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are among the principal conditions for the victory over the bourgeoisie. Here people usually stop. They do not inquire sufficiently into the meaning of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and under what conditions it is possible. Would it not be better to accompany the greetings to the Soviet power and the Bolsheviks by a more searching analysis of the reasons why the latter were able to institute a discipline necessary for the revolutionary proletariat?
Bolshevism, as a current of political thought and as a political party, dates back to the year 1903. Only the history of its whole period of existence can explain satisfactorily why it was able to institute and maintain, under most difficult conditions, the iron discipline necessary for the proletarian victory.
And, first of all, the question arises—Upon what rests the discipline of the revolutionary party of the proletariat? How is it controlled? How is it strengthened? First, by the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard and by its devotion to the Revolution, by its steadiness, spirit of self-sacrifice, and heroism. Secondly, by its ability to mix with the toiling masses, to become intimate and, to a certain extent if you will, fuse itself with the non-proletarian toilers. Thirdly, by the soundness of the political leadership, carried out by this vanguard, and by its correct political strategy and tactics, based on the idea that the workers from their own experience must convince themselves of the soundness of this political leadership, strategy and tactics. Without all these conditions discipline in a revolutionary party, really capable of being a party of the foremost class whose object is to overthrow the bourgeoisie and transform society, is impossible of realization. Without these conditions all attempts to create discipline result in empty phrases, in mere contortions. On the other hand, these conditions will not arise suddenly. They are created through long effort and bitter experience. Their creation is facilitated by correct revolutionary theory, which in its turn is not dogmatic, but which forms itself in its finality only through close connection with the practice of the real mass and truly revolutionary movement.
If Bolshevism could successfully, and under the greatest
