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Lenin and Internationalism

Marxist Theory · 1918-03-07

Core Argument

The article argues that proletarian internationalism is not a secondary or sentimental feature of Marxism but its essential foundation, rooted in the material reality of capitalism as a world system. Lenin's entire political trajectory — from his earliest writings through the October Revolution and the founding of the Third International — was defined by the conviction that the Russian Revolution could only survive as the beginning of world revolution. The central claim is that the Stalinist theory of "Socialism in One Country", first advanced in 1924, represented a fundamental break with Leninism and Marxism itself, reflecting the material interests of a conservative bureaucracy rather than any genuine development of revolutionary theory. The article positions the defeat of the German revolution in 1923 as the decisive turning point that enabled this bureaucratic degeneration.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on several interconnected Marxist concepts:

Uneven and combined development — Trotsky's formulation is deployed to explain why backward Russia became the "weakest link" of imperialism. The grafting of advanced capitalist industry onto pre-capitalist social relations produced a uniquely explosive combination: a concentrated, combative working class confronting a weak bourgeoisie, making the working class the only force capable of completing even the bourgeois-democratic tasks.

The international character of capitalism — The argument grounds internationalism not in moral solidarity but in the objective structure of capital. Capitalism has created a world market, world division of labour, and a worldwide working class. Imperialism — monopoly capitalism on a world scale — transforms the nation state from a progressive vehicle of capitalist development into a fetter on the productive forces. The First World War is presented as the explosive manifestation of this contradiction.

The dialectics of revolution and counter-revolution — The article traces how the ebb and flow of the revolutionary wave after 1917 shaped the internal evolution of the Soviet state. The defeat of revolution in Germany (1919-1923) is not treated as an external setback but as the material precondition for the rise of the bureaucracy and the theoretical betrayal of internationalism.

The critique of opportunism — The article situates itself within Lenin's struggle against the social-chauvinist betrayal of the Second International in 1914, and later against the ultra-left "March Action" of 1921. The United Front tactic — "marching separately, but striking together" — is presented as the correct Leninist method for winning the masses, in contrast to both sectarian adventurism and reformist tail-ending.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in 2019, but its argument speaks directly to the current conjuncture in several ways:

The crisis of the nation state — The return of great-power rivalry, trade wars, and the breakdown of multilateral institutions echoes the imperialist rivalries Lenin analysed. The article's insistence that capitalism's world market is fundamentally at odds with the nation-state form provides a theoretical lens for understanding Brexit, Trump's protectionism, and the EU's internal fractures.

The limits of "progressive nationalism" — The article's polemic against "Socialism in One Country" has direct contemporary relevance for left-nationalist currents that seek to build socialism within national borders. The argument that the material basis for socialism does not exist in a single country, let alone a backward one, challenges both reformist strategies and "left patriotic" positions that have gained traction in various countries.

The degeneration of mass parties — The trajectory from revolutionary internationalism to bureaucratic nationalism traced in the article offers a historical parallel to the evolution of many left and labour parties today, from Syriza to the Labour Party under Starmer, where initial radicalism gives way to accommodation with the existing order.

The question of revolutionary organisation — The article's emphasis on the need for a genuinely international revolutionary party, schooled by argument rather than command, speaks to the contemporary fragmentation of the Marxist left and the challenge of building organisations capable of intervening in a new period of crisis.

Where the Argument Continues

The article leaves several threads that are developed elsewhere in the IDOM corpus:

The theory of the degenerated workers' state — The article mentions the rise of the bureaucracy but does not elaborate the theoretical framework for understanding the nature of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death. This is developed in numerous IDOM articles on Stalinism and the nature of the USSR, as well as in Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed.

The United Front tactic — The article references the tactic but does not explore its contemporary application. IDOM has produced extensive material on the united front in relation to Corbynism, Syriza, and the French NUPES, as well as Against the Stream episodes analysing how Marxists should relate to mass reformist parties.

The German revolution of 1923 — The article treats this as a decisive missed opportunity. IDOM has published detailed historical analyses of the German revolution, including the role of Stalin and Zinoviev in sabotaging the uprising, and the lessons for revolutionary strategy today.

The dissolution of the Comintern — The article references this as a coda but does not explore the subsequent history of attempts to rebuild a revolutionary international. This connects to IDOM's ongoing work on the history of the Fourth International and the contemporary task of building a new International.

Connections

Primary texts — Lenin's Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, The State and Revolution, and his writings on the national question; Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed, The History of the Russian Revolution, and The Permanent Revolution; Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto.

IDOM articles — The article should be read alongside IDOM's pieces on the national question, the theory of permanent revolution, and the history of the Comintern. The critique of "Socialism in One Country" is developed in multiple articles on Stalinism and the degeneration of the Soviet Union.

Against the Stream episodes — Episodes on the united front, the nature of the Soviet Union, and the contemporary relevance of Lenin's internationalism provide the audio counterpart to this article's argument.

Broader Marxist tradition — Rosa Luxemburg's The Crisis of German Social Democracy (the Junius Pamphlet) and her writings on the national question; James Connolly's Socialism and Nationalism; the writings of the Left Opposition, particularly Trotsky's 1928 critique of the Comintern's rightward turn.

Key Quotes

  1. "Marxism is based on internationalism or it is nothing. This approach has nothing to do with sentimentality, but is rooted in the international character of capitalism itself."

  2. "At all events, under all conceivable circumstances, if the German Revolution does not come, we are doomed." (Lenin, 7 March 1918)

  3. "The material basis for socialism did not exist in one country, let alone backward Russia. Only world revolution could save the Russian Revolution, as Lenin repeatedly explained on numerous occasions."

  4. "Reflecting at the time, perhaps unconsciously, the interests of the reactionary and conservative bureaucracy which was just beginning to raise itself above the Soviet masses, Stalin for the first time in 1924 came forward with the utopian and anti-Leninist theory of 'socialism in one country'."

  5. "The Third International took over the work of the Second International, cut off its opportunistic, social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petit-bourgeois rubbish, and began to carry into effect the dictatorship of the proletariat." (Lenin, to the founding Congress of the Comintern)

  6. "The separate Communist Parties under Stalinist domination became simply border guards for the Kremlin. As Trotsky had brilliantly forecast in 1928, the adoption of the theory of 'socialism in one country' would result in the reformist and nationalist degeneration of the Communist Parties."