BourgeoisieCapitalismCommunismMarxRussian RevolutionSocialismWorkers MovementWorking Class

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM 275 274 THE CLASS STRUGGLE ers to understand and take to heart the theories of the Russian Revolution. On that account, one of the first duties in the proletarian struggle for freedom is to free the teachings of Communism from all impurities. This can be done very easily if we learn to understand historically the development of the separate forgeries of Communism, if we learn to know the conditions under which they arose.
The Falsification of Communism The theory of Marx, the outlines of which were created in the 50 of the preceding century, was not disseminated among wide circles until the 80 When in the 60 and 70 the German workingclass movement was started under the leadership of Ferdinand Lassalle, the workers were not acquainted with a single one of Marx writings. The ideas of Communism became familiar to them through the small, inflammatory pamphlets of Lassalle, in which the theory of Communism, if not entirely falsified, was yet very peculiarly presented. Ferdinand Lassalle wanted to stir up the working class at a time when an epoch of capitalist prosperity had strengthened the counter revolutionary forces in all Europe and made it possible for them to solve all the problems with which at the time they were confronted.
In Germany the Junkers, together with the grand bourgeoisie, were occupied with the at that time important problem of creating a unified capitalist state. The powers which tried in the year 1848 by revolutionary means to found a united German Republic proved themselves too weak, and what they were not in a position to accomplish the founding of the. German state as an organ of the German bourgeoisie was accomplished by the bourgeoisie and the Junkers. They executed this task by rearing the reactionary structure of a bureaucratic capitalistic federation of states, in which a clique of big capitalists, together with the Junkers and the Generals, with the Hohenzollerns at the head, guided the destiny of the German Empire. At such a time, Lassalle was trying to make the working class into a power, which, even though it had not the power to guide the destinies of the German people, could still be in a position to wring concessions from the governing class. The Communist propaganda was directed to this narrow object, as Lassalle disseminated it among the workers. In order to be able to get across as much of his propaganda as possible in spite of the oppression from the reactionary period of Bismarck, he attempted to give Communism as innocent a look as possible. The young lion whose paws were not yet in a state to deal death to the enemy, was to be led upon the meadows disguised as a lamb. Lassalle tried to present Communism as a movement which could succeed by peaceful means. By means of the popular vote, the workers were to gain the influence over the state and were to use it to organize co operative societies which gradually would change a capitalist society into a socialistic one. This propaganda developed in the workers a respect for the idea of the State regardless of whether the State was in the hands of the capitalists or of the victorious workers.
This idea was indeed put to a severe test in so far as the relations with the Bismarck Government were concerned during the era of the fierce persecutions of the workers movement in the period from 1878 to 1880, when the violent pressure from above, and the baiting of the workers movement, created intense hatred against the capitalist state in the front ranks of the workers movement and a hope nourished by this hatred that it would soon crumble as the result of the blows of the social revolution. This mood of the working class was increased by the long drawn out crisis which existed in the economic life of Europe during the 80 But this was only an interruption in the process of the reformistic falsifying of Communism which had been going on since the establishment of the capitalistic states in the 70 As soon as the workers had somewhat recovered from the blows dealt them, as soon as they were a little stronger and the fiercest forms of capitalist persecution disappeared, the process of diluting and falsifying Communism took on the widest range. The rapid economic development, the period of prosperity of capitalism, as it everywhere in the last ten years of the preceding century gained a foothold, especially in the domain of the electric and the metal industry, contributed to this. Since the 80 s, thanks to the development of American agriculture, the prices of grain fell, and now wages began to rise under the influence of the lively movement of business. The front ranks of the workers saw before them a path strewn with roses. The Governments were obliged to cease their persecutions, they began to promise social reforms. The workers everywhere won representation in the Parliaments; the aristocracy of the working class earned good wages; and so the idea became a fixed one to them: the Revolution is a superseded phase in bourgeois development. The working class will force the bourgeoisie to make more and more concessions, which will finally change the economic system of capitalism into a system which shall exist for the advantage of the workers. This