Anarchism or Socialism?

Stalin successively published a series of articles which criticized anarchism and presented his elucidation on Marxist worldview. The first 4 parts appeared on December 11th, 18th, 25th of 1906 and January 1 of 1907, in the issues of 5, 6, 7 and 8, respectively, of the New Times, and on February 21st, 23rd, 27th and 28th, in the issues No 3, 5, 8 and 9, respectively, in the daily newspaper Our Life.

Also, the New Times newspaper in Tiflis published this work in its issues of 21, 22, 23 and 26, during April 4, 5, 6 and 10, in 1907, originally published in Georgian language, and it was later translated into Russian. Due to Stalin’s arrest, his notes on the later parts were lost, and the sequel was not printed. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 1 of the Complete Works of Stalin.

This work consists of three parts: dialectical method, materialist theory and proletarian socialism.

Stalin argued at the beginning of the work: Marxism and anarchism are fundementally different: both are at the present time recognised as socialist trends, but they are waging a fierce struggle against each other, both were trying to present themselves to the proletariat as genuinely socialist doctrines, and, of course, a study and comparison of the two will be far more interesting for the reader... Some people believe that Marxism and anarchism are based on the same principles and that the disagreements between them concern only tactics, so that, in the opinion of these people, it is quite impossible to draw a contrast between these two trends. This was a great mistake.

Anarchists are the true enemies of Marxism. Although both hold the banner of socialism in their struggle, they are based on totally different principles. Anarchism is based on the individual and holds that the liberation of the individual is the main condition for the liberation of the masses and the collective body. Thus, its slogan is "Everything for the individual."

Marxism, on the other hand, is based on the masses and holds that the liberation of the masses is the main condition for the liberation of individuals. Thus its slogan is “Everything for the masses”. Stalin pointed out that clearly these are two mutually negative principles, not just differences in strategy. Stalin’s writing idea of this series of articles starts from the description of the characteristics of Marxism, and involves the views of anarchists on Marxism, then come to the criticism of anarchism itself.

Stalin expounded the basic thought of dialectics in the section of dialectics. Stalin argued that Marxism is not only a socialist theory, but also a complete worldview and a philosophical system. Marxist proletarian socialism is naturally produced from the philosophical system of dialectical materialism. Stalin pointed out that to clarify Marxism is to clarify dialectical materialism. Marxist method is dialectical, while theory is materialistic. The contents of dialectics include: Social life is in the state of continuous movement and development. There are always new and old things in life, things that grow and things that die, revolutionary and counter revolutionary things. Stalin thought that dialectics requires us to study life according to the real situation of life and consider life as a process of destruction and creation. What is new in life is insurmountable, and what is declining in life is bound to fail. This embodies an important dialectical principle: Everything that really exists, that is, things that grow day by day, all are reasonable. Anything that is becoming more and more decadent are unreasonable, and therefore doomed to failure. Marxism observes the society dialectically and concludes that since the proletariat is the only class that keeps growing and growing, it should be recognized as the main force in the current movement and should join in its ranks. Stalin also proposed that there are two forms of movement, that is, the form of evolution and the form of revolution. When progressive elements spontaneously continue their daily work and make some small and quantitative changes in the old system, movement is evolutionary. The movement is revolutionary when progressive elements unite and rush to the enemy’s barracks with a common idea in order to fundamentally eliminate the old system and make a qualitative change in life. Stalin discussed anarchists’ views on dialectics.

Stalin revealed that anarchists deny dialectics by proving that Hegel was a revivalist philosopher and a conservative. Stalin argued that the anarchists only proved their ignorance by this means. Hegel is a conservative and dialectics is scientific and not contradictory. Stalin took the scientists in history as an example to show that the scientific nature of their theories was not contradictory to that they were not revolutionaries. Stalin also revealed that another way for anarchists to deny dialectics is to say that dialectics is metaphysics. Stalin thought that metaphysics and Hegel’s dialectics are totally different. Anarchists confuse Hegel’s metaphysical system with his dialectics. Stalin argued that Hegel’s philosophical system based on the idea of eternity is metaphysical, while Hegel’s dialectics, which denies any idea of eternity, is completely scientific and revolutionary. For anarchists, it is a simple metaphysical method to affirm and negate things. Stalin used the example of a real democratic republic to show that a democratic republic is both good and bad, both right and wrong. Stalin criticized the anarchists for not understanding the dialectics of Marx and Engels. They made up their own dialectics and then struggled with their own dialectics.

Stalin expounded the basic problems of materialism in the part of “materialism theory” and drew the conclusion that the socialist thought originated from the inevitability of history. In terms of the relationship between the material aspect and the conceptual aspect, Stalin emphasized that the theory of materialism denied both dualism and idealism. Stalin argued that the aspects of ideas and materials were two different forms of the same nature or society, and they could not be regarded as independent things, they existed together. There is no basis for the so-called dualism. Stalin proved that the development of material aspect is prior to the development of concept aspect by the history of natural development. Stalin proved that the development of nature and society preceded the development of consciousness with the development history of nature and social life.

Stalin pointed out that people in different times have different thoughts and wishes because they fight with nature in different ways to meet their own needs. In line with this, their economic relations have been formed in various ways. Stalin, for example, said that the consciousness of a shoemaker changed with the change of his material status, as did all classes and the whole society. With the change of material conditions, people’s thinking, customs, and worldview have changed accordingly. Stalin said that if we call the material phenomenon content and the conceptual phenomenon form, then we have a famous materialist principle: in the process of development, content precedes form, and form lags behind content. Stalin then put forward that since the first is the change of economic conditions, and then the corresponding change of people’s consciousness, it is obvious that if we want to explore the basis of some ideal, we should not explore it in people’s minds, not in their fantasies, but in the development of their economic conditions; since people’s consciousness, customs and habits are determined by external conditions. Since the inapplicability of legal and political forms is determined by economic content, it is obvious that we should promote the fundamental transformation of economic relations, so that the customs and habits of the people and their political system will be fundamentally changed.

Stalin exposed the anarchists’ understanding of Marx and Engels’ materialist theory. Anarchists attempt to deny materialism by identifying Feuerbach as a pantheist. Stalin pointed out that it was Marx and Engels who first exposed Feuerbach’s pantheism, while the anarchists still thought that it was necessary to “expose” the mistakes that had been disclosed. Stalin argued that the anarchists’ mistake was that they confused different materialism and could not see the significant difference between them. Stalin cited the example of Kropotkin, who confidently claimed that the anarchism of communism was based on “modern materialist philosophy”, but he could not provide any basis. It is because he did not understand the contradictions between various materialisms, but confused them all. There are anarchists who deny materialism by saying that “eating determines the ideological system”. Stalin refuted that Marx had never said such a thing. The physiological phenomenon of eating is fundamentally different from the social phenomenon of people’s economic status. Stalin pointed out that: Firstly, there is nothing in common between Marx’s monistic materialism and parallelism. Secondly, the anarchists’ view that Marxism is material oriented is contradictory to their view that Marxism is classified as dualism. Thirdly, monism starts from a single principle, while dualism starts from two principles. What is the relationship between materialist monism and dualism? Fourthly, Marx never described people’s intentions and wills as visions and fantasies. Marx said: Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve. Fifthly, although Marx insisted that people’s will and intention are restricted by economic status, he also recognized the role of people’s will and intention. Marx never said that people’s will and intention are meaningless.

Stalin expounded the basic principles of scientific socialism in the part of “proletarian socialism”. Stalin first pointed out the internal relationship between proletarian socialism and Marxism. Firstly, the urban and rural proletariat is the only class that keeps growing and growing, advancing forever and fighting for the future. Therefore, we should serve the proletariat and place our hopes on them. This is the conclusion drawn from Marxist dialectics. Secondly, to serve the proletariat in reality is to strive for the realization of a broad range of socialist life, which is the conclusion drawn from Marxist materialism. Later, Stalin pointed out the essence and disadvantages of capitalism, and briefly described the characteristics of the future socialist society. There is no class, no capitalist or proletarian, no exploitation, only collective workers. With the elimination of exploitation, the production and sale of goods will also be eliminated, so there will be no room for labor buyers and sellers, employers and employees. With the elimination of hired labor, private ownership of any means of production will also be eliminated. The main purpose of future production is to meet the needs of society directly, not to increase the profits of capitalists. Future production is a highly developed production organized according to the main social principles.

Stalin demonstrated the inevitability of socialism. History shows that the form of ownership is directly transferred to the form of production. In the capitalist society, the production process and labor are already socialized, and the possession of private property is not suitable for the sociality of production. The labor of modern collectivism is bound to lead to collective ownership, so the socialist system is bound to follow capitalism. Stalin also pointed out that inevitability does not mean that the socialist system can be established at any time. To realize socialism, in addition to the proletarianization of the majority of the people in the society, the proletariat should have class consciousness, be united and good at leading its own cause. To achieve all this, there must be so-called political freedom. The democratic republic is the best guarantee of political freedom. Stalin emphasized that the program of Marxism can be divided into two parts: One is the maximum program aiming to realize socialism, the other is the minimum program to open up a path to socialism through the democratic republic. Stalin pointed out that in order to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism, the proletariat must take the path of class struggle. To realize socialism, we must carry out socialist revolution, which must begin with the dictatorship of the proletariat. To do all this, we must have a strong proletarian organization. Stalin said that the most common forms of organization are trade unions and cooperatives. But this cannot meet the needs of the fighting proletarian organizations. The organization that can meet this need is the Social-Democratic Party of the proletariat.

Stalin discussed the anarchists’ views on the proletarian socialism. Firstly, the anarchists’ slander of Marx and Engels’ monumental work The Communist Manifesto as plagiarism from others. Secondly, anarchists advocate that collectivism of Social-Democratic Party inevitably leads to state capitalism and preserves wage-labor. Stalin expounded the Social-Democratic Party regards the state as a historical product of class society. Thirdly, anarchists deny the revolutionary nature of the Social-Democratic Party. Fourthly, anarchists “accuse” that the Social-Democracy is never a popular movement, and describe the Social-Democrats as bureaucrats. Stalin refuted these views one by one by presenting a large number of facts, and especially pointed out that according to Marx’s view, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. Stalin took the dictatorship of the Paris Commune and the majority of the proletariat as an example to prove that the dictatorship of the proletariat was the dictatorship of the masses. This article is an important article of Stalin’s critique of Russian anarchism. This work is of great significance to expose the socialist illusionary face of anarchism, fight against the attacks of anarchists on the Social-Democratic Party and improve the Marxist theoretical level of the proletariat.