During World War I, the international situation was changing and social problems were complicated. In 1916, due to the needs of the development of the situation, Professor Lenin stopped his professional philosophical research and turned to the study of the era of imperialism, proletarian revolution and the state, and made contributions to the development of historical materialism. However, Lenin's contribution did not lie in basic theory, but in using the Marxist worldview and historical perspective to study the new era of imperialism and drawing a series of new conclusions, thereby pushing Marxism to a new stage.
(1) Put forward the theory of imperialism
The development of the world economic and political situation and the outbreak of world war made the Marxists at that time have to re-understand the nature of the times and the revolutionary situation. Before the outbreak of the war, many theorists, including bourgeois thinkers, were aware of the emergence of imperialism, but what exactly is imperialism? is a problem yet to be solved.
Kautsky believes that imperialism is nothing more than a policy of capitalism to seize colonies and spheres of influence, and denies the connection between imperialism and monopoly capital. In his view, the so-called "ultra-imperialist stage" in which "international joint financial capital jointly exploits the world instead of the mutual struggle of various countries' financial capital" is conceivable.
Lenin believed that this view failed to grasp the essence of imperialism and concealed the profound contradictions between and within imperialist countries. Lenin collected a large amount of material, and after research, wrote the book "Imperialism is the Highest Stage of Capitalism". He pointed out: "Imperialism is a special historical stage of capitalism. This feature is divided into three aspects: (1) Imperialism is monopoly capitalism; (2) Imperialism is parasitic or decadent capitalism; (3) Imperialism is dying capitalism."
Lenin profoundly analyzed the internal and external contradictions of imperialism as monopoly capitalism and estimated the world The development trend of the world economic and political situation, and finally concluded: "Imperialism is the eve of the proletarian social revolution." Lenin's "On Imperialism" is the continuation and development of Marx's "Capital" in the new era - the era of imperialism. It has epoch-making significance in the history of Marxism and political economics, and is also of great significance in enriching the content of historical materialism.
Judging from the current existence of capitalism, Lenin’s estimate at that time was not fully realized. For example, it was said to be dying, but it is still full of vitality today. This shows the historical limitations of "On Imperialism", but this does not detract from its scientific nature and importance. Lenin did not predict the exact date of the demise of capitalism, and later practice proved that Lenin's revelation of the monopoly nature of imperialism was correct, and the era of proletarian revolution had arrived.
(2) The theory that socialism can first win in one country or several countries
Since the founding of Marxism, Marx, Engels and their comrades and believers have a common understanding: socialist revolution cannot occur in a certain country alone. It "will not be a revolution in just one country, but a revolution that will occur simultaneously in all civilized countries, at least in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Germany. In each of these countries, the communist revolution will develop faster or slower, depending on whether this country has more developed industry, more wealth, and a relatively large amount of productivity."
However, during the period of imperialism, especially under the historical conditions of World War I, Lenin used materialist dialectics to analyze the economic and political situation and revolutionary issues at that time, and discovered the law of uneven economic and political development of imperialism. Lenin's principle that the unity of opposites is relative and struggle is absolute includes the idea that balance is relative and imbalance is absolute. It can be said that the economic and political development of various countries is unbalanced in any era, but after the emergence of monopoly capital, the imbalance has intensified.
With the support of monopoly capital, relatively backward imperialist countries can quickly surpass the old imperialist countries in their economic and political power. One result of this imbalance is imperialist war . The second result is the emergence of weak links, which makes it possible for a country, especially a country with a low economic and cultural level but sharp social contradictions, to launch a socialist revolution.
Therefore, Lenin said: "The development of capitalism is extremely uneven in various countries. And it can only be like this under commodity production. From this we draw an inevitable conclusion: socialism cannot win in all countries at the same time. It will first be in one or a few countries Victory within the country." ① This was a creative breakthrough in the traditional view in the new era. It was under the guidance of this idea that the Russian people resolutely launched the October Socialist Revolution after winning the victory of the democratic revolution, and achieved victory, ushering in a new era in the history of human society.
(3) Put forward the Marxist theory on the state and revolution
The works of Marx and Engels contain very rich remarks about the state, revolution and dictatorship, but they are not concentrated and systematically discussed. Before the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, because the revisionists had a lot of distortions of these issues, and the approaching revolution required systematic elucidation of these issues, Lenin had planned to write such a book, but he only made some preparatory work and started writing it after the February Revolution. The last chapter was not completed because of the approaching October Revolution. This is Lenin's famous book "State and Revolution."
It systematically discusses a series of issues such as the origin and nature of the country, class struggle and social revolution, the changes and development of the national system, proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship, the demise of the country and the transition to communism, and makes theoretical preparations for the socialist revolution in Russia.
Lenin did not simply repeat the views of Marx and Engels, but wrote this book under the guidance of Marxism and on the basis of summarizing the revolutionary experience of the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The unfinished last chapter was originally intended to specifically discuss the experience of the 1905 Revolution and the February Revolution in Russia.
Lenin regarded the state as a special social phenomenon. It is the product of the historical development of human society to a certain stage. It has its own process of emergence, development and destruction. It is not consistent with human society. Specifically, it emerged with the emergence of class society and , and will also disappear with the elimination of class society. The traditional view is that the state is a neutral organization that transcends class antagonisms and is the state of all citizens.
Lenin believed that although the state adopts a neutral stance and plays the role of easing class contradictions, in essence, "the state is the product and expression of irreconcilable class contradictions. The state is born in places, times and conditions where class contradictions cannot be reconciled objectively." "The state is an organ of class rule, an organ for one class to oppress another class, and to establish an 'order' to suppress class conflicts and legitimize and solidify this oppression."
Therefore, the country must be class-based, must be the country of the economically dominant class, and must be the dictatorship of the ruling class. There have been three types of class societies in history, and correspondingly there have been three types of exploiter countries, namely slave-owner countries, feudal-lord countries and bourgeois countries. No matter what kind of political system these countries adopt, whether it is monarchy, oligarchy or democracy, it cannot change the essence of the dictatorship of the exploiting class. So, how do you view socialist countries ?
Lenin believed that the socialist country, that is, the dictatorship of the proletariat, is not a country in the general sense, but a special kind of country. Since the state is a tool of class oppression, why should the state be retained in a socialist society ? Lenin pointed out that the proletariat is facing the most powerful class in history, that is, the bourgeoisie; it is the most complete country in history, that is, the bourgeois dictatorship .
Therefore, the proletariat can only overthrow it with the help of violence, which is the proletarian revolution; and after overthrowing it, it can only use the rule of violence to completely eliminate the remaining forces of the bourgeoisie within a long period of time, and gradually transition from socialism to communism, which is the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Lenin quoted Marx's famous assertion: "Between capitalist society and communist society, there is a period of revolutionary transformation from the former to the latter. Corresponding to this period is also a political transition period, in which the country can only be a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."
This transition period is socialist society, that is, the lower stage of communism. The transitional nature of socialist society, in Lenin's view, is particularly reflected in the system of distribution according to work and the state. He followed Marx's terminology and called the former "bourgeois rights" because it embodies the equality of equivalent exchange in the commodity economy; he himself called the latter a "bourgeois state, but without a bourgeoisie" because it was learned by the proletariat from the bourgeoisie out of the need for dictatorship.
Therefore, when the transition period ends and society enters the advanced stage of communism, distribution according to work will be replaced by distribution according to need , and the country will also lose the value of its existence and tend to die. But this requires a high degree of development of productive forces, which cannot be achieved in a short period of time.
Lenin said: “The economic basis for the complete demise of the state is the high development of communism. At that time, the opposition between mental labor and manual labor has disappeared, and therefore one of the most important sources of inequality in modern society has also disappeared, and this source lies solely in the conversion of the means of production into public property and the expropriation of capital. The family must not be eliminated immediately."
Lenin's theory on state and revolution more specifically and systematically outlines the development process of human society, especially the development path after the victory of the socialist revolution. It has important guiding significance for the realization of proletarian dictatorship and socialist construction in Russia and other countries. Although human history has gone through a very complicated and tortuous process, in general, Lenin's theory is still correct and still has important practical significance.
Since the emergence of the Bolsheviks in 1903, Marxist theory has been brewing new breakthroughs, heralding the emergence of a new stage of Marxism. This is Leninism - the Marxism of the 20th century. It creatively applied the general principles of Marxism to the 20th century, especially to Russia, and proposed a systematic theory to solve the social development problems of the imperialist era and Russia, including theories about the nature of imperialism and the era, the nature and countermeasures of World War I, the path of socialist revolution, the strategy and tactics of the Russian revolution, the transition from capitalism to communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialist democracy , party building, etc. Most of these theories were put forward during the First World War.
The philosophical foundation of Marxism is dialectical materialism and historical materialism. However, in the era of Marx and Engels, the status of historical materialism in Marxism was clear, but the status of dialectical materialism was not established. The role of dialectical materialism in Marxism was established. The guiding position is Lenin's "Only criticism". "Philosophical Notes" is the continuation and development of "Only criticism". Although it was not published publicly at that time, it has played an active role through Lenin's other works, consolidating and strengthening the status of dialectical materialism, and making Leninism firmly based on dialectical materialism and historical materialism.
"Weipi" and "Philosophical Notes" have also made great contributions to the construction and development of the Marxist philosophy discipline. This is mainly reflected in the principles and prototypes of the scientific system of dialectical materialism proposed by Lenin. These two books opened up a new stage of Marxist philosophy.
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