Philosophy a Myth. Until about the close of the nineteenth century philosophic irrationalism was notable for lacking any very specific applications to politics. It had been on the whole an artist’s philosophy, viewed askance by academic philosophers and neglected by political theorists. There was, indeed, a steadily growing reaction in psychology and sociology against intellectualist … Read more

Irrationalism: The Philosophic Climate of Opinion. A philosophy whose immediate political implication was national expansion by war must of necessity be an adventurers philosophy. By no rational calculation either of individual happiness or of tangible national benefit could such a purpose be made plausible. It must assign a mystical rather than a calculated value to … Read more

Fascism and National Socialism. The political philosophy of communism represented on the whole a coherent and carefully developed point of view. Even in change it was meticulously careful to preserve its continuity with Marxism, which in turn had been elaborated by two generations of scholarship. Lenin and Trotsky were men of settled convictions and long … Read more

The Temper of Communism. While Mao without doubt has written a new chapter in the development of communism, it is Lenin who remains its characteristic exponent. In spite of the semi-scholastic quality of Lenin’s though this constant practice of seeming to spin concrete answers out of a dialectical manipulation of abstractions its effective characteristic was … Read more

Communism in China. In Lenin’s eyes the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia was only the first stage of the world revolution that was to overthrow Capitalism everywhere. In 1920 a Comintern representative was dispatched to China to instigate and promote Communist activity there. But while in some measure stimulated from the outside, Chinese communism … Read more

Socialism in One Country. With the concepts of the party and of imperialist capitalism the theory of communism as a logical structure was complete, yet it lacked what proved to be its main driving force as a political system. This was the concept of socialism in one country added by Stalin and his sole venture … Read more

Democratic Centralism. No quality of Lenin’s political thought was more constant than his preference for centralized organization, or, put negatively, his distrust of any kind of federalism, coalition, or even alliance, if the last threatened his freedom of action. This was the outstanding characteristic of his party as he planned it in 1902, and though … Read more

The Vanguard of the Proletariat. The party may have hoped that its easy success on November 7 would gain the overwhelming support of the masses, but if so that hope was soon dispelled by its poor showing in the elections for the Constituent Assembly. Accordingly, though the party had supported the calling of that body, … Read more

The Problem of Success in Bolshevik Revolution. The surprisingly easy success of the Bolshevik revolution on November 7, 1917, confronted Lenin and the party with a wholly new problem a group of revolutionists, often an illegal and conspiratorial group, had to be turned into a government of positive or constructive ideas for this change it … Read more

Revolution in Prospect. With his approach to the revolution completed, Lenin wrote a pamphlet which reveals his expectations when he took the final step. His State and Revolution was left unfinished because the revolution interrupted it. Even the subject suggested the changed direction of his thought, for Lenin had not given much attention to forms … Read more