Page:Lenin - The Proletarian Revolution and Kautsky the Renegade (1920).pdf/12



The fundamental question touched upon by Kautsky in his pamphlet is the question of the essential content of the proletarian revolution, namely, the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is a question which is of the greatest importance for all countries, especially the most advanced ones, especially those which are now at war, and especially at the present moment. One may say without fear of exaggeration that this is the most important, the chief, problem of the entire class-struggle of the proletariat. Hence it is necessary to dwell upon it with particular attention.

Kautsky formulates the question in the sense that "the opposition between the two Socialist schools (that is the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks) is the opposition between two fundamentally different methods: the democratic and the dictatorial" (p. 3).

Let me point out in passing that by calling the non-Bolsheviks in Russia, that is the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, "Socialists," Kautsky has been guided by their names; that is, by the mere word, and not by the actual position which they have taken up in the fight between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. What a fine interpretation and application of the Marxism! But of this more anon. At present we must deal with the main point, with the great discovery made by Kaustky of the "fundamental opposition" between "democratic and dictatorial methods." This is the gist of the matter, and this is the essence of Kautsky's pamphlet. And this is such a monstrous theoretical confusion, such a complete renunciation of Marxism, that Kautsky may be said to have quite outstripped Bernstein.

The question of the dictatorship of the proletariat is