The original English translation of Lenin’s statement on the anniversary of the Revolution as the the country pivoted from war to reconstruction and the New Economic Policy. With his profound ability to summarize complex processes without simplifying them, he surveys the previous four years, placing them in historical context while outlining present difficulties and the tasks to overcome them.

‘On the Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution’ by N. Lenin from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 1 No. 5. November, 1921.

The fourth anniversary of the 25th of October (Nov. 7th) is before us.

As we get further and further away from that great memorable day, we begin better to grasp the meaning of the proletarian revolution in Russia, and become more deeply absorbed in the practical experience of our work as a whole.

This significance and experience can be thus briefly, though not completely, summarized.

The direct and immediate task of the Russian revolution was a democratic task, namely, to do away with the remains of the middle ages, to remove them completely, to free Russia of its barbarism and its disgrace, and to loosen the great drag-chain which held it back from all culture and progress.

And we are justified in our pride that, from the point of view of its influence on the great masses, we accomplished this cleansing-task by far more decisively, more quickly, more boldly, more deeply, more extensively and with greater success than did the French revolution, 125 year ago.

The Anarchists as well as the petty-bourgeois democrats (i.e. the Mensheviki and Social Revolutionaries, as Russian representatives of this international social type) have said, and are still saying, many idiotic things on the relation of the bourgeois democratic revolution to the socialist (i.e. proletarian) revolution. In these 4 years we have proven both our comprehension of Marxism in this question, and the accuracy with which we appraised the former revolutions. We have consummated the bourgeois-democratic revolution up to the very end, as no one else has. Conscious of what we are doing, determined and full of purpose, we are moving forward, toward the socialist revolution, knowing full well that the latter is not separated from the bourgeois-democratic revolution by a Chinese wall, and that only the struggle will decide how far (in the last analysis) we shall succeed in advancing, and which part of the ground won we must fortify. The future will show that. But even now we can see that great things have been accomplished in the field of the Socialist transformation of society, and in a ruined, weary, backward country like Russia.

Enough of the bourgeois-democratic content of our revolution, Marxists should understand what that means. Let us take a few examples as illustrations.

The bourgeois-democratic content in our revolution, that means ridding the social institutions of the country, of medieval remains, of serfdom and feudalism.

What were the most important signs and remains of bondage in Russia in 1917? Monarchy, martial-law, land ownership and exploitation, the position of women, religion and race-persecution. No matter which one of these beloved Augean stables we consider, which, by the way, were never completely done away with by any of the revolutions which took place in the most advanced countries 125 and 250 years ago and more (1649 in England), no matter which one of these blessings we consider, we see that we got rid of them completely. In only 10 weeks, from the 25th of October (Nov. 7th) to the dissolution of the Constituent assembly (Jan. 5, 1918) we have accomplished a thousand times as much in this field as the bourgeois democrats and liberals (Cadets), the petty-bourgeois democrats (Mensheviki and Social-Revolutionaries) had in the 8 months of their rule.

These cowards, these gossips, these vain, conceited little Hamlets and Narcissi, had been brandishing a sword of cardboard, and did not even begin to away with the Monarchy! As no one before us, as never before us, we swept away the entire monarchistic garbage. We razed to the ground the structure of privilege, built up during centuries (the most advanced nations like England, France and Germany have not yet abolished the remains of privilege). We have destroyed the deepest roots of privilege the remainders of feudalism and serfdom in landownership. “It is debatable” (there are sufficient writers, Cadets, Mensheviki and Social-Revolutionaries abroad who can busy themselves with the question) what the “final” outcome of the Agrarian reform of the October revolution will be. We shall waste no time debating the question, for we shall decide this dispute, as well as all the other controversies growing out of it, only through a struggle. One fact is established, however, that for eight months the petty-bourgeois democrats were “negotiating” with the property owners, who still held the traditions of serfdom high, whereas we swept away the property owners and their traditions in a few weeks.

Let us take religion, or the disfranchisement of women, or the oppression and disfranchisement of non-Russian nationalities. All these are questions of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. For eight months the petty-bourgeois democrats have done nothing but talk; not one of the most advanced countries of the world has brought these questions to a final decision in a bourgeois-democratic way. We however, actually fought and combatted religion. All non-Russian nationalities received their autonomy and were given their own republics. With us in Russia there exists no such blackguardism and infamy as disfranchisement or incomplete equality of woman, revolting relics of the middle ages and of serfdom, which the greedy bourgeoisie and the stupid, intimidated petty-bourgeois of all countries of the world, without exception, are trying to restore.

All this constitutes the content of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. 150 and 250 years ago, the progressive leaders of this revolution (of these revolutions rather, if we consider every national variation of the one common type separately) had promised the people to free humanity of medieval privilege, disfranchisement of woman, the privilege of this or that religion (or “religious idea”, piety in general) in the state, and to do away with the suppression of the various nationalities. This they promised but did not do. They were unable to carry out their promise because of their “respect” for private property. Our proletarian revolution did not possess that cursed “respect” for that thrice damned medieval order and its holy “private property”.

However, in order to secure the acquisitions of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, we had to go further and we did go further. We treated the problems of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, among other things, as by-products of our most important and real proletarian-revolutionary socialistic work. “Reforms”, we always said, “are a byproduct of the revolutionary class-struggle”. We claimed and proved by deed that, bourgeois-democratic reforms are a by-product of the proletarian, i.e., the socialist revolution. By the way, all the Kautskys, Hilferdings, Martovs, Tschernovs, Hilquits, Longuets, MacDonalds, Turatis and the other heroes of 2 1/2 marxism could see no such correlation between the bourgeois-democratic and the proletarian-socialist revolutions. The first grows into the second; the second fortifies the actions of the first. The struggle, and only the struggle, decides how far the second succeeds in rising above the first.

The Soviet regime is the best proof or expression of the growing of one revolution into the other. The Soviet regime is the highest degree of democracy for the workers and peasants, and at the same time it signifies the break with bourgeois-democracy and the creation of a new historical type of democracy: namely, proletarian democracy, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Let the dogs and swine of the dying bourgeoisie, and the petty-bourgeois democracy which is limping after it, heap curses, insults and mockery upon us because of the failures and mistakes, which we made when we first instituted the Soviet regime. Neither do we for one moment forget that we actually suffered many a failure and made many mistakes. How could such a new thing, absolutely new in the history of the world, the creation of a type heretofore non-existent, possibly be carried through without failures and mistakes. We are determined to fight to the last for the application of Soviet principles, which we know to be far from perfect. We have the right, however, to be proud, as in fact we are, of the fact that ours was the good fortune to begin the building of the Soviet state and thereby to introduce a new epoch into the world history-an epoch which sees the beginning of the supremacy of a new class which is oppressed in all capitalist countries, and which is coming into new life, and is marching to victory over the bourgeoisie to the liberation of humanity from the yoke of Capitalism and imperialistic wars.

Imperialistic wars, the international policies of high finance at present dominating the world, inevitable new imperialistic wars, the inevitable increase of national burdens, of the plundering and strangling of small, weak and backward countries by a handful of “civilized nations” these questions have become since 1914 the cardinal issues of the entire policy of every country in the world. It is a question which has the power of life and death over untold millions of people.

That is the issue which will decide whether in the next imperialistic war, which the bourgeoisie is preparing and which is growing out of capitalism right before our eyes, 20,000,000 people will be killed (instead of the 10,000,000 killed in the war of 1914-18 and the various supplementary wars which are still going on), whether in this inevitable war (inevitable if capitalism remain), of the near future, 60,000,000 people will be maimed instead of the mere 30,000,000 maimed from 1914-18. And in the midst of such a situation our October Revolution has begun a new epoch in the history of the world.

The lackeys of the bourgeoisie-the Social-Revolutionaries and Mensheviki, the entire petit-bourgeois, so called “socialist”, democracy mocked the watchword “Transform imperialist war into civil war”. This watchword, however, has proven itself the only Truth- unpleasant, coarse, naked, and cruel, but still a truth- in the darkness of the cunning chauvinistic and pacifistic betrayal. This deceit is revealed. The significance of the Brest-Litovsk peace is disclosed. Every day sees a more unsparing revelation of the significance and effects of a peace still worse than the one at Brest-the peace of Versailles. The terrible truth becomes clearer and clearer to the millions upon millions of people who are reflecting on the causes of the war of yesterday, and on the coming war of to-morrow-the imperialistic war the imperialistic world which creates it, this hell, cannot be destroyed except by the Bolshevist struggle and the Bolshevist revolution.

Let the bourgeoisie and the pacifists, the generals and the petty-bourgeois, the capitalists and the philistines, let all orthodox Christians and all the knights of the 2nd and 2 1/2 International rant as madly as they like at this revolution! No fit of anger, no denunciation or lie can hide the historical fact, that for the first time in hundreds and thousands of years, the slaves have answered the war of the slaveholders with this open proclamation, “Let us turn this war of the slave-owners who are only warring for division of booty, into a war of the slaves of all nations against the slave-owners of all nations!”

It was the first time in the course of hundreds and thou- sands of years that a mere motto turned from a vague and weak expectation into a clear, definite political program. It turned into an actual struggle of millions of oppressed led by the proletariat. It turned into victory for the proletariat, into a victory for the cause which seeks to abolish wars. It brough about an alliance of workers of all countries against the allied bourgeois of various nations, the bourgeoisie which decides on peace as well war at the expense of the slaves of capital, wage-slaves, peasants and workers in general.

This first victory is not yet the decisive victory, and our October Revolution has achieved it by overcoming unprecedented difficulties and burdens, and indescribable pains, coupled with a whole series of failures and mistakes. And how could a backward, isolated nation succeed in overcoming the imperialistic attacks of the mightiest and most advanced countries of the world, without mistakes or failures! We are not afraid to acknowledge our mistakes; we shall examine them soberly, and learn to correct them. But the fact remains that for the first time in hundreds and thousands of years, the promise to “answer” the slaveowners’ war with a war of the slaves against any and all slaveowners, in spite of all obstacles, is actually carried out completely.

We have begun. When and how long it will take, what nation’s proletariat will bring our work to a successful finish, are questions of no import. What is of importance is that the ice has been broken, the road has been cleared, the path has been pointed out.

Continue your hypocrisy, Messrs. Capitalists of every country “Defend the fatherland”; the Japanese against the Americans, the Americans against the Japanese, the French against the English, etc. Continue your prating of new “Basle Manifestos” on the tactics to be employed against imperialistic wars (patterned on the Basle manifesto of 1912), ye Knights of the 2nd and 21⁄2 International, and pacifist petty-bourgeois and pedants of the world! The Bolshevik revolution has rescued the first one hundred million people from imperialistic wars and an imperialistic world. The revolution to come will rescue entire humanity.

Our last problem, the most important and difficult one yet to be solved, is economic reconstruction, the laying of an economic foundation for the new socialist structure to be erected in place of the old feudalism, now completely destroyed, and capitalism, half destroyed. It is in this most difficult and important work that we met with the most failures and made the most mistakes. And indeed, how could we have begun this task, without precedent in the entire world without failures or mistakes! We have begun it however. We are working on it. Just now we are correcting many of our mistakes through our “new economic policy”; we are now learning how the socialist structure can be put up without error, in a land where the small peasantry is in the majority.

Carried away by the wave of enthusiasm, after having roused first the political and then the military enthusiasm of the people, we expected to realize the same success on the economic field that we had obtained in the political and military fields. We counted upon, or perhaps it is better to say we intended without sufficient calculation to set in motion, by means of the direct command of the proletarian state, the state production and the communist method of distributing the country products of the small peasant. Life has shown us our mistake. A series of steps: State capitalism and Socialism were necessary in preparing us for the transition to Communism. This required many years of work. Not directly through enthusiasm, but with the aid of the great enthusiasm born of the revolution, the first firm bridge is being built, which, in a land of small peasantry, leads from state capitalism to socialism. In no other way can we reach our goal, and lead millions upon millions of people to Communism.

And we, who, in the last 3 or 4 years, through the sudden changes of front (when necessary), had learned rather much, began to study the new economic policy, the new change of front, with greater zeal, attention and patience (though still not zealously, not attentively, not patiently enough). The proletarian state must become a careful, cautious and clever “proprietor”, a future “wholesale dealer otherwise it cannot enhance the economic value of the small peasant’s land. Under existing conditions, side by side with the (at present) still capitalistic West, there is now no other way of reaching Communism. A wholesale dealer is as far from Communism as heaven is from earth. But this is one of the contradictions which in practice leads from the economic management of the small peasant, through State capitalism to socialism. It is individual interest which increases production. We must effect an increase in production at all costs. Wholesale trade unites millions of small peasants, absorbs them, binds them, and brings them one step forward, i.e., to the various forms of association and unity in production proper. We have already begun the necessary alterations in our economic policy. We have already met with partial success in this field; small indeed, but incontestable nevertheless. We are only graduating from the preparatory school of this new “science”. We are being promoted into the next class, determined to study with perseverance, and to check up every step through practical experience, without fearing or hesitating to start the work from the beginning again as many times as will be necessary for the finding and correcting of our errors, and a careful study of their significance. We will complete the course, though the economic and diplomatic relations of the world render it more difficult than we desired. No matter what the cost, no matter how sharp the pain, the misery, the hunger, the destruction of the transition period, we shall not lose courage, and we shall bring our work to a successful consummation.

Moscow, October 14th, 1921.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. The ECCI also published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 monthly in German, French, Russian, and English. Unlike, Inprecor, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecor are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1921/v01n05-nov-05-1921-inprecor.pdf