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The greatest event in human history Lenin and the Russian Revolution

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that the October 1917 insurrection was not a spontaneous uprising or a conspiratorial coup, but the conscious, planned conquest of power by the Russian working class under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. The central thesis is that the success of the revolution depended on the correct application of the "art of insurrection" — the ability to judge the precise moment when objective conditions and subjective readiness converge — and that this was embodied in the strategic collaboration between Lenin and Trotsky. The article further claims that the opposition of Kamenev and Zinoviev represented a fundamental political collapse: a retreat from revolutionary Marxism into a parliamentary perspective that would have condemned the revolution to defeat. The insurrection's bloodless character and the subsequent establishment of the Council of People's Commissars are presented as proof that the Bolsheviks had correctly assessed the balance of class forces.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on several core Marxist concepts:

  • The art of insurrection: Trotsky's formulation that insurrection is not a military technique but a political calculation of the correlation of forces, timing, and mass consciousness. The article treats this as a science, not a gamble.

  • The party as instrument of revolution: The Bolshevik Party is presented not as a vanguard in the abstract, but as the organised expression of the most advanced section of the working class, capable of generalising the lessons of the mass movement and providing strategic direction.

  • The critique of parliamentary cretinism: Lenin's polemic against Kamenev and Zinoviev is grounded in the Marxist rejection of the idea that the Constituent Assembly could resolve the crisis. The article reproduces Lenin's argument that the choice was not between insurrection and parliament, but between a dictatorship of the Kornilovites and a dictatorship of the proletariat.

  • The link between national and international revolution: Lenin's insistence that the Russian revolution would "have all proletarian Europe on their side" situates the October insurrection within the Marxist tradition's understanding that socialism cannot be built in one country in isolation — a position the RCI continues to defend against Stalinist distortions.

The article sits firmly within the Trotskyist tradition, emphasising the centrality of the Bolshevik-Leninist party, the role of the soviets as organs of dual power, and the necessity of breaking with reformism. It explicitly refutes the Stalinist falsification that downgraded Trotsky's role in 1917.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is published on the 107th anniversary of the October Revolution, but its relevance is not merely commemorative. The conjuncture it addresses is the crisis of working-class leadership in the present period:

  • The crisis of reformism: The article's detailed account of Kamenev and Zinoviev's capitulation to a parliamentary perspective mirrors the RCI's critique of contemporary reformist parties and trade union bureaucracies that seek to contain mass struggles within the framework of bourgeois democracy. The argument that "there is no way out except a dictatorship of the Kornilovites or a dictatorship of the proletariat" is presented as a universal strategic lesson.

  • The question of timing: Lenin's insistence that "a few days, or even hours, can mean the difference between victory and defeat" speaks directly to the RCI's analysis of revolutionary situations today — in France, Sri Lanka, or elsewhere — where the failure to strike at the decisive moment leads to demoralisation and defeat.

  • The fight against opportunism within the revolutionary party: The article's treatment of the Kamenev-Zinoviev opposition, and Lenin's demand for their expulsion, is intended as a warning against centrist vacillation in the present. The RCI's own internal struggles against what it terms "opportunist" currents are implicitly justified by this historical precedent.

  • The rehabilitation of Trotsky: By foregrounding Stalin's 1924 reversal — from crediting Trotsky as the principal organiser of the insurrection to denying his role — the article reinforces the RCI's ongoing polemic against Stalinist historiography and its contemporary heirs.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is an extract from the second volume of In Defence of Lenin by Alan Woods and Rob Sewell, published by Wellred Books. The argument continues in several directions:

  • The pre-history of the insurrection: The first volume of In Defence of Lenin covers the earlier period of Bolshevik party-building, the 1905 revolution, and the struggle against economism and Menshevism. Readers seeking the full arc of Lenin's strategic development should start there.

  • The post-revolutionary period: The article ends with the formation of the Council of People's Commissars. The subsequent volumes of the biography (or other IDOM articles) address the challenges of the Civil War, War Communism, the NEP, the rise of the bureaucracy, and the degeneration of the Soviet state under Stalin.

  • The art of insurrection as a general theory: Trotsky's own writings on this subject — particularly his History of the Russian Revolution and his essay "The Lessons of October" — are the canonical texts. The RCI's Against the Stream podcast has produced episodes on the relevance of these lessons to contemporary uprisings.

  • The struggle against Stalinism: The article's brief treatment of Stalin's falsification of history is a thread that runs through the entire IDOM corpus, most fully developed in Woods' Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution and the ongoing series on the degeneration of the USSR.

Connections

  • Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution: The definitive Marxist account of 1917, from which the article's understanding of the soviets, dual power, and the art of insurrection is drawn.

  • Trotsky, The Lessons of October: A polemic written in 1924 against the emerging Stalinist bureaucracy, defending the Bolshevik strategy of 1917 and attacking the "right-wing" opposition of Kamenev and Zinoviev — the same figures criticised in this article.

  • John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World: The eyewitness account quoted extensively in the article, recommended by Lenin himself.

  • Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: A Menshevik participant's memoir, used here as a source precisely because its author was hostile to Bolshevism, lending credibility to his descriptions of the insurrection's smoothness and Lenin's determination.

  • Rosa Luxemburg, "The Russian Revolution": Her famous phrase "They dared!" is quoted approvingly, though the article does not engage with her subsequent criticisms of Bolshevik policy — a tension the RCI addresses elsewhere.

  • Alan Woods and Rob Sewell, In Defence of Lenin (Volumes 1 and 2): The immediate source text, providing the full biographical and strategic context.

  • IDOM articles on the current conjuncture: The RCI's analyses of strikes, protests, and political crises in France, Britain, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere routinely invoke the lessons of 1917 as a strategic benchmark.

Key Quotes

  1. "There are moments in which a few days, or even hours, can mean the difference between victory and defeat. This is just as true in a revolution as in normal warfare. The masses could not be kept permanently in a state of expectation. Further prevarication could lead to a fatal loss of impetus. The precise calculation of the right moment to launch a decisive offensive is the essence of what Trotsky called the art of insurrection."

  2. "Let us forget all that was being and has been demonstrated by the Bolsheviks a hundred times, all that the six months' history of our revolution has proved, namely, that there is no way out, that there is no objective way out and can be none except a dictatorship of the Kornilovites or a dictatorship of the proletariat." (Lenin, quoted in the article)

  3. "No self-respecting party can tolerate strike-breaking and blacklegs in its midst." (Lenin, quoted in the article, on the public opposition of Kamenev and Zinoviev)

  4. "To those who have left, and to those who suggest it to us, we must say: You are miserable bankrupts, your role is over; go where you ought to be – into the dustbin of history." (Trotsky, addressing the Mensheviks and SRs who walked out of the Congress of Soviets)

  5. "The transition from the state of illegality, being driven in every direction, to power – is too rough. It makes one dizzy." (Lenin to Trotsky, as the insurrection succeeded, quoted in the article)

  6. "We shall now proceed to construct the Socialist order!" (Lenin's first words to the Congress of Soviets, as recorded by John Reed)