Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian politician, political theorist, and activist who had made invaluable contributions to defending and developing Marxism and establishing the first Socialist State in the world. His legacy was very diverse and valuable. It has become the common property of the human race in the process of building a society and world of great unity, for the people’s freedom, equality, and happiness. His legacy continues to be a guiding star for each country’s revolution and the progressive people in modern times. One of the most significant contributions by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was his role and profound influence in the international communist and labour movement.
1. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin protected and developed Marxism so that he could give instructions to the international communist and labour movement during the Age of Imperialism. Without Marxism, the international communist and labour movement was unable to comprehend the revolutionary role, path, and method; hence, it would not be capable of accomplishing its historical mission which was to eradicate capitalism, abolish the bourgeoisie whose nature was an oppressive and unequal regime, and build a new society of equality, freedom, and happiness for the labouring people. However, without the international communist and labour movement, it was impossible to generalise the system of really scientific theories from practical activities of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who had brilliantly met the demands for theory and practice and shifted the labour movement from spontaneity to self-consciousness. Revolutionary theory had penetrated into the working class and prompted the Paris Commune in 1871 as a typical proletarian revolution. In spite of weaknesses, the revolution marked a milestone in the political struggle by the working class for destroying the capitalist society to build the first model of socialist state in the human history, which was the Paris Commune. The two men continued reviewing reality and developing theory to give instructions to the labour movement so that it would more strictly adhere to the revolutionary principles and achieve the revolutionary goals. Unfortunately, after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had passed away, the international communist and labour movement began to subside and was lessened by opportunism and revisionism within the Second International.
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| Vladimir Ilyich Lenin at the Congress of the Comintern |
Inheriting the legacy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin realised the importance of revolutionary theory to the international communist and labour movement in general and to a political party in particular. He ever said that “without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement,” adding that “the role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory.” Lenin’s genius led to a turning point in the history of defending and developing Marxism in the new condition, which was called Leninism and then Leninism-Marxism as an act of honour. Leninism-Marxism served as an ideological weapon, helped create strength to persistently combat and defeat opportunism and revisionism, and fanned the flames of struggle at the peak of the international communist and labour movement in order to fulfil the working class’ glorious mission and goal in the Age of Imperialism. At the same time, it played a core role in giving instructions on building and making a new-style political party strong politically, ideologically, and organisationally, while acting as a lodestar for the working class’ leadership over the revolution in each country and laying a solid foundation for forming a new International Organisation of the international communist and labour movement.
2. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was an iron communist in the fight against opportunism and revisionism within the international communist and labour movement.
In order to develop the movement, he understood that there should be a resolute fight against opportunists and revisionists within the Second International and Russia as well. In his work entitled “Opportunism and the Collapse of the Second International,” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin exposed the nature of social-chauvinism as a kind of complete opportunism, adding that it was a public and unseemly alliance between the socialists and the bourgeoisie and the General Staffs, believing that the political and ideological content of the two was the same: class collaboration, repudiation of the proletarian dictatorship, and rejection of revolutionary action. At the same time, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin relentlessly criticised covert opportunism for acknowledging and justifying the social-chauvinism’ betrayal of socialism, claiming that the covert opportunists’ social-chauvinism differed from outspoken social chauvinists’ opportunism only in shades and the methods of achieving the same end. According to Lenin, compared to outspoken opportunism, policies by Kautskyites as covert opportunists were more dangerous to the working class. Lenin’s exposure of opportunism and revisionism’s origin, nature, and danger provided an important basis for achieving a political, ideological and organisational consensus and the international communist and labour movement’s goal.
3. Lenin was a genius at building the revolutionary path and organising the first model of socialist state in the world.
In addition to being a great theorist, Lenin was a genius organiser and activist. He organised and led a revolution of students, quickly found the revolutionary path for Russia, and actively spread Marxism within the Russian labour movement to establish a new-style Party of Russia’s working class. In 1895, Lenin and other Marxists succeeded in unifying the Marxist groups of St. Petersburg in an organisation known as the Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class. In 1900, he brought out the Spark Newspaper to disseminate the Party’s political platform among workers and combat opportunism. Finally, in July 1903, the new-style Russian Labour Party was founded.
Lenin creatively applied Marxism’s revolutionary principles to Russia’s practical conditions, led the October Revolution of 1917 to success, founded the first Socialist State in the world, and ushered in a new era of development in the human history. The October Revolution awoke and encouraged the world’s revolutionary movement, united nations across the globe in combating capitalism, marked Marxism’s victory over social trends and revisionism within the international communist and labour movement, and paved the way for Marxist doctrine to penetrate into other countries around the world. At the same time, it transformed the theory of scientific socialism into reality as the basis for establishing a new international organisation of the international communist and labour movement.
4. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin played an important role in directing and making the international organisation strong and capable of leading the international communist and labour movement in the new period.
The collapse of the Second International led to the decline and separation of the labour movement. While combating traitors to the Second International, Lenin and his Bolsheviks performed their historical role in making preparations and calling for the support from communist parties to establish the Communist International (Comintern). In spite of its weaknesses and short lifespan (24 years and 7 congresses only), under Lenin’s leadership, the Comintern made great contributions to the international communist and labour movement. Marxist principles, strategic issues, and three revolutionary waves, namely the socialist movement, the national liberation movement, and the labour movement enabled socialism in Russia only to develop into a global system.
Right at the onset of the Comintern, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin accentuated its historical significance and position, saying that the Comintern began to realise the greatest slogan by Marx, which summarised the progress in a century of socialism and labour movement by only one concept that was dictatorship of the proletariat. The Comintern performed a prominent role in the struggle for the working class and people’s benefits, in the fight for peace, democracy, and socialism, and in the process of restoring and cementing connections among the labouring people in the countries separated by socialist-democrats’ betrayal within the Comintern itself and in the World War I as well. At the same time, it defended Marxism against distortions by opportunists, completed the theoretical issues of the socialist movement and the fight for socialism between the two world wars, raised the theoretical flag of scientific socialism, and introduced the theory of scientific socialism to the masses. It played a major role in training leaders of the international communist and labour movement when using Marxism-Leninism’s ideologies to train communist party members, thereby greatly contributing to uniting the vanguard of the working class, the true communist parties, with the Communist Party of Soviet Union acting as the role model, and the working class’ internationalism. The world history has gone through ups and downs together with numerous events. A century has elapsed, but the world still remembers the role of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in founding and running the Comintern as the greatest and most significant event in the human history in the 20th century. For the international communist and labour movement, the Comintern deserved to be the “General Staff” between the two world wars. As for human race, the Comintern deserved to be a wall preventing the risk of war and keeping peace.
5. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin gathered revolutionary forces and associated the international communist and labour movement with the national liberation movement to fight the imperialism as the common enemy.
While Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels came up with the strategic slogan “Workers of the world, unite!,” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin supplemented and developed it into his own “Workers and oppressed peoples, unite!.” This slogan was of strategic importance to the world’s working class as it called for unity among workers around the globe and acted as guiding star for their will and action in the class struggle and their fight against the bourgeoisie’s oppression and enslavement. In his leadership over the world revolution and the first congresses of the Comintern, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin actively took part in formulating the political platform on nations and the issues on colonised peoples were approved by the Comintern. He required communist parties and international organisations to help oppressed and dependent peoples in their national liberation movement and achieve a connection between the labour movement and the national liberation movement in colonies so as to establish a united front against imperialism. At the same time, communist parties and international organisations were asked to provide assistance for communist fighters in all countries and colonies in disseminating Marxism-Leninism within the labour movement in order to found much more communist parties all over the world. In 1919, only 30 communist parties and organisations attended the first Congress of the Comintern. However, in 1935, there were 75 communist parties and organisations participating in the 7th Congress. It is clear to see that the great victory of the national liberation movement together with the three revolutionary waves attacked and pulled down the old-style colonialism and formed a system of socialist countries in the 20th century, which was mainly attributed to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s efforts.
Currently, due to subjective and objective reasons, the international communist and labour movement is temporarily subsiding. However, Lenin’s legacy will forever be a lodestar for the movement to surmount all difficulties and move forward to a new high tide so that it could continue to fulfil its historical mission. In the upcoming years, it is necessary for the international communist and labour movement whose core force is communist and labour parties to keep grasping and flexible applying Lenin’s legacy, with a focus on the following.
First, communist and labour parties in all countries must be self-mature in the political, ideological, and organisational terms. The international communist and labour movement depends on each political party’s robustness which is expressed via its sound revolutionary guidelines and methods for realising the historical mission in each country, thereby making contributions to fulfilling the international communist and labour movement’s historical mission. To that end, communist and labour parties in all countries should place emphasis on consolidating themselves, building a close-knit bond with the masses, and turning themselves into the working class’ supreme organisation, general staff, and leadership.
Second, communist and labour parties in all countries must be loyal to and creatively apply Marxism-Leninism’s fundamentals to their practical conditions. It can’t be denied that since its inception, Marxism-Leninism has remained the most revolutionary and scientific doctrine which has been irreplaceable so far. However, while instructions on revolutionary theories by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin are just general, the conditions in the world and each country have increasingly changed. Hence, communist and labour parties should defend, develop, and flexibly apply Marxism-Leninism to their revolution to ensure success.
Third, communist and labour parties in all countries must know how to gather revolutionary forces and harmoniously settle the relationship between the international communist and labour movement and their own revolutionary movement. They should resolutely fight against opportunists and revisionists and reclaim democratic socialists from the hostile forces. A ruling communist party must pay due regard to ensuring the people’s legitimate benefits, combating corruption, and combining the strength of national great unity block with that of the times. Moreover, they should remain steadfast in the socialist-oriented renewal policy and actively exchange experiences in boosting socio-economic development and protecting their Homeland.
Fourth, communist and labour parties in all countries should frequently fight against distortions of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s role in the international communist and labour movement. The hostile forces claim that due to Leninism, the October Revolution was given premature birth, thereby leading to its collapse and remaining its historical value only, without any value of the times. This is one of the opportunist and revisionist arguments which are aimed at completely denying Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s contributions to and his significant role in leading Russia’s revolution and the international communist movement as a whole, in both theoretical and practical terms. Grounded on the achievements in the leadership process of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the trend of the times, we believe that the international communist and labour movement will certainly be restored and will move forward to a high tide as an incentive to the path towards socialism in many countries all over the world.
Maj. Gen., Associate Prof. Nguyen Van Bao, PhD
Head of the Political Academy, the Ministry of National Defence