Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution

“Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution” is a work of Lenin describing the tactics of the Social-Democratic Party in the democratic revolution. It was written in Geneva, Switzerland between June-July 1905, and published in Geneva at the end of July 1905.

On January 9, 1905, the petitions of the working masses were bloodily suppressed by the Tsarist government, which provoked a strike wave of workers all over the country. The revolutionary struggle urgently required all classes to formulate tactical guidelines and lines of action in line with the interests of their own class.The Bolshevik Party, led by Lenin, held its Third Congress in London in April 1905. It correctly analyzed the nature, tasks, and dynamics of the revolution and formulated the tactics for the Party in the revolution. Those tactics were the Russian bourgeois-democratic revolution must be led by the proletariat, rely on the alliance of workers and peasants, isolate the liberal bourgeoisie, overthrow the Tsarist government through armed struggle, implement the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants, and proceed to a socialist revolution after the victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Simultaneously, the Mensheviks held a separate Congress in Geneva and adopted a resolution on “Conquering Power and On Participating in the Provisional Government”, which established an opportunist tactical line which advocated that the Russian revolution was merely a repetition of the bourgeois revolution in Western Europe, that the revolution must be led by the bourgeoisie and that the proletariat must not take revolutionary action so as to avoid frightening off the bourgeoisie, but only resort to peaceful means to reform the system and allow the bourgeoisie to develop fully, and that Social-Democrats should not and cannot immediately transform the democratic revolution into a socialist revolution. Lenin’s work clarified the tactic differences between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, and firmly argued that the revolution would confirm the correctness of the Social-Democratic Party’s program and tactics. Lenin compiled this article into the Collection of Twelve Years published in St. Petersburg in mid-November 1907, but it was soon confiscated by the Tsarist authorities. The manuscript of this book has not been completely preserved. In the Vol. 11 of the Fifth Russian Edition of the Complete Works of Lenin, this work was published according to the edition of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and proofread according to the preserved manuscript and the Collection of Twelve Years. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 11 of the second edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

The book consists of a preamble, 13 chapters, and supplementary notes.

In the preamble part, Lenin pointed out the great significance of tactical resolutions proposed by the Third Congress of the Social-Democratic Labor Party. First of all, the RSDLP needed correct tactical slogans based on a correct estimate of the political situation, at the same time needed the workers’ masses to back up these slogans with actual combat power. Secondly, the Party should be able to make use of the correctness of the Social-Democratic doctrine (Marxism), of our bond with the only thoroughly revolutionary class, the proletariat, to put a proletarian imprint on the revolution, to carry the revolution to a real and decisive victory. Thirdly, we should let the revolution confirm the correctness of the program and tactics of Social-democracy in actual practice, by demonstrating the true nature of the

various classes of society, by demonstrating the bourgeois character of our democracy and the real aspirations of the peasantry, which, while being revolutionary in the bourgeois-democratic sense, harbour not the idea of "socialization," but embraces a new class struggle between the peasant bourgeoisie and the rural proletariat.

In chapters 1-13, Lenin expounds on the Bolshevik Party’s tactical line in the democratic revolution from four aspects and criticized the opportunistic tactics of the Mensheviks.

The first focus was on the elaboration of the immediate revolutionary goals of the Bolshevik Party.

Lenin analyzed the different attitudes towards the three forces that called for the gathering of a Democratic Constituent Assembly and made it clear that the immediate task of the revolutionary proletariat under the leadership of the Social-Democratic Labor Party was to immediately overthrow the Tsarist government and replace it with a provisional revolutionary government.

Lenin outlined the main contents of the resolution established in the “Conference in Geneva”, i.e., the conference which was led by the Mensheviks. This resolution focused on the formation of a provisional government by Social-Democrats, or their joining such a government. The main points of this resolution were as follows: the resolution stipulated that propaganda must be widely carried out among the working class to make them understand all the political and economic demands of the minimum program of the proletarian party. The party should send plenipotentiary representatives to participate in the provisional revolutionary government in order to fight relentlessly against all counterrevolutionary attempts and safeguard the independent interests of the working class. The Social-Democratic Party strives to achieve a complete socialist revolution, and adopt an irreconcilable and hostile position towards all bourgeois parties; in order to defend, consolidate and expand the achievements of the revolution, the proletariat must constantly put political pressure on the provisional government.

The second point is that Lenin compared the resolution of the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party with the resolution of the Menshevik led “Conference” in Geneva.

The differences between the principles of the resolution of the Congress of the Social-Democratic Party and the resolution of the “Conference” of the Mensheviks were: (1) For the “Congress” the question of the provisional revolutionary government is the pivot of the tactical questions of the Social-Democratic movement on the eve of the revolution. The resolution of the Social-Democratic Party should expose the hypocrisy of the Tsarist government’s concessions and the utilization of "travesties of popular representation," the achievement by revolutionary means of the urgent demands of the working class (the principal one being the eight-hour working day), and, finally, resistance to the Black Hundreds. In the resolution of the “Congress in Geneva”, this question is scattered among several sections: "resistance to the dark forces of reaction" is mentioned only in the preamble of the resolution on the attitude to other parties. Participation in elections to representative bodies is considered separately from the question of "compromises" between tsarism and the bourgeoisie.

(2) The question of open political action. The resolution of the Social-Democratic Party took into consideration the impending radical change in the Party activity. Secret activity and the development of the secret apparatus must on no account be abandoned: this would be playing into the hands of the police and be of the utmost advantage to the government. But at the same time we cannot start too soon thinking about open action as well. Expedient forms of such action and, consequently, special apparatus - less secret - must be prepared immediately for this purpose. The legal and semi-legal societies must be made use of with a view to transforming them, as far as possible, into bases of the future open Social-Democratic Labour Party in Russia.

The resolution of the “Conference in Geneva” led by Mensheviks did not put forward any integrated slogans or explanations on how the party should shift all its work to a new basis. Instead of the slogan of utilizing the legally existing unions for the purpose of establishing bases for the Party, we are given, first, particular advice about the "trade" unions only (that all Party members must join them) and, secondly, advice to guide "the revolutionary organizations of the workers" "revolutionary workers' clubs."

On the “peasant question”, the RSDLP (B) formulated a resolution defining the “Social Democracy’s Attitude Towards the Peasant Movement”, which said “prime importance should be attached to the task of guiding the widespread revolutionary democratic movement in the general national interests of the fight against Tsarism and adopted a central slogan for the Party’s agitation: “the immediate organization of revolutionary peasant committees in order to carry out all the democratic changes”. The Menshevik led “Conference in Geneva” formulated a resolution which reduced the question to mere “work” among a particular section of society, but they only concluded that “demand for the organization of peasants committees” should be brought fore in the constituent assembly.

Resolution on the attitude towards other political parties. The resolution of the RSDLP (B) targeted to expose all the limitations and inadequacies of the bourgeois movement for emancipation. The resolution of the Menshevik led “Conference in Geneva” repeated the mistaken view of Starover and persistently searched for such a line, developed the famous "litmus paper" theory.

The third point is that Lenin elaborated on proper tactics for pushing the revolution forward.

Lenin pointed out that the proletariat should put in the first place the task of carrying out the people’s armed uprising, to arm the workers and peasants and establish the revolutionary dictatorship, as an important means to ensure the victory of the democratic revolution.

The armed popular uprising should be followed by the establishment of a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. Its task should be to consolidate the revolutionary achievements, realize the Party’s minimum program and pave the way for the victory of socialism.

Lenin stressed that the proletariat should carry out the democratic revolution to the end. It is the task of the proletariat to unite the peasant masses and the semi-proletarian masses, unite all the exploited laborers, and expand the revolutionary forces. Lenin also wrote: careless and unscrupulous people too frequently confuse two different questions, namely, the question of the direction in which the road leads, i.e., the selection of one of two different roads, and the question of how easily the goal can be reached, or of how near the goal is on the given road. As to the question of how easily the goal can be reached, Lenin, in particular, dialectically analyzed this question and warned the whole party to be vigilant against blind optimism and added we should not forget the difficulties which accompany the task of drawing into the movement the masses not only of the working class, but also of the peasantry.

Lenin warned: the important thing is to be convinced that the path chosen is the correct one, and this conviction will multiply a hundredfold the revolutionary energy and revolutionary enthusiasm which can perform miracles.

Lenin pointed out that the path for the proletariat to save itself was not to leave the class struggle but to develop, expand the scope of it; and strengthen the consciousness, organization, and firmness of class struggle. Proletariat needed to lead all the people, especially the peasants, to fight for full freedom, the replacement of the autocratic form of government by a democratic republic.

This work refuted the opportunist tactical line of the Mensheviks and the international opportunism, formulated the tactical principle of the proletariat in the democratic revolution. Inherited and developed the thought of “permanent revolution” put forward by Marx and Engels in the 1848 European Revolution, established the tactical principle of the Bolsheviks party in theory, and guided the Russian proletariat in the international communist movement in practice. For the first time in the international communist movement, the leadership of the democratic revolution was realized, and the democratic revolution was transformed into a socialist revolution.