Lenin Between Catastrophes and Revolution

Book Review | On Paul Le Blanc’s Appeal to Bring Leninism to the 21st Century with his New Biography

By Stephan Kimmerle

Climate catastrophe, increasing imperialist tensions, exploitation, and oppression – what is to be done, one asks, especially given the weak and fragile state of the Marxist left? In his new biography, Lenin – Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution, Paul Le Blanc seeks to build a bridge between the current catastrophic state of the world and Lenin, showcasing what he sees as the most important contributions – and struggles – of the Russian revolutionary.

Defending a revolution against imperialism and economic decline, the Soviet Union turned into a caricature of what Lenin was fighting for.

Le Blanc reflects on what he hopes to leave for future generations in this work: “In my twilight years, I envision future catastrophes. Those who outlive me will experience these in ways I will not. Studying an outstanding revolutionary who sought to make his way through past catastrophes might be helpful to people I leave behind.” 

Aspiring Workersʼ Democracy – Defending the Revolution

Le Blanc merges biography with an attempt to present Lenin’s main ideas. But the thread that coheres the book is the story of revolutionary action that Lenin stood for and the fate of that revolutionary practice: “The first seven chapters of this book present a coherent arc of development in Lenin’s revolutionary perspectives. The eighth chapter indicates how that coherence was shattered,” writes Le Blanc. “[I]t doesn’t make historiographical or political sense to focus on Lenin’s first 48 years without seeking to comprehend his last five years.” However, how are these five years of being in power at the head of the first workersʼ state – the culmination of a lifetime of revolutionary activity – a “shattering” of Lenin’s coherence? These are the two dimensions the book offers to answer this question: 

1) Le Blanc describes Lenin throughout  his political life as a fighter for the democratic self-liberation of the working class, by and through the working class itself – only to see the state he presided over turned into an increasingly bureaucratic, dictatorial force.  

Writing at the eve of the October revolution in State and Revolution, Lenin restored the radical legacy of Marx’s conception of a workersʼ state: a state for the first time in history to reject class society, a state that will therefore “wither away” as soon as the working class develops society economically, socially, and culturally. Despite these noble ideals, the workersʼ state suffered from increasing repression, growing like a cancer.

2) Lenin was an internationalist, and demonstrated the link between the looming revolution against Tsarism and world socialist revolution. He viewed the success of an upheaval in Russia – necessarily limited due to the low economic and social development in Russia at the time – as an overture for the liberation of the toiling masses in the advanced capitalist countries. But when the revolution in Western Europe stalled, this internationalist, anti-repression fighter who sought to put power in the hands of working-class people found himself at the head of an isolated and economically underdeveloped state.

Defending a revolution against the terror of imperialist invasions and economic decline, the Soviet Union turned into a caricature of what Lenin was fighting for. The freedom of the first workers’ state and the lively workersʼ councils (“soviets” in Russian), under conditions of civil war and isolation, devolved into a repressive and bureaucratic one-party state.

Did Lenin lead to Stalin?

Lenin is frequently accused of spreading violence and preparing the ground for Stalinism, a regime of one-party dictatorship that killed its opponents in camps and show trials, all in the alleged name of communism and Marxism-Leninism.  

Le Blanc defends the legacy of Lenin, showing how his last struggles in 1922 till his death in January 1924 were marked by rebellion against the bureaucratization of the first workers’ state and his party, the Bolsheviks.

Le Blanc compares the fate of the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the arc of the French Revolution after 1789, when the Jacobins tried to defend their aims of liberty and equality by all means necessary, only to be overthrown by their own degenerated party. In the end, the French Revolution brought about Napoleon Bonaparte, a dictator that crushed all the democratic achievements of this bourgeois revolution.

Here, Le Blanc could provide more explanation of the comparisons he makes since  it is rare for activists today to have deeply studied the French Revolution. He could also be more explicit about the turn at which the Russian revolution turned into counter-revolution, when a privileged, bureaucratic elite solidified its political power over the working class but still maintained the economic achievements of abandoning capitalism and all feudal structures in Russia.

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The Leninist Party

There can be no acknowledgment of Lenin’s contribution to Marxism without highlighting the role of a revolutionary party, the party that allowed the working class in Russia to take power. 

Le Blanc rightfully insists on the pluralistic, lively and democratic character of Lenin’s organization, “a dynamic revolutionary collective forging strategy and tactics through discussion and debate.” Along this book review and in the same edition of the Reform & Revolution magazine, a full article was published that dives into this question. 

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Imperialism and the National Question

While Le Blanc clearly outlines how Lenin viewed imperialism, the book falls short in its presentation of Leninʼ s thoughts on the national question. Lenin analyzed the intersection of oppression along both class lines and lines of nationality. While rooting his theory and practice of change in the power and unity of the working class, Lenin fully acknowledged the need to fight any and all forms of oppression on their own terms. This is a colorful application of Marxism that can bring insights to activists today that wasn’t fully explored in this short book.

However, the contribution of Lenin and his co-thinkers to the united front pops up numerous times, as does the link between the struggle for reforms and the aim of socialist revolution. Le Blanc quotes Lenin:

We make use of every reform (insurance, for example) and of every legal society. But we use them to develop the revolutionary consciousness and the revolutionary struggle of the masses.

Lenin – Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution can help a new generation of activists forge the way forward out of the looming catastrophes, as it is, as Le Blanc quotes Lenin, “more pleasant and useful to go through the ‘experience of revolution’ than to write about it.”