Stalin’s Thought Concerning the Fundamental Question of Leninism

Stalin not only defined Leninism, but also elaborated on the basic problems of Leninism.

In response to Zinoviev’s view of the question of the role of the peasantry as the basic problem of Bolshevism, or Leninism, in his article “In Memory of Lenin Stalin” stated: “The fundamental question of Leninism, its point of departure, is not the peasant question, but the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of the conditions under which it can be achieved, of the conditions under which it can be consolidated. The peasant question, as the question of the ally of the proletariat in its struggle for power, is a derivative question.” To illustrate this thesis, Stalin specifically analyzed the significance of the peasant question for the proletarian revolution. He pointed out that to say that the peasant question is a derivative of the proletarian revolution does not in any way deprive it of the great and urgent significance it has for the proletarian revolution. In the 1905 Revolution, the peasant question, that is, the question of the revolutionary allies, already had an urgent character for the proletariat. In the period of the proletarian revolution, the peasant question took on even greater urgency. In the sense that whoever wanted to seize power, whoever was preparing to seize power, could not but be concerned with the question of its real allies, correspondingly, the peasant question was part of the general question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and therefore, one of the most urgent questions of Leninism. In the proletarian revolution, the majority of the peasantry also actually supported the workers’ struggle for peace and for Soviet power, thus becoming an important factor in the success of the revolution. After the consolidation of Soviet power, the proletariat relied on the working peasant masses as a reserve army, combining industry and agriculture and giving a strong impetus to socialist construction. In short, the peasant question was of great significance both in the revolution and after the victory. But it does not follow that the peasant question should be regarded as the basic problem of Leninism. According to Stalin, in Leninism the question of imperialism, the question of the spasmodic character of the development of imperialism, the question of the victory of socialism in one country, the question of the proletarian state, the question of the Soviet form of this state, the question of the role of the Party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the question of the paths of building socialism form the basis and roots of the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Only when these basic questions are first clarified can the peasant question be clarified from the point of view of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is evident that the basic question of Leninism can only be the dictatorship of the proletariat, while the peasant question is only an important component of it.