Academic CentreTOTALITARIANISM UNDER COMMUNIST MASK
Andris Kleinhofs
The article is an extension of the manuscript Totalitarian regime under the mask of communism. A number of authors have identified Lenin’s ideology with Marxism. The catastrophic extent, to which Lenin’s policies of communist revolution have failed, and why they have done so, is brought forth by comparing these policies – and their outcomes – with Karl Marx’s theory of communist society. We explain why Lenin’s revolutionary policies have had such perverse effects. Karl Marx in accordance with his dialectical method argued that bourgeois society, like every social organism, must follow its inevitable path of development. Instead Vladimir Lenin wanted to seize power immediately. That’s why he used to justify and implement his theory of socialism in one country. He detailed this new approach in his April Theses, but had to fight hard to persuade the Bolshevik party to accept his ideas. Karl Marx argued: that in proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion the proletariat also develops; the proletarian movement is movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority. Because of the early stage of capitalism in Russia, the level of its industrial development was rather low. As a consequence in Russia proletariat formed only one percent of its population, largely uneducated and illiterate. In such circumstances the institution of a proletariat based political party was impossible. Lenin announced his theory of the party as the vanguard of the proletariat that would work unremittingly to suffuse the proletariat with socialist consciousness and serve as a mentor, leader, and guide. In fact such vanguard party’s aim was to change the system in Russia from undeveloped capitalism to a totalitarian regime. Karl Marx’s dream was to eliminate such negative social phenomena as inequality and poverty in order to institute the Communist Society – as a free association of completely free men, where no separation between private and common interests existed. Vladimir Lenin didn’t explain how to leap from feudal Russia to the communist society. In order to overcome the resistance of the majority Lenin has eliminated all the human, social and economic prerequisits, necessary for the transition from capitalism to a communist society. Lenin’s new science Marxism-Leninism is a falsification and a forgery of Marxism. There are many dimensions to the problems facing the transition from totalitarian regime to democracy. Among them the long-term impact of manipulations with consciousness have been discussed.