By Ernesto Estévez Rams on January 21, 2024
Lenin Park, Havana, photo: Marcel Theodre
On the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin
Revolutions are not a bed of roses, they are made against the tide, facing the superior power, the apparent forces of the revolutionary changes. What is astonishing about these telluric processes is that they overturn all predictions of those who, considering themselves in a state of grace, pose as prophets or doomsayers of the apocalypse, from terraces where they contemplate the peaceful afternoons. In the October Revolution, while some were engaged in the talk of revolution, Lenin was engaged in organizing it.
Revolutions do not arise by spontaneous generation, the bourgeoisie must be defeated in unequal combat. At that time, in the terrible confusion of tendencies, forces and parties, some started from the impossibility of achieving it if it was not simultaneously in an operation, apparently global, which was impracticable. In the October Revolution, while some appealed to dogmatic interpretations of what was possible, Lenin devoted himself to crowning it.
Revolutions face colossal forces from outside. The international bourgeoisie has a cross-border sense of class in which it is never confused. It identifies at once who is the terrible enemy against its unjust order of things, and against him it concentrates all its restorative forces. In the October Revolution, while some did not abandon the vanity of the villager, Lenin concentrated on defeating external aggression.
Revolutions impose tremendous decisions. The state of siege makes inevitable sacrifices of which, their immediate comprehension is not evident, their effectiveness is not guaranteed beforehand, and the horizon of victory is continuously blurred. In the October Revolution, faced with the imminence of defeat on the world war front, Lenin made the most terrible pact before the German troops. Faced with the outrage of some who shouted that the revolution was finished, Lenin realized that this was the only way to save it.
Revolutions impose a re-evaluation of circumstances. Reality is that which persists when we refuse to recognize it. There is no dogma that can withstand the march of events. In the October Revolution, when reality imposed the need for change, Lenin adopted the economic changes that would guarantee to keep going. The nep called him, and he did not hesitate to argue the need to reinstate certain capitalist conditions to save socialism. While others shouted that the days of Soviet power were numbered, Lenin patiently adapted what needed to be done to the changing conditions of reality. Without succumbing to the doomsayers of restoration, nor to the dogmatists of pure illusion.
One hundred years after his death, who is afraid of Lenin? It is not the peoples, it is not the revolutionaries, it is not the communists. Here in Cuba, we celebrate him in the multiple immensity of his stature.
Source: Granma, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English