© Peter Otsup / Sputnik Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin
If, as my fellow Op-Edger John Wight stated recently, 'seismic' was the only word to describe 2016 -
what on earth can we say about 1917? This was the year of not one, but two, Russian Revolutions.It also saw the US break with isolationism and enter the First World War - and the Balfour Declaration - which eventually led to the establishment of the state of Israel.The dramatic events of one hundred years ago still shape our world today. It's important therefore that we relive the year and study it closely, as there's much we can learn from it - and in particular from the year's most influential personality.
If Donald Trump was the Person of the Year in 2016, there's no doubting who the key figure in 1917 was:
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin. The bearded Marxist from Simbirsk began the year in exile, living with his wife in a bedsit at No 14 Spiegelgasse in Zurich, Switzerland, and ended it as the leader of the world's first communist state.
After the February revolution, which saw Tsar Nicholas II abdicate and a Provisional Government take over in Petrograd, many who had been agitating for change thought it was a case of 'Mission Accomplished'. But not Lenin.
His return to his homeland in April was a historical game changer. "He called for immediate peace, immediate seizure of land by the peasantry, and immediate transfer of all power to the soviets," records historian Christopher Hill, in his book
'Lenin and the Russian Revolution.'
The bourgeois Provisional government, at first dominated by conservative and liberal members, broadened its base to include leftists, but fatally, it remained committed to participating in a capitalists' war.
The Bolsheviks were proscribed in July and Lenin went into hiding once again. But when General Kornilov launched a counter-revolutionary coup attempt in August, the pro-war Prime Minister Kerensky was forced to rely on the support of the Bolshevik-dominated soviets to stay in power. The days of the Provisional Government were numbered, as popular support for the Bolsheviks surged. On October 25 (November 7 in the Gregorian calendar), Lenin and his comrades made their move.
Later, Lenin wrote about the significance of what had been achieved:
"For hundreds of years states have been built on the bourgeois model, and now for the first time a non-bourgeois state has been discovered."
It's likely that much of the western left-infected by liberalism and obsessed with identity politics and political correctness will mark the centenary of the October revolution this year with a smirk and say 'nothing to do with us, mate' and get on with writing their love letters to Hillary Clinton. But there are, I believe, important lessons to be learnt from the strategy employed by Lenin in 1917 - and the left dismisses them at its peril.
As was the case one hundred years ago, a corrupt, arrogant, and hideously out-of-touch establishment lies teetering on the brink. As was the case one hundred years ago, the gap between rich and poor is truly staggering. Only last January,
Oxfam revealed that half of the world's wealth is owned by just 62 people. Yes, that's right - 62.
But unlike 100 years ago, it's the populist right - and not the left - that's making all the headway. Instead of embracing working-class populism and positioning themselves at the forefront of anti-
establishment protests as Lenin and the Bolsheviks did in 1917, the liberal-dominated western left of today seems scared of proletarian rebelliousness, and has instead sided on issue after issue with the neo-liberal militarist establishment.We see this in the liberal-left's attachment to parliamentarianism, and the failure to promote more democratic ways of organizing society e.g. the greater use of referenda, the introduction of workers' councils and peoples' assemblies and elected people's courts (interestingly the attachment to Parliamentarianism didn't seem to apply to Ukraine in 2014 when many 'liberal-leftists' in the West supported the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected government).
We also see it in the way that 'bread-and-butter issues' which affect the everyday lives of ordinary people are largely ignored with the focus instead on fighting culture wars and promoting wars of 'liberal intervention' in the Middle East, which only benefit elite interests.
The fact is that the liberal-left is as detached from working-class concerns today as were the 'reformist left' opponents of the Bolsheviks in 1917 - who could only say: "Please wait for the Constituent Assembly elections" when millions of Russians were starving. Lenin was under no illusions about 'liberal democracy' and who it benefited. "Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich - that is the democracy of capitalist society," he wrote in 1917.He knew that Russian involvement in the war had to end. That land had to be given to the peasants without delay. That Russia's economy had to be radically restructured.
His slogan of "Peace! Bread! Land!" resonated throughout the country.You don't have to be a Bolshevik, or even a socialist, to admire Lenin's clarity and sense of purpose.
"In 1917 it was the Bolshevik mastery of the 'fact' that was decisive," says Christopher Hill. "The party knew exactly what it wanted, what concrete concessions to make to different social groups at any given stage, how to convince the masses of population by 'actions', its own and their own."
The centenary of the October revolution and the
'Ten Days That Shook The World,' should galvanize the genuine left into action. But if the liberal cuckoos-in-the-nest have their way, it will be the right who once again forge ahead, with working-class support, in 2017.
Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66
Reader Comments
Are you joking? One should admire 'Lenin's clarity and sense of purpose' ?! Did you loose your common sense for spreading such a BS? !
He could write or say whatever he wanted - what matters are deeds...
It's time for you to read 'Liberal Fascism' by J. Goldberg to get some idea about not only Lenin...You are still blundering along, guys...
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Hero worship is about as horrifically blind as one can be.
Instead of total darkness, you see things that are not there.
And yet, you see them so clearly!
So how can that be blindness?
When people figure that out, they will truly have learned something.
It would be their tiny first 'baby-step' out of madness and hell.
And that would be good.
Let me be the first to say this here (on Sott): Fuck Russia.
ned, out
Dangerous combination of head shrinking & indoctrination including racial & religious supremacy.
So fukk them all USA & Russia included.
But we're at the point of picking the better of the two evils...again..!!!
I talk frequently here at Sott about kapos.
Heroes are kapos (higher ranked prisoners of the mind control factory). They are made men, they are capos--henchmen for evil doings. They are utter fictions that serve the technocracy with their delusional caches, stolen capacities and falsely formed hierarchies.
Technocracy is a killer cult (murder and mayhem is their order of business) with these giant mythic figures (heroes/made men) and a great many delusions (so-called certified and established scientific 'truths').
You have to watch out for these guys and try to stay out of their cult.
They will harm you, they already have. Your mind is much less than it could have been and once was.
Absolutely.
Good luck getting it back.
ned, out
@lysna:
What can I say, that I haven't already said?
There is a way out, but it is difficult.
Very difficult.
It takes two stones, real solid ones and no birds.
ned
"...the liberal-dominated western left of today seems scared of proletarian rebelliousness..."
The liberal/progressive whatever BS western left is just a daughter of the so called revolutionary bolshevik/communist left, lined with fascist ideas...Actually this article is offensive to real Russians
But most of them have their minds so strongly washed by Soviet propaganda that they are not able to see clearly that they were duped and still are by Jewish ideologists in the past introducing crude communist nonsense and now 'soft' communist nonsense aka liberal, progressive fascism...
Olimpia, I have NO idea what you're talking about. This is gibberish. Time to clean up your thinking or your nomenclature. In fact, I see a lot of these far-out terms --even in the article-- that merely add to confusion. You can't distinguish between (classic) liberal and (classic) left? Give us an example of a "liberal/progressive western left" and a "revolutionary bolshevik/communist left, lined with fascist ideas."
I know there are --probably-- no classic liberals or classic leftists, but we need the concepts per definition.
Not only you, man Most people have been duped by those who wield the media and pens....
Above I've recommended one of the very interesting book on the subject. Take a look at it and get familiar with it before further saying that what I'm writing is gibberish....I can assure you that it is you to clear up your thinking and your nomenclature not me
The comments thus far are from the walking dead and stupid. How did people so ill informed make their way to SOTT? Evidently no effort has been made to be acquainted with the history. Typical American bloviate.
The article is good. Go read Jack Reed's 'Ten Days That Shook the World'.
What we really need right now is another Lenin although Putin will do.
What an embarrassing comments section...but I guess some people are able to liberate their minds only so far before their conditioning kicks in.
Also I love how there's no casualty figure too high to pull out of your ass when it comes to bashing communists.
And the article is only offensive to a certain breed of Russians, the sort that immigrate to the US lured by trinkets, Hollywood BS and/or crime...er businnes opportunities.
Put down them Cinderella books...Nothing great there for the common good from East or West but defending brutal oppressive communist dictatorships...for fukks sake...judge them by their deeds.
But I agree on your comments about the certain breed of Russians the article may offend & immigrants in the main.
There's a grain of truth everywhere.
Yes, I've followed similar paths when reading about history. Stalin isn't the problem, only a symptom of a much larger sickness.
If you read about the reforms of Alexander 2, they were taking Russia on a path to parliamentary democracy and a free, upwardly mobile society. Alexander 3 was next in line and he starting taking apart the reforms, much to the dislike of Russians but western powers were overjoyed. By the time Nicholas 2 arrived and tried to right things, the political situation was already in turmoil, which left a huge opening for western powers to bring Lenin to power.
I think the more significant event of the time is the contextual event in which the revolution succeeded: the 'Great War', a war that was contrived and stoked in large part by the leading global regime of the day: the Anglo-American Empire.
Arguably, the Bolshevik Revolution - with its themes, slogans and flags - was their first 'color revolution'.
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