Independence ended in the defeat of Sardinia, and Austrian forces reconquered the Republic of San Marco on 28 August 1849 following a long siege. Based on

4368-750: The Moscow Trials of 1936–1938. According to Rogovin, 80-90% of the members of the Central Committee elected at the Sixth through to the Seventeenth Congresses were physically annihilated. The Right Opposition and Left Opposition have been held by some scholars as representing political alternatives to Stalinism despite their shared beliefs in Leninism due to their policy platforms which were at variance with Stalin. This ranged from areas related to economics , foreign policy and cultural matters. As

4524-529: The National Liberals , ended with a popular march to Christiansborg on 21 March. The new king, Frederick VII , met the liberals' demands and installed a new Cabinet that included prominent leaders of the National Liberal Party . The national-liberal movement wanted to abolish absolutism, but retain a strongly centralized state. The king accepted a new constitution agreeing to share power with

4680-507: The Old Bolsheviks and leading figures in the military and scientific fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation. Some Marxist theoreticians have disputed the view that the Stalinist dictatorship was a natural outgrowth of the Bolsheviks' actions as most of the original central committee members from 1917 were later eliminated by Stalin. George Novack stressed the initial efforts by

4836-474: The Proclamation of Islaz . Despite its rapid gains and popular backing, the new administration was marked by conflicts between the radical wing and more conservative forces, especially over the issue of land reform . Two successive abortive coups weakened the new government, and its international status was always contested by Russia. After managing to rally a degree of sympathy from Ottoman political leaders,

Ulbricht Group - Misplaced Pages Continue

4992-740: The Prussians in the Grand Duchy of Posen (or the Greater Poland region), a part of Prussia since its annexation in 1815. The Poles tried to establish a Polish political entity, but refused to cooperate with the Germans and the Jews. The Germans decided they were better off with the status quo, so they assisted the Prussian governments in recapturing control. In the long-term, the uprising stimulated nationalism among both

5148-535: The Russian Civil War . In March 1921, the New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921–1929) allowed limited local capitalism (private commerce and internal free trade) and replaced grain requisitions with an agricultural tax managed by state banks. The NEP was meant to resolve food-shortage riots by the peasantry and allowed limited private enterprise; the profit motive encouraged farmers to produce the crops required to feed town and country; and to economically re-establish

5304-562: The Russian Civil War : "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated." Some scholars have had a differing view and attributed the establishment of the one-party system in the Soviet Union to the wartime conditions imposed on Lenin's government and others have highlighted the initial attempts to form a coalition government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries . According to historian Marcel Liebman , Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties

5460-576: The Schleswig-Holstein Question unanswered. The Duchy of Schleswig , a region containing both Danes (a North Germanic population) and Germans (a West Germanic population), was a part of the Danish monarchy, but remained a duchy separate from the Kingdom of Denmark. Spurred by pan-German sentiment, the Germans of Schleswig took up arms in protest at a new policy announced by Denmark's National Liberal government which would have fully integrated

5616-576: The Sonderbund ("separate alliance") in 1845 led to a short civil conflict in November 1847 in which around 100 people were killed. The Sonderbund was decisively defeated by the Protestant cantons, which had a larger population. A new constitution of 1848 ended the almost-complete independence of the cantons, transforming Switzerland into a federal state . Polish people mounted a military insurrection against

5772-684: The Venetian Lagoon , the Republic of San Marco extended into most of Venetia , or the Terraferma territory of the Republic of Venice , suppressed 51 years earlier in the French Revolutionary Wars . In the Duchy of Modena and Reggio , Duke Francis V attempted to respond militarily to the first attempts at armed revolt, but faced with the approach of Bolognese volunteers to support the insurgents, in order to avoid bloodshed he preferred to leave

5928-788: The anarchists and the Mensheviks , factions of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries . The Russian Civil War (1917–1922), which included the fight against the White Army , Entente intervention , left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks and widespread peasant rebellions was an external and internal war which transformed Bolshevik Russia into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR),

6084-743: The bourgeoisie feared and distanced themselves from the working poor . Many unskilled laborers toiled from 12 to 15 hours per day when they had work, living in squalid, disease-ridden slums. Traditional artisans felt the pressure of industrialization , having lost their guilds . The liberalization of trade laws and the growth of factories had increased the gulf between master tradesmen, and journeymen and apprentices, whose numbers increased disproportionately by 93% from 1815 to 1848 in Germany. Significant proletarian unrest had occurred in Lyon in 1831 and 1834 , and Prague in 1844. Jonathan Sperber has suggested that in

6240-410: The cultural status quo that the capitalist ruling class manipulates in order to divide the working classes and the peasant classes politically. To overcome that barrier to establishing socialism, Lenin said that acknowledging nationalism, as a people's right of self-determination and right of secession, naturally would allow socialist states to transcend the political limitations of nationalism to form

6396-698: The proletariat than the Leninism of the Communist International at their first (1919) and second (1920) congresses. Proponents of left communism include Amadeo Bordiga , Herman Gorter , Paul Mattick , Sylvia Pankhurst , Antonie Pannekoek and Otto Rühle . Historically, the Dutch-German communist left has been most critical of Lenin and Leninism, yet the Italian communist left remained Leninist. Bordiga said: "All this work of demolishing opportunism and 'deviationism' (Lenin: What Is To Be Done? )

Ulbricht Group - Misplaced Pages Continue

6552-501: The proletariat , farmers and intellectuals. He wanted the party to work for a unified Germany and said that in his opinion, the West wanted to split the country into partitions; so (according to Pieck) their goal was to "[complete] the civil-democratic revolution through a civil-democratic government." The founding manifesto of the KPD was written by Ackermann. In it, the new party spoke openly against

6708-551: The serfs . It started on 15 March 1848, when Hungarian patriots organized mass demonstrations in Pest and Buda (today Budapest) which forced the imperial governor to accept their 12 points of demands , which included the demand for freedom of press, an independent Hungarian ministry residing in Buda-Pest and responsible to a popularly elected parliament, the formation of a National Guard, complete civil and religious equality, trial by jury,

6864-814: The springtime of nations , were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history to date. The revolutions were essentially democratic and liberal in nature, with the aim of removing the old monarchical structures and creating independent nation-states , as envisioned by romantic nationalism . The revolutions spread across Europe after an initial revolution began in Italy in January 1848. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no significant coordination or cooperation among their respective revolutionaries. Some of

7020-528: The totalitarian view that the negative facets of Stalin were inherent in communism from the start. Critics include anti-Stalinist communists such as Leon Trotsky , who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade the Russian Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary . Lenin's Testament , the document which contained this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift

7176-480: The " Belgian Legion " attempted to cross the Belgian frontier. There were two divisions which were formed. The first group, travelling by train, were stopped and quickly disarmed at Quiévrain on 26 March 1848. The second group crossed the border on 29 March and headed for Brussels. They were confronted by Belgian troops at the hamlet of Risquons-Tout and defeated. Several smaller groups managed to infiltrate Belgium, but

7332-545: The "political campaign" (socialist changes to society), which required the decisive, revolutionary leadership of the Bolshevik vanguard party. Based upon the First International (IWA, International Workingmen's Association, 1864–1876), Lenin organised the Bolsheviks as a democratically centralised vanguard party; wherein free political speech was recognised as legitimate until policy consensus; afterwards, every member of

7488-649: The Americas. Peasant discontent in the 1840s grew in intensity. Peasant occupations of lost communal land increased in many areas; those convicted of wood theft in the Rhenish Palatinate increased from 100,000 in 1829–30 to 185,000 in 1846–47. In the years 1845 and 1846, a potato blight caused a subsistence crisis in Northern Europe , and encouraged the raiding of manorial potato stocks in Silesia in 1847. The effects of

7644-409: The April laws that established equality before the law, a legislature, a hereditary constitutional monarchy, and an end to the transfer and restrictions of land use. The revolution grew into a war for independence from the Habsburg monarchy when Josip Jelačić , Ban of Croatia , crossed the border to restore their control. The new government, led by Lajos Kossuth , was initially successful against

7800-408: The Bolsheviks to form a government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and bring other parties such as the Mensheviks into political legality. Tony Cliff argued the Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government dissolved the democratically elected Russian Constituent Assembly due to a number of reasons. They cited the outdated voter-rolls which did not acknowledge the split among

7956-402: The Chinese Revolution (1926–1928), which resulted in the right-wing Kuomintang 's massacre of the Chinese Communist Party . Despite the failure, Stalin's policy of mixed-ideology political alliances nonetheless became Comintern 's policy. Until exiled from Russia in 1929, Trotsky developed and led the Left Opposition (and the later Joint Opposition) with members of the Workers' Opposition ,

SECTION 50

#1732858130604

8112-445: The Communist Party . The counter-action against Stalin aligned with Lenin's advocacy of the right of self-determination for the national and ethnic groups of the deposed Tsarist Empire . Lenin warned the Party that Stalin had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution" and formed a faction with Leon Trotsky to remove Stalin as

8268-514: The Communist Party and the bureaucracy of the Soviet government. In 1922, Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing bureaucratisation and the influence of Joseph Stalin . Lenin himself never mentioned the concept of "Trotskyism" after Trotsky became a member of the Bolshevik party but the term was employed by Stalin and the troika to present Trotsky's views as factional and anathematical to Leninist thought. After Lenin's death (21 January 1924), Trotsky ideologically battled

8424-553: The Communist Party were key arguments of Trotsky's Left Opposition and the later Joint Opposition . In instituting government policy, Stalin promoted the doctrine of socialism in one country (adopted 1925), wherein the Soviet Union would establish socialism upon Russia's economic foundations (and support socialist revolutions elsewhere). In a 1936 interview with journalist Roy W. Howard , Stalin articulated his rejection of world revolution and stated that “We never had such plans and intentions” and that “The export of revolution

8580-401: The Czech Nation , which emphasised a national lineage of conflict with the Germans, or the popular patriotic Liederkranz (song-circles) that were held across Germany: patriotic and belligerent songs about Schleswig had dominated the Würzburg national song festival in 1845. 'Socialism' in the 1840s was a term without a consensus definition, meaning different things to different people, but

8736-419: The Decembrists and (later) the Zinovievists. Trotskyism predominated the politics of the Left Opposition, which demanded the restoration of soviet democracy , the expansion of democratic centralism in the Communist Party, national industrialisation, international permanent revolution and socialist internationalism. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick , the scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated

8892-422: The Dutch-German left, among the ideologists of contemporary communisation , the theorist Gilles Dauvé criticised Leninism as a "by-product of Kautskyism ". In The Soviet Union Versus Socialism (1986), Noam Chomsky said that Stalinism was the logical development of Leninism and not an ideological deviation from Lenin's policies, which resulted in collectivisation enforced with a police state . In light of

9048-550: The General Secretary of the Communist Party. To that end followed proposals reducing the administrative powers of party posts to reduce bureaucratic influence upon the policies of the Communist Party. Lenin advised Trotsky to emphasise Stalin's recent bureaucratic alignment in such matters (e.g. undermining the anti-bureaucratic workers' and peasants' Inspection) and argued to depose Stalin as General Secretary. Despite advice to refuse "any rotten compromise", he did not heed Lenin's advice and General Secretary Stalin retained power over

9204-451: The Group and explained their assignment. They were to cover all 20 districts in Berlin and begin building local administrations. In each, they were to seek out as many social democrats as possible, also a civil servant with a Ph.D. from each local administration who was willing to work with the Soviets and a cleric to lead a religious advisory council. Communists were to be installed in each district as assistant administrator, and to head up

9360-479: The Habsburg forces. Although Hungary took a national united stand for its freedom, some minorities of the Kingdom of Hungary, including the Serbs of Vojvodina, the Romanians of Transylvania and some Slovaks of Upper Hungary supported the Habsburg Emperor and fought against the Hungarian Revolutionary Army. Eventually, after one and a half years of fighting, the revolution was crushed when Russian Tsar Nicholas I marched into Hungary with over 300,000 troops. As result of

9516-417: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), Lenin's economic analyses indicated that capitalism would transform into a global financial system , by which industrialised countries exported financial capital to their colonies and so realise the exploitation of the labour of the natives and the exploitation of the natural resources of their countries. Such superexploitation allows wealthy countries to maintain

SECTION 60

#1732858130604

9672-410: The KPD on June 11, 1945, the Ulbricht Group reached its first goal. On July 10, 1945, it moved into the KPD's Central Committee building. Until 1955 and the publication of Wolfgang Leonhard's book, Die Revolution entläßt ihre Kinder (later published in English as Child of the Revolution ), knowledge of the Ulbricht Group was kept secret. In Leonhard's opinion, it was kept secret so as not to emphasize

9828-411: The Leninist vanguard party was to politically educate the workers and peasants to dispel the societal false consciousness of religion and nationalism that constitute the cultural status quo taught by the bourgeoisie to the proletariat to facilitate their economic exploitation of peasants and workers. Influenced by Lenin, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party stated that the development of

9984-466: The Leninist vanguard party would be one of many political parties competing for election to government power. Nevertheless, because of the Russian Civil War (1917–1924) and the anti-Bolshevik terrorism of opposing political parties aiding the White Armies' counter-revolution, the Bolshevik government banned all other political parties, which left the Leninist vanguard party as the only political party in Russia. Lenin said that such political suppression

10140-513: The Netherlands. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, Italy , the Austrian Empire , and the states of the German Confederation that would make up the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The wave of uprisings ended in October 1849. The revolutions arose from such a wide variety of causes that it is difficult to view them as resulting from a coherent movement or set of social phenomena. Numerous changes had been taking place in European society throughout

10296-426: The Poles and the Germans and brought civil equality to the Jews. A Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist uprising began in June in the principality of Wallachia . Its goals were administrative autonomy, abolition of serfdom, and popular self-determination. It was closely connected with the 1848 unsuccessful revolt in Moldavia , it sought to overturn the administration imposed by Imperial Russian authorities under

10452-409: The Prussian victory in 1864 . From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements, which often had a nationalist character. The empire, ruled from Vienna , included German-speaking Austrians , Hungarians , Czechs , Poles , Croats , Ukrainians , Romanians , Slovaks , Slovenes , Serbs and Italians , all of whom attempted in the course of

10608-431: The Revolution split, and in the end, the conservative aristocracy defeated it, forcing many liberal Forty-Eighters into exile. Denmark had been governed by a system of absolute monarchy ( King's Law ) since the 17th century. King Christian VIII , a moderate reformer but still an absolutist, died in January 1848 during a period of rising opposition from farmers and liberals. The demands for constitutional monarchy, led by

10764-448: The Revolution was ultimately isolated by the intervention of Russian diplomats. In September 1848 by agreement with the Ottomans, Russia invaded and put down the revolution. According to Vasile Maciu, the failures were attributable in Wallachia to foreign intervention, in Moldavia to the opposition of the feudalists, and in Transylvania to the failure of the campaigns of General Józef Bem , and later to Austrian repression. In later decades,

10920-419: The Russias. That the strategic (geopolitical) mistakes of the Bolsheviks would create significant dangers for the Russian Revolution , such as the bureaucratisation that would arise to administrate the large country that was Bolshevik Russia. In defence of the expedient revolutionary practice, in "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920), Lenin dismissed the political and ideological complaints of

11076-443: The Socialist Revolutionary party and the assemblies conflict with the Russian Congress of the Soviets as an alternative democratic structure. A similar analysis is present in more recent works such as those of Graeme Gill, who argues that "[Stalinism was] not a natural flow-on of earlier developments; [it formed a] sharp break resulting from conscious decisions by leading political actors." However, Gill notes that "difficulties with

11232-485: The anti-Bolshevik critics, who claimed ideologically correct stances that were to the political left of Lenin. In Marxist philosophy, left communism is a range of left-wing political perspectives among communists. Left communism criticizes the Bolshevik Party 's ideology as the revolutionary vanguard. Ideologically, left communists present their perspectives and approaches as authentic Marxism and thus more oriented to

11388-406: The application of this principle in practice will sometimes give rise to disputes and misunderstandings; but only on the basis of this principle can all disputes and all misunderstandings be settled honourably for the Party. ... The principle of democratic centralism and autonomy for local Party organisations implies universal and full freedom to criticise, so long as this does not disturb the unity of

11544-467: The ban on the opposition parties such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries as soon as the economic and social conditions of Soviet Russia had improved. Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as a Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government. In his biography of Trotsky, Polish-British historian Isaac Deutscher says that, on being faced with

11700-890: The blight were most severely manifested in the Great Irish Famine , but also caused famine-like conditions in the Scottish Highlands and throughout continental Europe . Harvests of rye in the Rhineland were 20% of previous levels, while the Czech potato harvest was reduced by half. These reduced harvests were accompanied by a steep rise in prices (the cost of wheat more than doubled in France and Habsburg Italy). There were 400 French food riots from 1846 to 1847, while German socio-economic protests increased from 28 from 1830 to 1839, to 103 from 1840 to 1847. Central to long-term peasant grievances were

11856-752: The borders of the Habsburg Empire, and formation of a separate region with a political self-governance. During 18–19 March, a series of riots known as the March Unrest ( Marsoroligheterna ) took place in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Declarations with demands of political reform were spread in the city and a barricade at Norra Smedjegatan was stormed by the military. In the end, there were 18–30 casualties in total. Switzerland, already an alliance of republics, also saw an internal struggle. The attempted secession of seven Catholic cantons to form an alliance known as

12012-491: The bourgeoisie of the various countries and among the various groups or types of bourgeoisie within the various countries, and also by taking advantage of any, even the smallest, opportunity of winning a mass ally, even though this ally is temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional. Those who do not understand this reveal a failure to understand even the smallest grain of Marxism, of modern scientific socialism in general. Those who have not proved in practice, over

12168-485: The bourgeoisie's control of the means of production determined the nature of political power in Russia. As epitomised in the slogan "For a Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry", a proletarian revolution in underdeveloped Russia required a united proletariat (peasants and industrial workers) to assume government power in the cities successfully. Moreover, owing to the middle-class aspirations of much of

12324-553: The capitalist interests of the kulak in the countryside and destroying them as a social class. Initially, the Stalinists also rejected the national industrialisation of Russia but then pursued it in full, sometimes brutally. In both cases, the Left Opposition denounced the regressive nature of Stalin's policy towards the wealthy kulak social class and the brutality of forced industrialisation. Trotsky described Stalinist vacillation as

12480-440: The capitalists and organised its own socialist production, would stand up against the rest of the world, the capitalist world. In "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920), Lenin wrote: The more powerful enemy can be vanquished only by exerting the utmost effort, and by the most thorough, careful, attentive, skillful and obligatory use of any, even the smallest, rift between the enemies, any conflict of interests among

12636-645: The city promising a constitution and amnesties. On 21 March 1848 he left for Bolzano. A provisional government was established in Modena. In the Papal States , an internal revolt ousted Pope Pius IX from his temporal powers and led to the establishment of the Roman Republic . The municipalities of Menton and Roquebrune united and obtained independence as the Principality of Monaco . The "February Revolution" in France

12792-418: The communist party as the political vanguard solely qualified to lead the proletariat in revolution: The Communists, therefore, are, on the one hand, practically the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding

12948-492: The core and largest republic that founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As revolutionary praxis , Leninism originally was neither a proper philosophy nor a discrete political theory. Leninism comprises politico-economic developments of orthodox Marxism and Lenin's interpretations of Marxism, which function as a pragmatic synthesis for practical application to the actual conditions (political, social, economic) of

13104-553: The course of 1847. With the exception of the Netherlands, there was a strong correlation among the countries that were most deeply affected by the industrial shock of 1847 and those that underwent a revolution in 1848. The situation in the German states was similar. Parts of Prussia were beginning to industrialize. During the decade of the 1840s, mechanized production in the textile industry brought about inexpensive clothing that undercut

13260-608: The defeat, Hungary was thus placed under brutal martial law. The leading rebels like Kossuth fled into exile or were executed. In the long run, the passive resistance following the revolution, along with the crushing Austrian defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War , led to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867), which marked the birth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . The center of the Ukrainian national movement

13416-410: The democratisation of the Central Committee and recruitment of 50–100 ordinary workers into the lower organs of the party. Nikita Khrushchev , Stalin's successor, argued that Stalin's regime differed profusely from the leadership of Lenin in his " Secret Speech ", delivered in 1956. He was critical of the cult of the individual which was constructed around Stalin whereas Lenin stressed “the role of

13572-569: The departments for personnel and development. The group worked from Bruchmühle till May 8, after which they moved to the Friedrichsfelde area of Berlin. On May 6, 1945, Ulbricht gave the Soviet commander of Berlin, Nikolai Berzarin , the first list of suggested names to fill important administrative posts in Berlin. On May 12, 1945, the district administrators and city councils were appointed from Ulbricht's list without exception. Paul Markgraf, one of

13728-625: The duchy into Denmark. The German population in Schleswig and Holstein revolted, inspired by the Protestant clergy. The German states sent in an army, but Danish victories in 1849 led to the Treaty of Berlin (1850) and the London Protocol (1852) . They reaffirmed the sovereignty of the King of Denmark, while prohibiting union with Denmark. The violation of the latter provision led to renewed warfare in 1863 and

13884-594: The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishment of communism . Lenin's ideological contributions to the Marxist ideology relate to his theories on the party , imperialism , the state , and revolution. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the political consciousness (education and organisation) and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism . Leninist revolutionary leadership

14040-479: The evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism." According to Stalin's secretary, Boris Bazhanov , Stalin was jubilant over Lenin's death while “publicly putting on the mask of grief”. French historian Pierre Broue disputed the historical assessments of the early Soviet Union by modern historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov in which he argued had falsely equated Leninism, Stalinism and Trotskyism to present

14196-427: The exploiters will be, in one or another form, restricted ...is a question of the specific national features of this or that capitalism." In chapter five of The State and Revolution (1917), Lenin describes the dictatorship of the proletariat as: the organisation of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors. ... An immense expansion of democracy, which, for

14352-525: The factories and the trade unions but excluded the capitalist social class to establish a proletarian government by and for the working class and the peasants. Concerning the political disenfranchisement of the capitalist social class in Bolshevik Russia, Lenin said that "depriving the exploiters of the franchise is a purely Russian question, and not a question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in general. ... In which countries ...democracy for

14508-470: The first half of the 19th century. Both liberal reformers and radical politicians were reshaping national governments. Technological change was revolutionizing the life of the working classes. A popular press extended political awareness, and new values and ideas such as popular liberalism , nationalism and socialism began to emerge. Some historians emphasize the serious crop failures, particularly those of 1846, that produced hardship among peasants and

14664-427: The first time, becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich ... and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, for the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change which democracy undergoes during the 'transition' from capitalism to communism. Concerning the disenfranchisement from democracy of the capitalist social class, Lenin said: "Democracy for

14820-471: The freedom to express a real variety of opinions existed in the party, and in carrying out political decisions, consideration was given to the positions of not only the majority, but a minority in the party". He compared this practice with subsequent leadership blocs which violated party tradition, ignored proposals of opponents and expelled the Opposition from the party on falsified charges which culminated with

14976-455: The government and politics of Singapore. In the event, the practical application of Maoism to the socio-economic conditions of Third World countries produced revolutionary vanguard parties, such as the Communist Party of Peru – Red Fatherland . Selected works by Vladimir Lenin Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848 , known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or

15132-475: The handmade products of German tailors. Reforms ameliorated the most unpopular features of rural feudalism , but industrial workers remained dissatisfied with these reforms and pressed for greater change. Urban workers had no choice but to spend half of their income on food, which consisted mostly of bread and potatoes. As a result of harvest failures, food prices soared and the demand for manufactured goods decreased, causing an increase in unemployment. During

15288-639: The increased popularity of the older Morgenbladet in Norway and the Aftonbladet in Sweden. 'Nationalism' believed in uniting people bound by (some mix of) common languages , culture , religion , shared history , and of course immediate geography ; there were also irredentist movements. Nationalism had developed a broader appeal during the pre-1848 period, as seen in the František Palacký 's 1836 History of

15444-476: The industrialised countries. In Germany, Marxist social democracy was the political perspective of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , inspiring Russian Marxists, such as Lenin. In the early 20th century, the socio-economic backwardness of Imperial Russia (1721–1917) — characterized by combined and uneven economic development — facilitated rapid and intensive industrialisation, which produced

15600-517: The infamous Article 58 and who established the autocratic system within the Russian Communist Party . Proponents also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the party and introduced the one-party state in 1921, a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky , who exclaimed during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in

15756-434: The influence of Stalin, who formed ruling blocs within the Russian Communist Party (with Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev , then with Nikolai Bukharin and then by himself) and so determined soviet government policy from 1924 onwards. The ruling blocs continually denied Stalin's opponents the right to organise as an opposition faction within the party—thus, the reinstatement of democratic centralism and free speech within

15912-660: The language of the 1840s, 'democracy' meant replacing an electorate of property-owners with universal male suffrage . 'Liberalism' fundamentally meant consent of the governed , restriction of church and state power, republican government , freedom of the press and the individual. The 1840s had seen the emergence of radical liberal publications such as Rheinische Zeitung (1842); Le National and La Réforme (1843) in France; Ignaz Kuranda 's Grenzboten (1841) in Austria; Lajos Kossuth 's Pesti Hírlap (1841) in Hungary, as well as

16068-466: The lines of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement. The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat. The revolutionary purpose of the Leninist vanguard party is to establish the dictatorship of

16224-525: The loss of communal lands, forest restrictions (such as the French Forest Code of 1827), and remaining feudal structures, notably the robot (labor obligations) that existed among the serfs and oppressed peasantry of the Habsburg lands . Aristocratic wealth (and corresponding power) was synonymous with the ownership of farmlands and effective control over the peasants . Peasant grievances exploded during

16380-477: The major contributing factors were widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for more participation in government and democracy, demands for freedom of the press , other demands made by the working class for economic rights, the upsurge of nationalism , and the European potato failure , which triggered mass starvation, migration, and civil unrest. The uprisings were led by temporary coalitions of workers and reformers, including figures from

16536-472: The middle and upper classes (the bourgeoisie ); however, the coalitions did not hold together for long. Many of the revolutions were quickly suppressed, as tens of thousands of people were killed, and even more were forced into exile. Significant lasting reforms included the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark, and the introduction of representative democracy in

16692-500: The middle class reformers and the working class radicals. German reformers argued endlessly without finalizing their results. Caught off guard at first, the aristocracy and their allies plot a return to power. The revolutions suffer a series of defeats in summer 1849. Reactionaries returned to power and many leaders of the revolution went into exile. Some social reforms proved permanent, and years later nationalists in Germany, Italy, and Hungary gained their objectives. The first of

16848-553: The new organizations the Group was setting up. The youngest member of the Group was 24-year-old Wolfgang Leonhard . The Ulbricht Group left from the Hotel Lux , where they had been living in exile (some for years), and flew from Moscow to Minsk , then to Calau (near Międzyrzecz ). Some members of the Group did not know what their assignment was, nor how long it would last, until after they landed. They landed in an airfield and were met by

17004-493: The notion of ideological continuity and reinforce the position of counter-communism . Other revisionist historians, such as Orlando Figes , whilst critical of the Soviet era, acknowledge that Lenin had actively sought to counter the growing influence of Stalin through a number of actions such as his alliance with Trotsky in 1922–23, opposition to Stalin on foreign trade , the Georgian affair and proposed party reforms which included

17160-603: The numerous revolutions to occur in 1848 in Italy came in Palermo, Sicily, starting in January 1848 . There had been several previous revolts against Bourbon rule; this one produced an independent state that lasted only 16 months before the Bourbons came back. During those months, the constitution was quite advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unified Italian confederation of states. The revolt's failure

17316-498: The oft-cited comment by Ulbricht made during this period, "It is quite clear. It must look democratic, but we must have everything in hand ." Some historians say that by spring 1945, the establishment of a communist-dominated government in the Soviet-occupied zone and the proclaimed democracy was merely a transitional stage but at least one historian believes that Stalin earnestly pursued a western-style democracy for Germany, that it

17472-470: The old governments rushed home to seize the moment. In France, the monarchy was once again overthrown and replaced by a republic . In a number of major German and Italian states, and in Austria, the old leaders were forced to grant liberal constitutions. The Italian and German states seemed to be rapidly forming unified nations. Austria gave Hungarians and Czechs liberal grants of autonomy and national status. In France, bloody street battles exploded between

17628-412: The party was expected to abide by the agreed policy. Democratic debate was Bolshevik practice, even after Lenin banned factions among the Party in 1921. Despite being a guiding political influence, Lenin did not exercise absolute power and continually debated to have his points of view accepted as a course of revolutionary action. In Freedom to Criticise and Unity of Action (1905), Lenin said: Of course,

17784-465: The party", "had worked with Lenin during his life”. He also contrasted the “severe methods” used by Lenin in the “most necessary cases” as a “struggle for survival” during the Civil War with the extreme methods and mass repressions used by Stalin even when the Revolution was “already victorious”. In his memoirs, Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among

17940-441: The peasantry, Leon Trotsky said that the proletarian leadership of the revolution would ensure truly socialist and democratic socio-economic change. In Bolshevik Russia , government by direct democracy was realised and effected by the soviets (elected councils of workers), which Lenin said was the "democratic dictatorship of the proletariat" postulated in orthodox Marxism . The soviets comprised representative committees from

18096-687: The peasantry; local officials were expected to understand it and the Ruthenian clergy was to be equalized in their rights with the clergy of all other denominations. On 2 May 1848, the Supreme Ruthenian Council was established. The council (1848–1851) was headed by the Greek-Catholic Bishop Gregory Yakhimovich and consisted of 30 permanent members. Its main goal was the administrative division of Galicia into Western (Polish) and Eastern (Ruthenian/Ukrainian) parts within

18252-415: The people as the creator of history”. He also emphasized that Lenin favored a collective leadership which relied on personal persuasion and recommended the removal of Stalin from the position of General Secretary. Khrushchev contrasted this with the “despotism” of Stalin which require absolute submission to his position and he also highlighted that many of the people who were later annihilated as “enemies of

18408-467: The period after 1825, poorer urban workers (particularly day laborers, factory workers and artisans) saw their purchasing power decline relatively steeply: urban meat consumption in Belgium, France and Germany stagnated or declined after 1830, despite growing populations. The economic Panic of 1847 increased urban unemployment: 10,000 Viennese factory workers lost jobs, and 128 Hamburg firms went bankrupt over

18564-502: The politically weakest country in the capitalist global-finance system in the early 20th century. In the United States of Europe Slogan (1915), Lenin wrote: Workers of the world, unite! —Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism. Hence the victory of socialism is possible, first in several, or even in one capitalist country taken separately. The victorious proletariat of that country, having expropriated

18720-404: The position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . The Trotskyist demands countered Stalin's political dominance of the Communist Party, which was officially characterised by the " cult of Lenin ", the rejection of permanent revolution, and advocated the doctrine of socialism in one country . The Stalinist economic policy vacillated between appeasing

18876-502: The post- emancipation agrarian society of Imperial Russia in the early 20th century. As a political-science term, Lenin's theory of proletarian revolution entered common usage at the fifth congress of the Communist International (1924), when Grigory Zinoviev applied the term Leninism to denote "vanguard-party revolution." Leninism was accepted as part of Russian Communist Party (b) 's vocabulary and doctrine around 1922, and in January 1923, despite objections from Lenin, it entered

19032-456: The proletariat with the working class 's support. The communist party would lead the popular deposition of the Tsarist government and then transfer government power to the working class; that change of the ruling class—from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat —makes establishing socialism possible. In What Is To Be Done? (1902), Lenin said that a revolutionary vanguard party, recruited from

19188-411: The proletariat in every territory of the deposed Russian Empire (1721–1917). In The Right of Nations to Self-determination (1914), Lenin said: We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation. :... The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a general democratic content that

19344-530: The public vocabulary. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), in which they called for the political unification of the European working classes in order to achieve communist revolution ; and proposed that because the socio-economic organisation of communism was of a higher form than that of capitalism , a workers' revolution first would occur in

19500-486: The rebels returned and gained their goals. Belgium did not see major unrest in 1848; it had already undergone a liberal reform after the Revolution of 1830 and thus its constitutional system and its monarchy survived. A number of small local riots broke out, concentrated in the sillon industriel industrial region of the provinces of Liège and Hainaut . The most serious threat of revolutionary contagion, however,

19656-609: The region to accept and follow the instructions of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany so the Nazi government could be dismantled. The de-nazification process was to convince the people to turn over Nazi war criminals . The Group was to calm the German people and assure them that the Red Army would neither destroy nor enslave them; but the Group was also to convey that the German people had to understand that they bore

19812-608: The responsibility for the Nazis' rise to power, giving force to Hitler's policies and causing the catastrophe. The communists (in this narrative to be promulgated by the Group) had tried to warn the German people of the coming catastrophe, and were now there to help the people out of their distress. While communicating this message, the Group was to establish a basis for the future of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). They were also to seek out anti-fascist individuals who would be willing to work with

19968-509: The revolution to achieve either autonomy, independence, or even hegemony over other nationalities. The nationalist picture was further complicated by the simultaneous events in the German states, which moved toward greater German national unity. The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was the longest in Europe, crushed in August 1849 by Austrian and Russian armies. Nevertheless, it had a major effect in freeing

20124-451: The revolution, to address the problem of unemployment, workshops were organized for men interested in construction work. Officials also set up workshops for women when they felt they were excluded. Artisans and unemployed workers destroyed industrial machines when they threatened to give employers more power over them. Rural population growth had led to food shortages, land pressure, and migration, both within and from Europe, especially to

20280-548: The revolutionary national government, to realise the socio-economic transition by all means. In the aftermath of the October Revolution in 1917, Leninism was the dominant version of Marxism in Russia. In establishing the socialist mode of production in Soviet Russia – with the 1917 Decree on Land , war communism (1918–1921) and the New Economic Policy (1921–1928) – the revolutionary régime suppressed most political opposition, including Marxists who opposed Lenin's actions,

20436-780: The revolutionary year of 1848, yet were often disconnected from urban revolutionary movements: the revolutionary Sándor Petőfi 's popular nationalist rhetoric in Budapest did not translate into any success with the Magyar peasantry, while the Viennese democrat Hans Kudlich reported that his efforts to galvanize the Austrian peasantry had "disappeared in the great sea of indifference and phlegm". Despite forceful and often violent efforts of established and reactionary powers to keep them down, disruptive ideas gained popularity: democracy , liberalism , radicalism , nationalism , and socialism . They demanded

20592-450: The role of communist exiles from Moscow in the establishment of the GDR. After 1955, several versions of the story appeared regarding the composition of the group and the order of events leading to the appointments. There is disagreement among historians as to whether or not Stalin and Ackermann were earnest in their affirmation of parliamentarian democracy and fundamental rights. Leonhard reported

20748-542: The socialist workers' culture should not be "hamstrung from above" and opposed the Proletkult (1917–1925) organisational control of the national culture. In post- Revolutionary Russia, the Stalinist application of Marxism–Leninism ( socialism in one country ), and Trotskyism ( permanent world revolution ) were the principal philosophies of communism that claimed legitimate ideological descent from Leninism; thus, within

20904-401: The socially progressive nature of Lenin's policies such as universal education , universal healthcare and equal rights for women . Conversely, Stalin's regime reversed Lenin's policies on social matters such as sexual equality , legal restrictions on marriage , rights of sexual minorities and protective legislation . Historian Robert Vincent Daniels also viewed the Stalinist period as

21060-517: The south and the west of Germany, with large popular assemblies and mass demonstrations. Led by well-educated students and intellectuals, they demanded German national unity , freedom of the press , and freedom of assembly . The uprisings were poorly coordinated, but had in common a rejection of traditional, autocratic political structures in the 39 independent states of the German Confederation . The middle-class and working-class components of

21216-488: The ten anti-fascist prisoners of war, was appointed the "Berlin Police President", also on Ulbricht's initiative. In the beginning of June 1945, Ulbricht, Ackermann and Sobottka traveled back to Moscow to give the first reports and get their further instructions. On June 4, 1945, they met with Pieck, Joseph Stalin and Andrei Zhdanov . Stalin urged them to found a nationwide working class party that would remain open for

21372-707: The tenets of socialism, Leninism was a right-wing deviation from Marxism. The vanguard-party revolution of Leninism became the ideological basis of the communist parties in the socialist political spectrum. In the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party organised itself with Maoism (the Thought of Mao Zedong), socialism with Chinese characteristics . In Singapore, the People's Action Party (PAP) featured internal democracy and initiated single-party dominance in

21528-472: The unified Kingdom of Italy and remained in force, with changes, until 1948 ) and by Pope Pius IX (Fundamental Statute). However, only King Charles Albert maintained the statute even after the end of the riots. Revolts broke out throughout the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , such as the Five Days of Milan which marked the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence . After declaring independence from

21684-462: The urban working class, who had lost many workers to fight the counter-revolutionary Civil War. The NEP nationalisation of the economy then would facilitate the industrialisation of Russia, politically strengthen the working class, and raise the standards of living for all Russians. Lenin said that the appearance of new socialist states was necessary for strengthening Russia's economy in establishing Russian socialism. Lenin's socio-economic perspective

21840-422: The use of the term reflect problems with the concept of Stalinism itself. The major difficulty is a lack of agreement about what should constitute Stalinism." Revisionist historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick have criticized the focus on the upper levels of society and the use of Cold War concepts such as totalitarianism, obscuring the system's reality. Russian historian Vadim Rogovin stated that "Under Lenin,

21996-480: The vast majority of the people, and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism." The dictatorship of the proletariat was effected with soviet constitutionalism , a form of government opposite to the dictatorship of capital (privately owned means of production) practised in bourgeois democracies. Under soviet constitutionalism,

22152-469: The working class, should lead the political campaign because only in that way would the proletariat successfully realise their revolution; unlike the economic campaign of trade-union-struggle advocated by other socialist political parties and the anarcho-syndicalists . Like Marx, Lenin distinguished between the aspects of a revolution, the "economic campaign" ( labour strikes for increased wages and work concessions) that featured diffused plural leadership; and

22308-522: The working urban poor. Large swaths of the nobility were discontented with royal absolutism or near-absolutism. In 1846, there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia , which was only countered when peasants, in turn, rose up against the nobles . Additionally, an uprising by democratic forces against Prussia , planned but not actually carried out, occurred in Greater Poland . The middle and working classes thus shared

22464-462: Was elected as president . In 1851, he staged a coup d'état and established himself as a dictatorial emperor of the Second French Empire . Alexis de Tocqueville remarked in his Recollections of the period, "society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror." The "March Revolution" in the German states took place in

22620-514: Was agrarian and semi-feudal , the task of democratic revolution fell to the urban, industrial working class as the only social class capable of effecting land reform and democratisation, in view that the Russian bourgeoisie would suppress any revolution. In the April Theses (1917), the political strategy of the October Revolution (7–8 November 1917), Lenin proposed that the Russian revolution

22776-624: Was in Galicia , which is today divided between Ukraine and Poland. On 19 April 1848, a group of representatives led by the Greek Catholic clergy launched a petition to the Austrian Emperor. It expressed wishes that in those regions of Galicia where the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) population represented the majority, the Ukrainian language should be taught at schools and used to announce official decrees for

22932-524: Was not an isolated national event but a fundamentally international event—the first socialist revolution in the world. Lenin's practical application of Marxism and proletarian revolution to the social, political, and economic conditions of agrarian Russia motivated and impelled the "revolutionary nationalism of the poor" to depose the absolute monarchy of the three-hundred-year dynasty of the House of Romanov (1613–1917), as tsars of Russia. In Imperialism,

23088-468: Was not philosophically inherent to the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Bolshevik government nationalised industry and established a foreign-trade monopoly to allow the productive coordination of the national economy and so prevent Russian national industries from competing against each other. To feed the populaces of town and country, Lenin instituted war communism (1918–1921) as a necessary condition—adequate supplies of food and weapons—for fighting

23244-465: Was not smooth and inevitable." Historian and Stalin biographer Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin was a genuine follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed himself. Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors, in that it was Lenin, rather than Stalin, whose civil war measures introduced the Red Terror with its hostage-taking and internment camps ; that it was Lenin who developed

23400-706: Was posed by Belgian émigré groups from France. In 1830 the Belgian Revolution had broken out inspired by the revolution occurring in France, and Belgian authorities feared that a similar 'copycat' phenomenon might occur in 1848. Shortly after the revolution in France, Belgian migrant workers living in Paris were encouraged to return to Belgium to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic. Belgian authorities expelled Karl Marx himself from Brussels in early March on accusations of having used part of his inheritance to arm Belgian revolutionaries. Around 6,000 armed émigrés of

23556-453: Was prompted by the fact that several political parties either took up arms against the new Soviet government , or participated in sabotage, collaborated with the deposed Tsarists , or made assassination attempts against Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. Liebman also argued that the banning of parties under Lenin did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime. Several scholars have highlighted

23712-583: Was reversed 12 years later as the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies collapsed in 1860–61 with the unification of Italy . On 11 February 1848, Leopold II of Tuscany , first cousin of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria , granted the Constitution, with the general approval of his subjects. The Habsburg example was followed by Charles Albert of Sardinia ( Albertine Statute ; later became the constitution of

23868-469: Was sparked by the suppression of the campagne des banquets . This revolution was driven by nationalist and republican ideals among the French general public, who believed the people should rule themselves. It ended the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe , and led to the creation of the French Second Republic . After an interim period, Louis-Napoleon , the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte ,

24024-616: Was supported by the German Revolution of 1918–1919 , the Italian insurrection and general strikes of 1920, and worker wage-riots in the UK, France, and the US. In recognising and accepting nationalism among oppressed peoples, Lenin advocated their national right to self-determination and so opposed Russian chauvinism because such ethnocentrism was a cultural obstacle to establishing the dictatorship of

24180-478: Was the only way he could secure the responsibility from the others , which without him, would easily have been able to deny access to the resources of the Ruhr region , reparations he desperately needed as resources to rebuild the war-ravaged western regions of the Soviet Union. Professional revolutionaries Leninism ( Russian : Ленинизм , Leninizm ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes

24336-461: Was typically used within a context of more power for workers in a system based on worker ownership of the means of production . These concepts together—democracy, liberalism, nationalism and socialism, in the sense described above—came to be encapsulated in the political term radicalism . The world was astonished in spring 1848 when revolutions appeared in so many places and seemed on the verge of success everywhere. Agitators who had been exiled by

#603396