Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 00:04:33 -0400 From: "Siddharth G. Chatterjee" <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu> Subject: M-G: Excerpt from Lenin's Testament > Excerpt from Lenin's Testament > by V.I. Lenin, 1922 > > By the stability of the Central Committee, of which I spoke above, I > mean measures against a split, as far as such measures can at all be > taken. For, of course, the whiteguard in _Russkaya_Mysl_ (it seems to > have been S. S. Oldenburg) was right when, first, in the whiteguards' > game against Soviet Russia he banked on a split in our Party, and > when, secondly, he banked on grave differences in our Party to cause > that split. > > Our Party relies on two classes and therefore its instability would be > possible and its downfall inevitable if there were no agreement > between those two classes. In that event, this or that measure, and > generally all talk about the stability of our C.C., would be futile. > No measures of any kind could prevent a split in such a case. But I > hope that this is too remote a future and too improbable an event to > talk about. > > I have in mind stability as a guarantee against a split in the > immediate future, and I intend to deal here with a few ideas > concerning personal qualities. > > I think that from this standpoint, the prime factors in the question > of stability are such members of the C.C. as Stalin and Trotsky. I > think relations between them make up the greater part of the danger of > a split, which could be avoided, and this purpose, in my opinion, > would be served, among other things, by increasing the number of C.C. > members to 50 or 100. > > Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited > authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will > always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution. > Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, as his struggles against the C.C. > on the question of the People.s Commissariat for Communications has > already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He > is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C., but he > has displayed excessive self-assurance and shown excessive > preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work. > > These two qualities of the two outstanding leaders of the present C.C. > can inadvertently lead to a split, and if our Party does not take > steps to avert this, the split may come unexpectedly. > > I shall not give any further appraisals of the personal qualities of > other members of the C.C. I shall just recall that the October episode > with Zinoviev and Kamenov was, of course, no accident, but neither can > the blame for it be laid upon them personally, any more than > non-Bolshevism can upon Trotsky. > > Speaking of the young C.C. members, I wish to say a few words about > Bukharin and Pyatakov. They are, in my opinion, the most outstanding > figures (among the younger ones), and the following must be borne in > mind about them: Bukharin is not only a most valuable and major > theorist of the Party; he is also rightly considered the favorite of > the whole Party, but his theoretical views can be classified as fully > Marxist only with the great reserve, for there is something scholastic > about him (he has never made a study of dialectics, and, I think, > never fully appreciated it). > > December 25. As for Pyatakov, he is unquestionably a man of > outstanding will and outstanding ability, but shows far too much zeal > for administrating and the administrative side of the work to be > relied upon in a serious political matter. > > Both of these remarks, of course, are made only for the present, on > the assumption that both these outstanding and devoted Party workers > fail to find an occassion to enhance their knowledge and amend their > one-sidedness. > > Lenin. > > December 25, 1922 Taken down by M. V. [Maria Volodicheva, a secretary] > > Addition to the letter of December 24, 1922 > > Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our > midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a > Secretary-General. That is why I suggest the comrades think about a > way of removing Staling from that post and appointing another man in > his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in > having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more > loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less > capricious, etc. This circumstance may appear to be a negligible > detail. But I think that from the standpoint of safeguards against a > split, and from the standpoint of what I wrote above about the > relationship between Stalin and Trotsky, it is not a detail, or it is > a detail which can assume decisive importance. > > Lenin. > > January 4, 1923 > Taken down by L. F. > [Lydia Fotieva] > > (from Lenin's Collected Works. Moscow: Progress, 1966. v.36, > pp.594-596.) http://www.idbsu.edu/surveyrc/Staff/jaynes/marxism/lenin/testamnt.htm --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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