The group

As some of you know, I'm currently hung up in a study of Capital, with another comrade, and we're only at chapter 3 and 4 right now. So, I won't be able to chime in at December/January as I no longer have a huge amount of time.

But I joined regardless as I would like to see how this turns out

I think the chapter take is a good base of approach. However, some chapters tend to be huge, so it might make sense to split some up to chewable sizes.

For folks' information:

Introduction: ~38 pages
Chapter 1- "The Merger of Socialism and the Worker Movement": ~70 pages
Chapter 2- A Russian Erfurtian: ~68 pages
Chapter 3- The Iskra Period: ~58 pages
Chapter 4- Russian Foes of Erfurtianism: ~62 pages
Chapter 5- A Feud Within Russian Erfurtianism: ~56 pages
Chapter 6- The Purposive Worker and the Spread of Awareness: ~52 pages
Chapter 7- Lenin's Erfurtian Drama: ~46 pages
Chapter 8- The Organisational Question: Lenin and the Underground: ~56 pages
Chapter 9- After the Second Congress: ~65 pages
Conclusion: ~7 pages

This isn't including the annotations section or the translation of WITBD? itself, but each chapter of Lih's work is about 60-65 pages, which doesn't seem too daunting at least by itself.

For folks' information:

Introduction: ~38 pages
Chapter 1- "The Merger of Socialism and the Worker Movement": ~70 pages
Chapter 2- A Russian Erfurtian: ~68 pages
Chapter 3- The Iskra Period: ~58 pages
Chapter 4- Russian Foes of Erfurtianism: ~62 pages
Chapter 5- A Feud Within Russian Erfurtianism: ~56 pages
Chapter 6- The Purposive Worker and the Spread of Awareness: ~52 pages
Chapter 7- Lenin's Erfurtian Drama: ~46 pages
Chapter 8- The Organisational Question: Lenin and the Underground: ~56 pages
Chapter 9- After the Second Congress: ~65 pages
Conclusion: ~7 pages

This isn't including the annotations section or the translation of WITBD? itself, but each chapter of Lih's work is about 60-65 pages, which doesn't seem too daunting at least by itself.

Oh, that's actually better than I first thought. I seem to remember a lot bigger chapters. This is indeed doable.

I have been thinking about buying this.
It is quite expensive.
I have heard some good things about it but I'd like to know before I spent 40 bucks, what new things does this book really bring?

I have been thinking about buying this.
It is quite expensive.
I have heard some good things about it but I'd like to know before I spent 40 bucks, what new things does this book really bring?

In summary it brings a new translation of WITBD and explains a lot of context on Marxist strategy of that time. Especially the latter makes the book so valuable, since this has been forgotten by the left and replaced by a completely different mythology (that of WITBD as a "foundation stone" of Bolshevism).

As such we relearn what the available strategies were by German Social-Democracy and how close Lenin was politically to Kautsky before 1914. Lih furthermore argues that Lenin remained true to the teachings of Kautsky until his death, from his point of view it was Kautsky who reneged from these since 1909-1914 (hence "renegade"). By then understanding the German strategy, we can rediscover what Lenin was all about.

For a more thorough overview, I'll refer to this three-part from 2009:
- VI Lenin and the influence of Kautsky
- Lenin, Kautsky, and 1914
- The four wagers of Lenin in 1917

Well, quite simply, it puts the contents of What is to be done within its historical context. I'll describe what that means in detail.

Firstly is the issue of translations. There are many key phrases such as "conspiracy" "professional revolutionary" and "consciousness" that, in Lih's opinion, were not translated correctly. He makes an argument as to the correct way to interpret certain phrases of Lenin.

Secondly, there are many people, organizations, places, etc referenced in What is to be done. These are described and placed in their proper context. Furthermore, the thrust of Lenin' argument is placed within the greater of the international socialist movement. Typically Lenin has been associated with the left wing of the Second International, this is argued against(with ample evidence).

There were a few different political trends going on within Russian and international socialism. Firstly, there was the revisionist Bernsteinite trend. This is something that Lenin explicitly combats in WITBD. Another is economism, something that Luxemburg was guilty of despite not being referenced in the work. There were two trends within Menshevism: one which was merely economist(this would become the nucleus of the Menshevik-Internationalists), and one which combined impotent economism with revisionism(this would form the nucleus of the Menshevik-Defencists).

Lih places Lenin's politics and arguments within the greater context of the debates and controversy in the socialist movement. In many ways WITBD merely echoes what was going within the SPD: the revolutionary centre combatted the economism of the ultra-left as represented by people like Luxemburg, as well as the revisionism of Bernstein. What went wrong in that party is that it began orienting itself to appeal to the petit-bourgeoisie, and the class basis of the party shifted. Revisionism and reformism are the natural tendencies of the petit-bourgeoisie.

In essence, WITBD argues for a class party that avoids the corruption of class alien elements(bernsteinism/reformism) and the impotency of economism. What is meant by the vanguard party is merely that the party is composed of those sections of the working class that have recognized the need for revolution, have agreed with the party's program, and joined forces with it. The idea of "professional revolutionaries" and the like is pure myth, taken from what I like to call "The Iskra Legend".

In the earliest stages of the party, when it was totally outlawed, most agitation and organization needed to be done clandestinely. As such, the party at the time tended to consist primarily of the most dedicated and class conscious people. Such an organization cannot be the basis for revolution; it's just a sect. They never intended for it to be, however. The main goal of party at this point was to build its forces and essentially force greater freedom for them to mobilize politically. It was only with this freedom that the party as a genuine party rather than a sect could be forged.

I call it the Iskra Legend because it looks to the party as it was organized during the Iskra period, and argues that this is in essence Leninism, a thesis that is dead wrong and can only be reached by entirely ripping everything out of its context. The primary purpose of Lih's book is to place things back in their context.

The most vigorous proponents and defenders of the Iskra Legend are some Left Communists and some Trotskyists, but there are many Marxist-Leninists which embrace the idea as well. It's a trend that I think should be exposed and engaged with.

Orthodox Marxism-Leninism does not have a solid position either way on the matter, although Stalin sometimes defended the central ideas of what is put forth in WITBD as opposed to the revisionist Iskra Legend.

Here is what Lenin himself had to say on the matter:

The basic mistake made by people who polemicise with What is to be done? at the present time is that they tear this production completely out of a specific historical context, out of a specific, and by now long past, period in the development of our party.

I highly recommend this book. It's true that it's a bit pricey, but it's definitely worth it and I think gives activists a powerful lesson in how to build a genuine working class party rather than [yet another] sterile sect.

In general, I would say the biggest problem the left is facing is that the dominant politics combine the worst aspects of left(economism, sectism) and right(reformism and class collaborationism) opportunism. It seems things have come full circle, as this is exactly what WITBD was arguing against, despite it being hailed as the foundation of Leninism by people espousing the very same politics that Lenin denounced.

Just a housekeeping message: Since Droso lost interest, I'll now be maintaining this group.

Carry on.

Welp, this died quickly...

Welp, this died quickly...

Well, is anyone reading it currently?

Just ask questions.

Just ordered the book. Should be getting here in a few weeks.

Just ordered the book. Should be getting here in a few weeks.

Weeks? What slowpoke service is that?

Weeks? What slowpoke service is that?

bol.com

bol.com

Hehe, ok.

Anyway, we should do a real life reading group then!

I got my copy not too long ago. I have other stuff I'm reading but I have a long trip coming up soon that I'm going to start reading it on.

Hehe, ok.

Anyway, we should do a real life reading group then!

Yeah, we should.