43
PREFACE
formalism, red tape, lack of punctuality, rashness and undue
haste.
The Communist Party was implementing the programme
of the country’s transformation on socialist lines in sharp
struggle against all sorts of oppositionists who were trying
to undermine the unity of the Party’s ranks. Lenin opposed
everyone who tried to distort or to cast doubt on the cor-
rectness of the path charted by the Party. He believed it
was necessary to give a resolute rebuff to bourgeois ideolo-
gists, Right-wing socialists and Mensheviks, who distorted
the New Economic Policy of the Russian Communist Party
(Bolsheviks), and to the Left-wing opportunists, who took
the wrong view of NEP, notably of the role of “state capi-
talism” under the dictatorship of the working class. Lenin
emphasised that “state capitalism in a state with proletar-
ian power can exist only as limited in time and sphere of
extension, and conditions of its application, mode of
supervision over it, etc.” (p. 444).
An important part of the volume consists of material
dealing with the development of culture, science and tech-
nology, which Lenin viewed in the context of the country’s
economic construction tasks. He called attention to the
need to co-ordinate the work of inventors throughout the
whole country, and proposed regular procedures for exam-
ining and recording reported inventions. Of great interest
is his letter entitled “To the Inventions Section of the Scien-
tific and Technical Department of the Supreme Economic
Council”, which set before this body a number of concrete
tasks in organising its work (pp. 50-51). These documents
show Lenin’s vigorous support for every scientific discov-
ery and technical improvement whose application in prac-
tice he believed to be an important factor in raising labour
productivity. He attached great importance to the regular
flow of information on scientific and technical achievements
abroad, and the use in this country of the best foreign
technical experience.
A number of letters and notes in this volume deal with
improving the work of the People’s Commissariat for
Education, and secondary and higher schools, the wiping out
of illiteracy, and other cultural problems (protection of
art values, publication of a dictionary of modern Russian
PREFACE
44
and a school atlas). Lenin supported the realistic trend in
art, and warned artists against being carried away by
futurism. In a letter to M. N. Pokrovsky, Lenin wrote: “I
request you to help us fight futurism, etc.... Could you find
some reliable anti-futurists?” (p. 139).
In the NEP period, with some growth of the capitalist
elements, the Party’s ideological, political and educational
work, the propaganda of Marxism and resolute struggle
against bourgeois ideology had an especially big role to
play. Great importance attaches to Lenin’s instructions on
developing the social sciences. He proposed collecting all
the published works and photostatic copies of documents
of the founders of Marxism, and this helped to set up the
Marx and Engels Institute; he edited a collection of their
selected letters, and made remarks on Béla Kun’s pam-
phlet, From Revolution to Revolution (p. 66), which are
of fundamental importance to historical science.
Socialist construction is inseparably bound up with
the correct solution of the national question. Lenin’s
correspondence reveals his guidance in the implementa-
tion of the national policy. Lenin advised Communists
in the non-Russian republics to take account of local
conditions and specifics in effecting NEP in the construc-
tion of socialism. He said the correct solution of the nation-
al question in the Soviet East was of tremendous impor-
tance, and wrote: “This is a world-wide question, and that
is no exaggeration. There you must be especially strict. It
will have an effect on India and the East; it is no joke, it
calls for exceptional caution” (p. 298). A number of
documents reflect Lenin’s concern for all the peoples of
the Land of Soviets, for their unity, friendship and co-
operation, and his resolute struggle against Great-Power
chauvinism and local nationalism.
A major question dealt with in this volume is the
foreign policy activity of the Soviet state: the work of the
People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, and the People’s
Commissariat for Foreign Trade, preparations for the
Genoa Conference, establishment of relations with various
countries, extension of trade between the Soviet Republic
and capitalist states, and negotiations on concessions. The
documents reflect the Soviet Government’s steadfast strug-
45
PREFACE
gle to implement its peaceable foreign policy, basing it-
self on the principles of peaceful coexistence, and working
to establish business relations with all countries. Some
documents show Lenin’s resolute defence of the foreign trade
monopoly. He warned against the possibility of another
armed intervention by the foreign imperialists against the
Soviet state. In view of such a danger, he wrote to G. V.
Chicherin in October 1921 that “nothing can be done to pre-
vent this except strengthening our defence capacity” (p. 355).
Lenin devoted much attention to the establishment of
friendly relations with the countries of the East. The
treaties of peace and friendship concluded in 1921 between
Soviet Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey offered exam-
ples of good interstate relations based on trust and mutual
respect.
A number of letters deal with the international com-
munist and working-class movement. The documents show
that Lenin was consistent in working to strengthen the
Communist Parties, the monolithic unity of their ranks,
the unity of the international communist movement, and
the practice of the principle of proletarian internationalism.
In several letters and notes he makes some important pro-
positions on the activity of the Communist International
and the Red International of Trade Unions.
A large part of the documents are biographic; many
letters and notes show Lenin’s exceptional modesty, his
touching concern for his comrades, the health and living
conditions of Party and government workers and leaders
of the international communist movement.
Volume 45 completes the publication of the additional
volumes to the Fourth (Russian) Edition of the Collected
Works of V. I. Lenin.
Institute of Marxism-Leninism
of the C.C., C.P.S.U.
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