What is to be Done? - Marxists Internet Archive

What is to be Done?

Vladimir Lenin

1902

Contents

Notes on the Text

i

Preface

ii

1

DOGMATISM AND ��FREEDOM OF CRITICISM

1

1.1

WHAT DOES ��FREEDOM OF CRITICISM�� MEAN? . . . . . . . . . . .

1

1.2

THE NEW ADVOCATES OF ��FREEDOM OF CRITICISM�� . . . . . . .

3

1.3

CRITICISM IN RUSSIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

1.4

ENGELS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE THEORETICAL STRUGGLE 11

2

3

THE SPONTANEITY OF THE MASSES AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF

THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS

16

2.1

THE BEGINNING OF THE SPONTANEOUS UPSURGE . . . . . . . . . 17

2.2

BOWING TO SPONTANEITY. RABOCHAYA MYSL . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.3

THE SELF-EMANCIPATION GROUP AND RABOCHEYE DYELO . . . . 25

TRADE-UNIONIST POLITICS AND SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC POLITICS

32

3.1

POLITICAL AGITATION AND ITS RESTRICTION BY THE ECONOMISTS 33

3.2

HOW MARTYNOV RENDERED PLEKHANOV MORE PROFOUND . . 39

3.3

POLITICAL EXPOSURES AND ��TRAINING IN REVOLUTIONARY

ACTIVITY�� . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3.4

WHAT IS THERE IN COMMON BETWEEN ECONOMISM AND TERRORISM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2

3

4

5

CONTENTS

3.5

THE WORKING CLASS AS VANGUARD FIGHTER FOR DEMOCRACY 47

3.6

ONCE MORE ��SLANDERERS��, ONCE MORE ��MYSTIFIERS�� . . . . . 58

THE PRIMITIVENESS OF THE ECONOMISTS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES

62

4.1

WHAT IS PRIMITIVENESS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

4.2

PRIMITIVENESS AND ECONOMISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

4.3

ORGANISATION OF WORKERS AND ORGANISATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

4.4

THE SCOPE OF ORGANISATIONAL WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

4.5

��CONSPIRATORIAL�� ORGANISATION AND ��DEMOCRATISM�� . . . 85

4.6

LOCAL AND ALL-RUSSIA WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

THE ��PLAN�� FOR AN ALL-RUSSIA POLITICAL NEWSPAPER

98

5.1

WHO WAS OFFENDED BY THE ARTICLE ��WHERE TO BEGIN�� . . . 99

5.2

CAN A NEWSPAPER BE A COLLECTIVE ORGANISER? . . . . . . . . 102

5.3

WHAT TYPE OF ORGANISATION DO WE REQUIRE? . . . . . . . . . 110

Endnotes

115

4

CONTENTS

Notes on the Text

What is to be Done?

Vladimir Lenin

First published: 1902

Transcription by: Tim Delaney

This printable edition produced by: Chris Russell for the Marxists Internet Archive

Please note: The text may make reference to page numbers within this document. These

page numbers were maintained during the transcription process to remain faithful to the

original edition and not this version and, therefore, are likely to be inaccurate. This statement

applies only to the text itself and not any indices or tables of contents which have been

reproduced for this edition.

Lenin��s key work on Party objectives and organization. Lenin argues that while capitalism

predisposes the workers to the acceptance of socialism it does not spontaneously make

them conscious Socialists. The proletariat of its own can achieve only ��trade-union consciousness.�� Accordingly, it was necessary to institute a ��party of a new type�� capable of

imbuing the working-class with revolutionary consciousness. This is the origin of Lenin��s

famous theory of the Party as ��vanguard of the proletariat��. He conceived of the vanguard

as a highly centralized body organized around a core of experienced professional revolutionaries. Only such a party could succeed in the conditions of illegality prevailing in tsarist

Russia at the time. The book also contains an attack on Revisionism.

i

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