Chapter 12 Chapter 2 The World Revolution 4

4 The aftermath of years of turmoil has left behind a large but backward country.Its leaders are bent on building a society other than capitalism.And as a result of the turmoil, a government, a disciplined international movement, and perhaps more importantly, a generation of revolutionaries emerged.Under the banner raised by the October Revolution and under the leadership of the movement headquartered in Moscow, they were dedicated to the great cause of world revolution. (At one point, they had hoped that the headquarters of the revolution would soon be moved from Moscow to Berlin. Between the two wars, the official language of the Comintern was even German rather than Russian.) But after the situation in Europe stabilized, the revolution began again. Asia suffered setbacks; all of a sudden, revolutionaries may have no idea how the world revolution should progress.Individual armed uprisings by the Communists everywhere (in Bulgaria and Germany in 1923, in Indonesia in 1926, in China in 1927, and, most anomalously, in Brazil as late as 1935) failed miserably.But between the two wars, the world situation was uncertain, the stock market collapsed, the economy was in recession, and Hitler rose to power, which naturally gave the communists the hope of advancing the revolution (see Chapters 3 and 5).Nevertheless, between 1928 and 1934 the Comintern suddenly turned to extreme revolutionary intolerance.This shift has no basis in reality.Because no matter how much it talks about, how lively the vocabulary is, in fact, the revolutionary movement has neither hope of seizing power nor preparation for ruling in various places.The only reason that can explain Moscow's extreme position is the internal struggle of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after Stalin's successful seizure of power.Another reason, perhaps, was to bridge the growing rift between the Soviet government and the revolutionary movement.As a country, the Soviet Union inevitably coexisted with other countries in the world—beginning in 1920, the international government gradually recognized the Soviet regime—but the purpose of the revolutionary movement was to overthrow all governments.The contradiction between the two is self-evident.

As a result, the national interests of the Soviet Union finally overshadowed the world revolutionary interests of the Comintern, whose status was reduced by Stalin to a tool of Soviet state policy and strictly controlled by the Communist Party of Soviets.The organizations and members of the Comintern were liquidated, disbanded, and reformed, and every move was completely in accordance with the wishes of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.The ideal of world revolution belongs only to the beautiful words of the past.In fact, the revolutionary side is allowed to exist only under two conditions: one is that it does not violate the national interests of the Soviet Union, and the other is that it is directly controlled by the Soviet side. In the eyes of Western governments, the advancement of the Communist regime after 1944 was simply an extension of Soviet power.On this point, they saw Stalin's intentions clearly.But the revolutionary elements who stick to the tradition also see this fact.They bitterly reprimanded that Moscow not only did not want the Communist Party to seize power, but blindly suppressed it. Even the Soviet Union did not like those successful revolutions, such as Yugoslavia and China (see Chapter 5).

But despite this Soviet supremacy mentality, the significance of the existence of Soviet Russia is not limited to just another super hegemony.All its life, even its most corrupt and selfish privileged classes believed in its mission.Isn’t the basic purpose of the existence of the Soviets for the liberation of all mankind, and to establish another better way of existence for human society besides capitalism?If it were not for this reason, why would those grim-faced Moscow officials continue to finance the guerrillas of the "African National Congress" (African National Congress) of the South African Black Communist Party Alliance with money and force over the past few decades?Even when the latter's chances of overthrowing the apartheid policy were slim, the Soviet side never stopped supporting? (Oddly enough, although the Chinese Communist regime broke with the Soviet Union and accused the latter of taking the revisionist line and betraying the revolutionary movement, its own actual support for the liberation activities of the third world was not as good as the performance of Soviet revisionism. ) However, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has long known the fact that the world revolution preached by Moscow cannot change human society.Back then, Nikita Khrushchev firmly believed in the superiority of a socialist economy and would eventually "bury" capitalism.But even that belief has gradually waned under Leonid Brezhnev's long reign in power.Perhaps it is this extreme erosion of communism's sense of mission for all mankind that can explain why in the end, the Soviet Union collapsed without even the slightest strength to struggle.

But none of these hesitation existed for the generation that had devoted its early years to the world revolution; they were moved by the splendor of the October Revolution.The early socialists (before 1914) were convinced that human society will undergo tremendous changes, and all evil, sorrow, oppression, and injustice will disappear from now on.A better life is bound to come, and Marxism has already provided a guarantee with the destiny of science and history.Now that the October Revolution has occurred, doesn't it just prove that this great change has already begun? In order to liberate all mankind, the discipline of this revolutionary army must be strict and the methods must be ruthless.But in real calculations, the total number of revolutionary fighters may not be in the tens of thousands.The German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote a poem honoring the professional warriors of the international movement, praising them for having "been on the battlefields of all nations far more than changing their shoes".But the number of these fighters is very small, at most no more than a few hundred.They are professional revolutionaries and must not be confused with ordinary Communists.The latter includes the broad masses of supporters known in Italy as the "communist masses" when the Italian Communist Party was at its most prosperous.For these supporters of the Communist Party from all walks of life, the dream of a better new society was also very real, in fact, not at all divorced from the goals of the early socialists.However, the oaths made by ordinary people are at most based on class and group foundations, and are definitely not personal sacrifices to dedicate themselves to the revolution.Professional revolutionaries are different from them. Although they are few in number, they play an important role.It is impossible to understand the changes in the 20th century without understanding professional revolutionaries.

Without the emergence of the "new type of party" of the Leninists, without the dedication of the professional revolutionaries of the core cadres of the revolution, how could it be possible for one-third of the world's population to live without the dedication of the October Revolution? Under the Communist regime.This group of revolutionary stalwarts has firm beliefs and is loyal to Moscow, the headquarters of the world revolution.Because of their existence, Communist Party members everywhere, no longer belonging to individual denominations (in terms of social significance), can regard themselves as members of the communist universal church.Although the pro-Moscow communist parties in various countries have experienced various turmoil of secession and liquidation, and their leaders have been changing constantly, they have not been divided until 1956 when the blood and sincerity of the revolution dissipated.In contrast, the group of people who followed Trotsky were divided and fragmented.As for 1960, after Maoist thought was presented at the Marxist-Leninist conference, opinions were even more divided, and opinions were divided.Although the number of Communist Party members is small - when Mussolini stepped down in 1943, the Italian Communist Party had only 5,000 members of both sexes, and most of them returned from prison or exile - they were the true heirs of the Bolsheviks of the February Revolution of 1917.They are the core pillars of millions of troops and the future leaders of the people of the country.

For that generation, especially the generation that went through the years of great turmoil, no matter how young they were at that time, the revolution was a fact that they had personally experienced in their lifetime.Capitalism is on the verge of death.The days before us are but a transitional hallway for those who will live to see ultimate victory.However, success does not have to depend on oneself, and all revolutionary fighters will not live to see victory. [In 1919, when the Munich Soviet failed, Russian Communist Party member Livine said before his execution: "The one who dies first asks for leave first."] If we say that even the capitalist society has no idea of ​​its own future How much confidence is there, how can the Communists believe in its survival?Their lives are a testament to this fact.

Let us look at the example of two young Germans.They were briefly in love, but they devoted their lives to the Bavarian Soviet Revolution of 1919.The girl was Olga Benario, the daughter of a prosperous Munich lawyer; the boy was a schoolteacher named Otto Braun.In the future, Olga organized revolutions in the Western Hemisphere, fell in love with Brazilian rebel leader Luis Carlos Prestes, and finally agreed with her body and became a couple.Prest has long led revolutions in the Brazilian jungle and persuaded Moscow to back an uprising in Brazil in 1935.But the uprising failed, and Olga was sent back to Hitler's Germany by the Brazilian government, where she died in a concentration camp.At the same time, Braun was relatively smooth. He went east to China to serve as a military expert for the Comintern in China, and became the only foreigner who personally participated in the world-famous "Long March" of the CCP.After the Long March, Braun returned to Moscow and finally to East Germany (the Long March made him question Mao Zedong).Except for the first half of the 20th century, what period of time could two intertwined lives experience such bizarre twists and turns?

After 1917, the Bolsheviks took the ideas of every other social revolution and pushed them in extremely radical directions. Before 1914, the revolutionary ideology around the world used to be dominated by anarchism and had nothing to do with the Marxist proletariat.Outside of Eastern Europe, Marx was seen only as a mentor to the masses, pointing them to a historically determined but nonviolent path to victory.But by the 1930s, anarchism had lost its strength as a political force, and the last stronghold remained only in Spain, even in Latin America, where the enthusiasm of anarchism had always surpassed that of communism. (In fact, even the Spanish Civil War was aimed at destroying anarchists. In comparison, the Communist Party’s momentum seemed insignificant.) From then on, social revolutionaries from all over the periphery of Moscow took Lenin and the October Revolution as their models, and they joined forces with the Communist Party one after another in the future. The confluence of dissident groups that are internationally excluded is encouraged by them.The Communist International and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, under the control of Stalin, vigorously eradicated dissidents.Among the heretics at the time, the most famous was Trotsky in exile-Trotsky co-led the October Revolution with Lenin and single-handedly founded the Red Army-but his actions were completely defeated.Toshi once initiated the "Fourth International" in an attempt to compete with Stalin's Third International, but it was so weak that it was almost invisible. In 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by Stalin's men in exile in Mexico.By then his political influence had plummeted to insignificance.

Simply put, as a social revolutionary, the more you follow in the footsteps of Lenin and the October Revolution, the more you become a member of the Communist Party or a fellow traveler on the Moscow line.After Hitler seized power in Germany, the communist parties all over the country united on the anti-fascist front, broke away from the differences of the original party lines, and won extensive support from workers and intellectuals. In this way, they moved closer to the Moscow Central Committee.Passionate young people eager to overthrow capitalism have become authentic Communist Party members, identifying with the Moscow-centered international revolutionary movement.Marxism, which had been reverted to orthodox revolutionary consciousness in the October Revolution, now meant the Marxist teachings preached by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in Moscow.The Maslieu Institute is the center for disseminating the great Marxist-Leninist classics to the world. Apart from it, there is no other place that is more capable than it, and can shoulder the two tasks of explaining and changing the destiny of the world at the same time.This situation did not change until after 1956: Stalin's authentic line disintegrated in the Soviet Union, and the international communist movement centered in Moscow also weakened.Leftist groups and people who were originally different from Stalin's line have come into the public eye from the sidelines.But despite the changes, it was still under the great influence of the October Revolution. In 1968, and all subsequent radical student movements, in fact, they all had the obvious Russian anarchist Bakunin (Bakunin) and even Nechaev (Nechaev) atmosphere, and had nothing to do with Marx.Anyone with a little research into the history of ideology can smell it.But even this student wave could not bring back anarchism theory or movement.On the contrary, 1968 set off a wave of Marxist theory in academic circles—but its various versions, I am afraid, would have surprised Marx himself.Various so-called "Marxist-Leninist" sect groups, even in the ascendant, united one after another to criticize Moscow and the old Communist Party organizations for not being revolutionary and Leninized enough.

Paradoxically, at a time when the socialist revolutionary tradition was in full swing everywhere, the Comintern itself, on the contrary, abandoned the original strategy of the revolution of 1917-1923.To put it another way, they even deliberately planned to use very different means from 1917 to carry out the transition of power (see Chapter 5). Since 1935, critical left-wing literature has made accusations that Moscow has not only repeatedly missed the opportunity for revolution, but even rejected revolution and turned its back on revolution; because Moscow has no intention of revolution at all.However, the "Soviet Central Line" movement was self-reliant and intolerant of dissidents. It was not until the day when it began to disintegrate from within that external criticism took effect.As long as the communist movement is united, as long as it maintains its astonishing integrity, for the vast majority of people in the world who believe in global revolution, the Soviet revolution is the only course, and there is no other way. .From 1944 to 1949, revolutionary storms broke out again in various places, and many countries broke with capitalism and embarked on the road to communism.Who can deny that the revolutions in these countries were not completed under the wings of the Communist Party of the authentic Soviet line?It was not until after 1956 that other revolutionary lines gradually came to the fore, and effective demands were put forward in terms of politics or means, and those who cared about the revolution began to have a real choice.But even these alternative lines—such as the various Trotskyists, Maoists, and various groups affected by the Cuban Revolution of 1959 (see Chapter 15 on the Cuban Revolution)—often do not Divorce from the appearance and breath advocated by Lenin.On the leftmost line, the largest and most powerful group is still the old Communist Party organization.However, the ideal enthusiasm of the revolution has long been far away from it.