Père Duchêne
Père Duchêne wrote:
Trotskyites and Stalinists have their origin in Leninism.I agree with Rosa Luxemburg's critique in response to Lenin's What Is To Be Done? Rosa Luxemburg wrote Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy (1904) which later became known as Leninism or Marxism? where she criticised his concept of revolutionary organisation and identified Lenin as a 'Blanquist' socialist revolutionist. Luxemburg wrote that 'Blanquism did not count on the direct action of the working class. It, therefore, did not need to organize the people for the revolution. The people were expected to play their part only at the moment of revolution. Preparation for the revolution concerned only the little group of revolutionists armed for the coup.' This is the Bolshevik strategy in its essence. Luxemburg identifies 'the two principles on which Lenin’s centralism rests are precisely these: the blind subordination, in the smallest detail, of all party organs to the party centre which alone thinks, guides, and decides for all. The rigorous separation of the organized nucleus of revolutionaries from its social-revolutionary surroundings.' This is Blanquist organisation although Lenin himself 'defined his 'revolutionary Social Democrat' as the ' Jacobin indissolubly connected with the organisation of the class-conscious proletariat.'But not everything Lenin wrote is worthless; for example, his article entitled The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (1913), contains a concise exposition of Marxism.As a socialist I have major criticism of bolshevism, Leninism but need to point out there are some good things in 'Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism' where he gives a prescient description of globalisation.Lenin opposed the First World War which we applaud, he promised to take Russia out of the war and he did. What he did 1917-24 is another matter.
The founder of Marxism-Leninism was Joseph Stalin. Vladimir Lenin was more a Engelsian than a Marxist. Probably, the only thing that can be applaud from the Bolsheviks is their opposition to WWI , Lenin Imperialism has brought many negatives consequences, probably, Nikolai Bukharin did a much better job on that too. He was one of the most apt of all the Bolsheviks.