The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-19

once observed me Sianctng through
collection of his articles written in
the year 1903, which had just been
published, a sly smile crossed his
face, and he remarked with laugh:
at is very interesting to read what
stupid fellows we werel" But l do
not here intend to compare the shape
of Lenins skuh at the age of 10, 20,
or 80, with the skull Of that man
who presided over the sessions of the
Central Committee Of the Party or
the Council Of Peoples Ccmmissars.
Here it is not question of Lenin as
leader, but as living human being.
P. B. Axelrod, one of the fathers Of
Menshevism, who hates Lenin from
the bottom of his souI-Axelrod's case
is an excellent example Of how love
can change to hate-related, in one
of the philippics with which he
sought to convince me Of the harm
fulness Of Bolshevism in general
and of Lenin in particular, how Lenin
went abroad for the first time, and
how he went walking and bathing
with him. 81 felt at that time," said
Axelrod, shat here was a man who
would become the leader of the Rus
sian Revolution. Not only was he an
educated Marxist-there were many
Of these-but he knew what he
wanted to do and how it was to be
done. There was something of the
smell of Russian earth about him"
Pavel Borisoviteh Axelrod is a bad
politician, he does not smell Of the
earth. He is one who reasons at
home in his own study, and the
whole tragedy of his life consists Of
the fact that at time when there
was no labor movement in Russia, he
thought out the lines upon which
such a labor movement sohuld de-
velop, and when it developed on diff
ferent lines, he was frightfully Of
Tended, and today, he continues to
roar with rage, at the disobedient
child. But people often observe in
others, that which is lacking in
themselves, and Axelord's words with |
regard to Lenin grasp with unsur-
passable acuteness precisely those |
characteristics which make Lenin a |
leader.
Must know Labor Movement
II is impossible to be a leader Of |
the working class without knowing |
the whole history Of the class. The
leaders Of the labor movement must |
know the history Of the labor move
ment, without this knowledge there
can be no leader, just as nowadays /
there can be no great general who
could be victorious with the least |
expenditure of force unless he knew
the history Of strategy. The history
of strategy is not collection of reci- /
pes as to how to win a war, for a
situation once described never re-
peats itself. But the mind Of the
General becomes practieed in STRAIT /
egg by its express study; this study /
renders him elastic in war, permits
him to observe the dangers and pos
siblities which the empirically |
trained general cannot see. The his
tory Of the labor movement does not
tell US what to do, but it makes it
possible to compare our position with /
situations which have already been
experienced by our class, so that in
various decisive moments we are en-
abled 10 see our path clearly, and to
recognize approaching danger.
But we cannot get to know the his
tory Of the labor movement without
being thoroly acquainted with the
history Of capitalism, with its
mechanism in all its economic and DO
liticai phenomena. Lenin knew the
history of capitalism as do but few
Of Marks pupils Lenin has
independently grasped and thought
out the theory of historical mate
rialism as no one else has been able
to do, for the reason that he has
studied it with the same object in
view by which Marx was actuated
when creating the theory.
Lenin entered the movement as the
embodiment Of the Will to Revolu-
ton, and he studied Marxism. the
evolution Of capitalism, and the evo-
luton of socialism, from the point of
view Of their revolutionary signif-
canoe, Plekhanov was a revolution