• Stalins_Spoon@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    Lenin, however, didn’t create Marxism-Leninism, and never said anything that deviated from Marx.

    He didn’t create it, he created the principles for it, expanding on Marx.

    Additionally, the move towards this “mixed-economy” you refer to, and the move closer and closer to capitalism signified a retreat, not a step towards socialism. Lenin says this in multiple speeches and reports.

    The New Economic Policy was adopted because, in the spring of 1921, after our experience of direct socialist construction carried on under unprecedentedly difficult conditions, under the conditions of civil war, in which the bourgeoisie compelled us to resort to extremely hard forms of struggle, it became perfectly clear that we could not proceed with our direct socialist construction and that in a number of economic spheres we must retreat to state capitalism. We could not continue with the tactics of direct assault, but had to undertake the very difficult, arduous and unpleasant task of a long siege accompanied by a number of retreats. This is necessary to pave the way for the solution of the economic problem, i. e., that of the economic transition to socialist principles - V.I Lenin

    Many of the people targeted were Lenin’s old friends and associates. Many were heroes of the civil war. These were people who were heavily involved in the revolution- people who risked everything to bring about revolution in Russia

    It was Yezhov who executed them, he was later executed himself for his crimes. Many of them were committed to Stalin and his ideas for socialist development, for example Lazar Kaganovich, and only a few of them were putchists (Like Trotsky) or traitors. I’d like to see your source for the supposed ‘hundreds of thousands’ killed by these purges.

    It is an insult to the socialist system to say that an “opportunistic and traitorous” Stalin would be able to become a “dictator” within it.

    • Compass Inspector@invariant-marxism.red
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      He didn’t create it, he created the principles for it, expanding on Marx.

      He did not add to Marx, he only applied Marx to the specific conditions of 20th century Russia. The challenge remains for you to show that Lenin updated Marx or believed that he was.

      …This is necessary to pave the way for the solution of the economic problem, i. e., that of the economic transition to socialist principles

      Do you understand the context of what you posted? Apparently not. He’s alluding to the ongoing international struggles. He knows that socialism will be impossible in Russia without those victories.

      Our backwardness has put us in the forefront, and we shall perish unless we are capable of holding out until we receive powerful support from workers who have risen in revolt in other countries."

      Source: “Letters on Tactics,” 1917

      “We are far from having completed even the transitional period from capitalism to socialism. We have never cherished the hope that we could finish it without the aid of the international proletariat. We never had any illusions on that score, and we know how difficult is the road that leads from capitalism to socialism.”

      Source: “The Tax in Kind,” 1921

      “We always staked our play upon an international revolution and this was unconditionally right… We counted upon a revolution of the world proletariat and were of the opinion that Europe after the war would rise so rapidly that either the spark of our revolution would kindle it, or that it would kindle our damp squib.”

      Source: Speech at the 4th Congress of the Comintern

      These statements stand in stark contrast to the policy of “Socialism in one Country” of Marxism-Leninism. ML has nothing to do with Marx or Lenin.

      It is an insult to the socialist system to say that an “opportunistic and traitorous” Stalin would be able to become a “dictator” within it.

      Not even Lenin thought they had reached socialism yet. Even the quote you posted said as much, so I can only assume you can’t read.