dictatorship [Theme] Page 1

In Russia we are experiencing (the third year after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie) the first steps of transition from capitalism to socialism or the lower stage of communism. Classes have remained and will remain everywhere for years after the conquest of power by the proletariat. Except maybe in England, where there are peasants (but there are small proprietors!), this time will be less. To destroy classes means not only to drive out the landlords and capitalists - that we relatively easy to do - it also means to destroy small producers, and they cannot drive, they cannot be suppressed, they have to get along, they can (and should) change, re only very prolonged, slow, cautious organizational work. They surround the proletariat on all sides the petty-bourgeois element, it is impregnated with it, corrupting it to him, cause constantly inside the proletariat relapses petty of being spineless, of fragmentation, of individualism, of the transitions from passion to depression. Need the strictest centralization and discipline within a political party of the proletariat to resist to the organizational role of the proletariat (which is his main role) to carry out correctly, successfully, victoriously. The dictatorship of the proletariat is a stubborn struggle, bloody and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic, pedagogical and administrative, against the forces and traditions of the old society. The force of habit of millions and tens of millions is a most formidable force. Without a party of iron and tempered in struggle, without a party enjoying the confidence of all honest in the given class, without a party, able to follow the mood of the masses and to influence it, to conduct such a struggle successfully is impossible. To win large centralized bourgeoisie is a thousand times easier than to "vanquish" the millions and millions of small proprietors, and they are their everyday, routine, invisible, elusive, demoralizing activity is carried out by the same results which the bourgeoisie need, which restore the bourgeoisie. Anyone who weakens the iron discipline of the party of the proletariat (especially during its dictatorship), actually helps the bourgeoisie against the proletariat.