1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bolshevism

BOLSHEVISM, the name given since the Russian revolution to the form of Communism adopted under the Soviet system of government. Bolshevism as a doctrine and an organization is not of purely Russian growth; it is a branch of European Communism. The development of the latter is discussed in the article. The earliest and most powerful expression of modern Communism is to be found in the Communist Manifesto drawn up by K. Marx and F. Engels in 1847. This Manifesto has remained a kind of gospel for extreme Communists, and its pronouncements served as a guidance in the attempt of the Russian Bolsheviks (Russian for &ldquo;Majority&rdquo; party) to create a Communist republic in Russia. Another element in the circle of ideas appropriated by the Bolsheviks was provided by the activity of Bakunin, the indefatigable Russian anarchist, who fought for world revolution in 1849 in Dresden and in 1870 in Lyons, and who passed 12 years of his life in prison and in exile. He was an admirer of Marx's learning and analytical power, but he would never submit to the tyrannical pedantry of Marx's school and stood up for an elemental awaking of revolutionary instincts. State and law were enemies to be fought and overthrown without any regard for tradition or practical considerations. A third element was introduced by the rise of militant syndicalism in France (see ). These three currents combined to produce the three fundamental ideas of Bolshevism: the conquest of society by the proletariat

class, the power of revolutionary instinct and the dictatorship of a compact minority.

The combination proved admirably adapted in Russia for the practical purpose of the overthrow of the previously existing order. Theoretically it was a compound of contradictory elements. This was clearly discerned and exposed by a leading Marxist writer, Kautsky. He said in his book on the Dictatorship of the Proletariat:—

Kautsky had no difficulty in showing that, in consequence of this fundamental flaw, the practical results of Soviet rule were deplorable. It was obliged to work by means of an unwieldy bureaucracy:—

No wonder that Lenin and Trotsky were highly incensed by Kautsky 's criticism. They excommunicated him as a traitor to the cause, along with other Socialist leaders. But it was significant that they had to adopt the badge of &ldquo;Communism&rdquo; in order to mark their precise position in the field of rival doctrines. They had ceased to be Socialists in the accepted sense of the term.