Marxism of the Bolshevik-Leninist persuasion is an
extreme voluntaristic revision of the Social-Democratic
variety that flourished in the period from the death
of Marx (1883) to the outbreak of the First World War
in 1914. The fact that it claims for itself the orthodoxy
of the canonic tradition has about the same significance
as the claims of Protestant leaders that they were
returning to the orthodoxy of early Christianity. Even
before the First World War, in Tsarist Russia the Bol-
shevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic move-
ment had taken positions that evoked charges from its
opponents that the leaders of the group were disciples
of Bakunin and Blanqui, rather than of Marx and
Engels. Their voluntarism, especially in its orga-
nizational bearings, received a classic expression in
Lenin's work What Is To Be Done? (1902). But the
emergence of Bolshevik-Leninism as a systematic re-
construction of traditional Marxism was stimulated by
the failure of the Social-Democratic movement to resist
the outbreak of the First World War, and the disregard
of the Basel Resolutions (1912) of the Second Interna-
tional to call a general strike; by the Bolshevik seizure
of power in the October Russian Revolution of 1917
and the consequent necessity of justifying that and
subsequent events in Marxist terms; by the accession
of Stalin to the supreme dictatorial post in the Soviet
Union; and, finally, by the adoption of the systematic
policy of building socialism in one country (the Soviet
Union) marked by the collectivization of agricul-
ture—in some ways a more revolutionary measure, and
in all ways a bloodier and more terroristic one, than
the October Revolution itself. The chief prophet of
Marxist-Leninism was Stalin, and the doctrine bears
the stigmata of his power and personality. Until his
death in 1953, he played the same role in determining
what the correct Marxist line was in politics, as well
as in all fields of the arts and sciences, as the Pope
of Rome in laying down the Catholic line in the do-
mains of faith and morals. Although Stalin made no
claim to theoretical infallibility, he exercised supreme
authority to a point where disagreement with him on
any controversial matter of moment might spell death.
The Bolshevik-Leninist version of Marxism got a
hearing outside Russia, at first not in virtue of its doc-
trines, but because of its intransigeant opposition to
the First World War. The Social-Democratic version
of Marxism was attacked as a “rationalization” of po-
litical passivity, particularly for its failure to resist the
war actively. Actually there was no necessary connec-
tion between the deterministic outlook of Social De-
mocracy and political passivity, since its electoral suc-
cesses were an expression of widespread political
activity albeit of a non-revolutionary sort. Further, not
only did some Social-Democratic determinists with a
belief in the spontaneity of mass action, like Rosa
Luxemburg, oppose the war, but even Eduard Bern-
stein, the non-revolutionary revisionist, who ardently
believed that German Social Democracy should trans-
form itself into a party of social reform, took a strong
stand against the War. The attitude of Social Democ-
racy to the First World War in most countries was more
a tribute to the strength of its nationalism than a
corollary of its belief in determinism. Nonetheless, the
Bolsheviks on the strength of their anti-war position
were able to insinuate doubts among some working-
class groups, not only about the courage and loyalty
to internationalist ideals of Social-Democratic parties,
but about their Marxist faith and socialist convictions.
After the Bolshevik Party seized power in October
1917 and then forcibly dissolved the democratically
elected Constituent Assembly, whose delayed convo-
cation had been one of the grounds offered by that
Party for the October putsch, and in which they were
a small minority (19%), it faced the universal condem-
nation of the Social-Democratic Parties affiliated with
the Second Socialist International. In replying to these
criticisms Lenin laid down the outlines of a more
voluntaristic Marxism, that affected the meaning and
emphasis of the complex of doctrines of traditional
Marxism, especially its democratic commitments, in a
fundamental way.
Finally with Lenin's death and the destruction of
intra-party factions, which had preserved some vestig-
ial traits of democratic dissent, the necessity of con-
trolling public opinion in all fields led to the trans-
formation of Marxism into a state philosophy enforced
by the introduction of required courses in dialectical
materialism and Marxist-Leninism on appropriate
educational levels. Heretical ideas in any field ulti-
mately fell within the purview of interest of the secret
police. Censorship, open and veiled, enforced by a
variety of carrots and whips, pervaded the whole of
cultural life.
As a state philosophy Marxist-Leninism is marked
by several important features that for purposes of
expository convenience may be contrasted with earlier
Social-Democratic forms of Marxist belief.
