The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-18
By V. !. LENIN.

W l.
,FrNm Lcnin's Preface to the Russian Edition
of Marks Letters to DIR. Kugelmann).
MARKS estimation of the Paris Commune rep
vi resents the acme of his letters to Kugel-
mann This estimation is especially valuable
when contrasted with the arguments of the right
wing of the Russian Social Revolution. Pick
hanov. who after December, 1905, faintheartedy
exclaimed "They should not have taken up
armsl" was so modest as to compare himself
with Marx. Marx, he said had also put the
brakes on" the revolution IN 1870.
Certainly Marx also put the brake on IT,
But lust imagine the gaping abyss in this COM
narison which Plekhanov himself makes between
Plekhanov and Marx
One month before the crest Of the first Rus
sian Revolutionary wave Plekhanov, In Novem-
her 1905 not only did not decidedly warn the
proletsriat. but on the contrary spoke definitely
of necessity of learning how to use arms and OF
arning oneself However, when. the fight flared
nm a month later, Plekhanov fastened to play
the role of penitent intellectual without even
making an attempt to analyze' its significance
it's role in the total course of events, its connec-
ton with the preceding forms Of struggle, and
instead cried out: "they should not have taken
up arms"
In September, 1870. a half year before the
Commune Marx had definitely warned the
French workers. The insurrection was an act
of insanity, he wrote in the Well-knoWn aaoreSs
of the International
He exnosed beforehand the nationalistic IL
lusions concerning the possibility of a movement
in the spirit of 1892. He understood how to say
several months before, and not after: you
should not take up arms"
And what was his attitude when this, &C
cording to his own declaration of September,
homeless enterprise nevertheless, began to be-
come reality in March, 1871? Did Marx, per-
hans use this deed Gas Plekhanov did with the
December EVENT. just to deliver blow at his
enemies, the Proudhonists and Blanquists, who
we're leading the Commune? Or did he per-
hapS rave like governess; Il told you SO,
warned YOU: now there's your romanticism for
YOU your revolutionary delirium? Or did he
dismiss them, perhaps, as Plekhanov did the
December fighters, with the sermon of self
satisfied Philistine: "They should not have taken
up arms!"
No On April IL, 1871, Marx writes an
thusiastic letter to Kugelmann, letter which
We would like to see put up on the wall OF every
Russian Social Democrats room, of every lit
crate Russisan worker.
Marx who in September, 1870 had called the
instruction an act of insanity, takes in April
1871. in view of the mass character of the
popular rising, the attitude towards 1t of par
ticipant devoting the greatest attention TO it,
the attitude of participant in mighty and i'm
portant events which signify step forward III
the international historic revolutionary move
ment.
This is an attempt he writes, not merely to
transfer the bureaucratic military machine to
other hands, but to destroy it. And he sings
a veritabIe Hosanna to the heroic Partisan work
ers led by the Proudhonists and Blanquists.
What elasticity" he writes what historical
initiative what ability for self-sacrifice these
Parisians have! history knows no similar
example of equal greatness
Marx places the historical initiative of the
masses above everything. Oh, if only our Rus
sian Social Democrats would learn from Marx
in reference to the evaluation of the historical
initiative Of the Russian workers and peasants
in October and December, 1905!
The bowling down of the profound thinker
who foresaw the failure half year in advance
before the historical initiative of the masses
and the lifeless, spiritless pedantic, "They
should not have taken up arms!"-are these
not as far from one another as heaven and
earth?
: And as one who participated in the mass
struggle which he experienced together with
them with the ardour and passion characteristic
Of him, longing in his London exile, Marx pro-
ceeds to criticize the concrete steps of the Gin
sanely courageous "the Parisians ready to storm
the Heavens"
Oh. how our present-day realistic" wiseacres
in the Russia of 1906 and 19O7-who condemn
revolutionary romanticisnl, would have laughed
at the Marxist Marx! How they would have
made merry at the materialist, the economist,
the enemy of Utopias, who bows down before
an attempt" at storming heaven! How many
descending smiles or how much sympathy would
all such shop-keeper souls have given in view
of the tendencies to rebellion, of Utopianism