The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-10-11

Perhaps so, but it reads to us as a
condensed but monumental classic.
what Is Party?"
Zinoviev's simple discussion OF
What is a Party?" will come as
revelation to many who have been
using that word with a looseness that
has carried them around in a circle
To learn what sort OF an instrument
class Instruments political party
is. and to learn thereby the charac-
ter Of the mighty sword that was
forged by Lenin and HIS associates, is
to clear up many foggy questions now
before the American comrades. Zinc
view gives the bourgeois definition of a
party" and he gives the proletar-
ian revolutionary version OF the
same thing-and between reading the
two the reader sees many formerly
obscure phenomena falling into a.
clear and definite place. The author
makes unmistakable the process Of
the development of the Bolshevik
wing Of the Russian SocialDemo-
cratic Labor Party into that which
was eventually to be the instrument
of leadership of the Russian revolu-
tionary working class.
Curiously enuf, Zinoviev, the Boil
shevik, the fighter against the older
school Of Russian 'Narodniki" (popu-
lists), and against the MARKHAM" vul
CARRIERS Of Marxism, finds time and
patience to give even these their
share Of credit Many who had the
habit, common in America, of idealiz
ing the old "Narodniki," and who
were somewhat bewildered by the
sudden falling OF their heroes. will
find here a sympathetic appreciation
OF the work of the old, once-heroic
school-an appreciation mingled with
an explanation that blasts away the
question of the ludicrously debased
role Of their present-day successors.
The book is the history Of an ideol
ogical struggle in the midst of, and
in connection with, the events which
which it had to deal. We who in the
young American Communist party have
ioundered and fought our way thru
so many theological combats (aIready
so numerous for a party SO young),
will find peculiar satisfaction and
benefit in this. The book is not
merely record OF happenings
this date we did so-and-so. on that
date such and such happened"-no.
there is the political explanation of
all that happened. Not only the OBJ
jective history. but also the subjec-
tive history-the study of the I'M
swerving devotion to the revolution
airy principles. as well as the doubts.
Waverings, convictions, back-slidings
and recoYeries- In the long and IL
Illuminating story OF the disputes that
arose in the Russian socialist move
ment. and later in the Bolshevik sec
ton OF it. not only is every point of
view clearly given, but how that
point OF view came about is also ex-
planned in a way that makes the
reader feels as tho some great nov
elist were probing the psychological
depths Of these men of history.
That's probably not fair to the au-
thor, who is anything but writer of
fomance-but this scientific handling
Of history is done so well, with such
a fine appreciation OF human psy-
chology, that the tensest tale Of a |
Tolstoi could not be more Intriguing
to the reader.
Not even are the mishaps Of the
Russian Bolsheviks with the Tsar's |
police lacking in this book,-and
after all, this, too. is Of political i'm |
portance. eve who, much to the |
mirth Of some of our yellow socialist
friends. were arrested at our 1922
convention. viii find reinsurance as
well as interest in the similar events |
in the life Of our older sister party
of Russia)