V. I. Lenin’s Struggle against Anarchism

ABSTRACT

In the historical struggle between Marxism and anarchism, Lenin played an important role. In “Anarchism and Socialism,” written in 1901, Lenin denounced anarchism as a petty bourgeois ideology. Lenin defended this view over the next twenty years, as he fought for Bolshevik hegemony in Russia. This article argues that Lenin’s struggle against anarchism was significant for several reasons. First, it clarified the fundamental differences between anarchism and Marxism. Second, Lenin contributed to the victory of Marxism over anarchism, initially, in revolutionary Russia, and after that, within the Soviet era communist movement. Third, Lenin’s struggle offers original insights. For one thing, Lenin delineated the revolutionary limitations of anarchism. He identified the circumstances in which anarchism can empower or weaken the working class. Lenin also established the organisation, struggle, and leading role of the vanguard working class party as an independent distinction between Marxism and anarchism, a distinction that needs resurrecting today.

KEYWORDS:

• Lenin
• anarchism
• Marxism
• state
• revolution

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Of course, Lenin was not the only Bolshevik to wage this struggle. J. V. Stalin led the Bolshevik struggle against anarchism in Georgia. From 1906 to 1907, Stalin published several articles on the subject under the title Anarchism or Socialism? (Stalin 1951).

2 Lenin displayed a critical appreciation for Tolstoy (Boer 2014) and Kropotkin (Shub 1953).

3 Lenin distinguished anarchism from the socialist trends that, in his view, displayed subliminal anarchist leanings. Amongst the latter, Lenin included the Narodniks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, left-liquidationists, Otzovists, and the Workers’ Opposition.

4 Boer (2019, 2021) offers a sophisticated analysis of Marx and Engels’s views on the state under communism.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joe Pateman

Joe Pateman is a teaching associate in politics at the University of Sheffield, UK. His main research interests are Marxism-Leninism, democratic theory, black liberation struggles, and North Korean politics. His recent publications include Public Libraries and Marxism (Routledge, 2021).