Illegal Operations
Student: “Perhaps this helps to explain why the Communist strategists have never been able to take over a single country by persuasion or by the popular election of legal candidates. Must you Communists always resort to subversion and illegal political operations?”
Lenin: “The absolute necessity in principal of combining illegal with legal work is determined not only by the sum total of the specific features of the present period… but also by the necessity of proving to the bourgeoisie that there is not, nor can there be, a sphere or field of work that cannot be won by the Communists…. It is necessary, immediately, for all legal Communist Parties to form illegal organizations for the purpose of systematically carrying on illegal work, and of fully preparing for the moment when the bourgeoisie resorts to persecution. Illegal work is particularly necessary in the army, the navy and police.”{144}
Student: “What happens to a person who is selected for illegal operations?”
Lenin: “A working class agitator who in any way shows talent and promise should not work eleven hours a day in a factory. We should see to it that he lives on the funds of the Party, that he is able in good time to adopt an illegal manner of existence, that he has the opportunity of changing his sphere of activities; otherwise he will not gain experience, he will not broaden his outlook, and will not be able to hold out for at most several years in the struggle against the police.”{145}
Revolutionary Violence
Student: “Could an American who might be converted to Communism belong to the Party but still hold out for peaceful reform instead of revolutionary violence?”
Lenin: “It is not enough to take sides in the question of political slogans; we must take sides also in the question of an armed uprising. Those who are opposed to armed uprising, those who do not prepare for it, must be ruthlessly cast out of the ranks of the supporters of the revolution and sent back to the ranks of its enemies, of the traitors or cowards; for the day is approaching when the force of events and conditions of the struggle will compel us to separate enemies from friends according to this principle.”{146}
Student: “Then apparently you believe social progress is possible only by revolutionary violence rather than by legislative reform?”
Lenin: “Marxists have never forgotten that violence will be an inevitable accompaniment of the collapse of capitalism on its full scale and of the birth of a socialist society. And this violence will cover a historical period; a whole era of wars of the most varied kinds—imperialist wars, civil wars within the country, the interweaving of the former with the latter, national wars, the emancipation of the nationalities crushed by the imperialist powers which will inevitably form various alliances with each other in the era of vast state-capitalist and military trusts and syndicates. This is an era of tremendous collapses, of wholesale military decisions of a violent nature, of crises. It has already begun, we see it clearly—it is only the beginning.”{147}
Student: “Do you mean it is impossible for an American to be a true Communist without betraying his own country?”
Lenin: “Hatred for one’s own government and one’s own bourgeoisie—the sentiment of all class conscious workers… is a banal phrase if it does not mean revolution against their own governments. It is impossible to rouse hatred against one’s own government and one’s own bourgeoisie without desiring their defeat.”{148}
Student: “Would an American Communist be expected to engage in subversive and disloyal activities even if the United States were at war?”
Lenin: “A revolutionary class in a reactionary war cannot but desire the defeat of its government…. And revolutionary action in wartime against one’s own government undoubtedly and incontrovertibly means not only desiring its defeat, but really facilitating such defeat.”{149}
Student: “But if you are so anxious to break down loyalty to individual governments why you do insist on American Communists maintaining a loyalty toward the USSR?”
Official Statement: “In view of the fact that the USSR is the only fatherland of the international proletariat, the principle bulwark of its achievements and the most important factor for its international emancipation, the international proletariat must on its part facilitate the success of the work of socialist construction in the USSR and defend it against the attacks of the capitalist powers by all the means in its power.”{150}
Student: “In other words—and to be more specific—you are against nationalism except when applied to the USSR?
P. E. Vyshinsky: “The defense of the USSR, as of the socialist motherland of the world proletariat, is the holy duty of every honest man everywhere and not only of the citizens of the USSR.”{151}
Student: “If American Communists are expected overthrow their own Government and serve the interests of the USSR, would that not make them anarchists and insurrectionists?”
Lenin: “Only insurrection can guarantee the victory of the revolution.”{152}
Lenin: “The revolution confronts us directly with the problem of armed insurrection. And to speak of this without proper technical preparations, is merely to mouth empty phrases. He who wants the revolution must systematically prepare for it the broad masses, which will, in the process of preparation, create the necessary organs of the struggle.”{153}
Student: “And all this for the violent overthrow of the Government?”
Lenin: “The purpose of insurrection must be not only the complete destruction, or removal of all local authorities and their replacement by new… but also the expulsion of the landlords and the seizure of their lands.”{154}
War and Peace
Student: “Does not such an inflammatory policy completely contradict your widely publicized program for a peace offensive?”
Official Statement: “Complete Communism will know no more war. A real, assured people’s peace is possible only under Communism. But the goal cannot be reached by peaceful, ‘pacifist’ means; on the contrary, it can be reached only by civil war against the bourgeoisie.”{155}
Student: “In other words, Communists in all countries constitute a war party rather than a political party designed to promote peace?”
Official Statement: “In the capitalist world today, the revolutionary proletariat supports the war of defense of the proletarian state (the USSR) against the imperialist states.”{156}
Student: “But the Soviet Union has consistently waged or encouraged wars of aggression. How can you conscientiously support these?”