Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism

Written by Lenin to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Marx’s death. It was written in March 1913 and published in Prosveshcheniye(Enlightment) magazine issue No. 3 in the same month. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 23 of the second revised edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary movement had become more influential in Russia. However, the counter-revolutionary forces distorted and “revised” Marxism and opposed the theoretical basis and basic guiding principles of Marxism. Thoughts of the masses of workers were thus disturbed. In particular, Narodnism in Russia rejected Marxism by publicizing various reformist ideas. The abolitionists spread pessimism and disappointment and they opposed the Party’s leadership of the workers’ movements. Opportunists in the Second International also openly spread reactionary capitalist ideas. This article was one of Lenin’s many articles to oppose the above erroneous thoughts in order to correctly understand and publicize the basic guiding principles of Marxism.

In this article, Lenin explained the theoretical origin, scientific system and basic characteristics of Marxism. He pointed out that Marxism is not a self-complacent and inflexible theory away from world civilization development. Marx’s genius lies in his answers to various questions already raised by advanced human thoughts. Marx’s theory has unlimited power because of its correctness. Complete and rigorous as it is, Marxism provides people with a complete view towards the world. German classical philosophy, British classical political economy and French socialism are the three sources of Marxism. Philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism constitute the three component parts of Marxism. In this article, Lenin expounded these topics respectively.

In the first part, Lenin gave an overview of the main sources and contents of Marxist philosophy. He pointed out that Marxist philosophy is materialism. Marx and Engels defended philosophical materialism most firmly. However, founders of Marxism did not restrict themselves in the critique of the materialism of the 18th century but further developed it. Marx enriched the contents of philosophy by studying the German classical philosophy, especially Hegel’s philosophical system. The main achievement of German classical philosophy was dialectics. It was the most complete, profound and non-one-sided theory on development. According to this theory, human knowledge that reflected eternal development was relative. Lenin pointed out that the latest discoveries of natural science, such as radium, electrons and element transformation, had all verified Marx’s dialectical materialism. Lenin further pointed out that Marx has deepened and developed philosophical materialism and applied it in all fields. He extended his understanding of nature to that of the human society. Lenin spoke highly of historical materialism and argued that Marx’s historical materialism was the greatest achievement in scientific thought. The confusion and arbitrariness that used to dominate historical and political views have been replaced by an extremely complete and rigorous scientific theory. Lenin emphasized two principles: “development of productive forces is the ultimate motive force social development” and “economic basis determines superstructure”. He pointed out that the development of productivity has led to a higher-level social life structure. People’s social cognition (different views and theories on philosophy, religion, politics, etc.) is a reflection of the social economic system. The superstructure is built on a certain economic basis and serves the ruling class. Lenin revealed the class nature of Marxist philosophy, which is a complete philosophical materialism and empowers human, especially the working class, with a great cognitive tool.

In the second part, Lenin gave an overview of the main sources and contents of Marxist political economics. Lenin pointed out that Marx regarded the economic system as the foundation of the political superstructure. That is why Marx particularly studied the economic system. Capital is a book dedicated to the economic system of the modern society—the capitalist society.

Lenin pointed out that Adam Smith and David Ricardo laid the foundation for the labor theory of value and Marx continued and surpassed their work. Marx rigorously demonstrated and thoroughly developed the labor theory of value. He demonstrated the theory that the necessary social labor time determines the value of commodities and revealed that the exchange of goods shows the connection among various producers. Marx revealed that capitalists possess for free the surplus value created by workers during the surplus labor time, which is the source of profits and capitalist class wealth. In Lenin’s view, the doctrine of surplus value was the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory. Lenin also elaborated Marx’s theory of relative overpopulation, revealing the monopoly position of the big capitalist alliance and the problem of economic crisis. Lenin concluded that capitalism had won a worldwide victory, but that this victory was merely a preparative-step to the victory of labor over capital.

In the third part, Lenin outlined the main sources and contents of scientific socialism theory. First, he pointed out the theoretical limitations of utopian socialism. Before Marxism, various socialist theories emerged as the capitalist society developed. These theories focused on exposing and criticizing the oppressive nature of the capitalist system. However, these theories only condemned and cursed the system and fantasized about destroying it. They did not explain the very nature of the wage-slavery under the capitalist system or discover the development law of capitalism or find the social forces that can become the creators of a new society. Therefore, socialism under these theories was utopian socialism without the right way out. Lenin further pointed out that Marxist theory is scientific. Marx evaluated the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development. Marx has found the class force which would push the social revolution, namely the working class, and urged for the education and organization of to fight for the social revolution. Only Marx’s philosophical materialism guided the proletariat to get rid of the spiritual enslavement suffered by all oppressed classes up to now. Only Marx’s class theory defined the real position of the proletariat in the entire capitalist system. Lenin revealed that the establishment of materialist conception of history and the theory of surplus value transformed the doctrine of socialism from utopia fantasy to science.

This article guided people to completely and correctly understand the theoretical sources and main contents of Marxism. It has also significantly impacted the international communist movement and socialist countries.