The building of party discipline is an important part of Lenin's thinking on party building. Lenin inherited and developed Marx and Engels' thinking on political parties, combined with the practical experience of leading the Russian proletarian revolution and socialist construction, creatively put forward the scientific concept of democratic centralism, and formed a relatively systematic and theoretical thinking on the building of proletarian party discipline.
On the concept of proletarian party discipline. During the period of revolutionary struggle, Lenin put forward the requirements of discipline for the proletarian party in a clear and unequivocal manner. In his 1906 essay "The Struggle Against the Cadet-Democratized Social Democrats and Party Discipline", he clearly defined the concept of discipline in a workers' party. "Unity of action, freedom of discussion and criticism – that's what we see clearly," he noted. Only such discipline is the discipline that an advanced class-democratic party should have. He went on to explain the relationship between these two principles, "Organisation is unity of action, that is, unity of practical action", and "without freedom of discussion and criticism, the proletariat does not recognize unity of action". (1) Thus, the "unity of action" and the "freedom of discussion and criticism" are intrinsically united, which reflects the fact that the disciplinary requirements of the proletarian party must be based on the conditions of bound freedom.
On the relationship between political parties and classes. Lenin always stressed that the Party is the advanced force of the class and must be able to exercise supervision, leadership and discipline and oppose disorganization and indiscipline and anarchy. In his 1904 essay "One Step Further, Two Steps Back," he pointed out: "The stronger our party organization for the genuine Social-Democrats, the less vacillating and irresolute there will be in the party, and the more extensive, comprehensive, enormous, and effective the influence of the party will be on the working masses around it and under its leadership." It is obviously absolutely impossible to confuse the Party, as the advanced force of the working class, with the class as a whole. (2) In Lenin's eyes, one of the most important criteria for a proletarian party to gather the advanced forces of the whole class is the possession of strict discipline. Based on an in-depth analysis of the problems exposed during the initial establishment of the Russian Social Democratic Party, he fully demonstrated the importance of strengthening the building of organization and discipline in the political party from the theoretical and practical angles, and held that the lack of unity of thought and organizational discipline would only lead to scattered sand and rampant opportunism within the party.
Lenin speaks at a rally in Moscow, May 5, 1920.
On the process of formation of the discipline of the proletarian party. Lenin noted that strict discipline is the objective need of the proletarian party to adapt to socialized mass production. In his 1919 essay "The Great Initiative," he analyzed, "The communist organization of social labour, the first step of which was socialism, is maintained by the conscious discipline of freedom which overthrows the oppression of the landlords and capitalists by the toiling masses themselves, and the more it develops, the more it must be maintained by this discipline." "This new discipline does not fall from the sky, nor does it arise from good intentions, it grows from the material conditions of capitalist mass production, and can only grow from these conditions. Without this material condition, there can be no such discipline". (3) Objectively, the prevalence of small-scale production can easily lead to the ideological tendency of decentralism and liberalism, which is not conducive to the implementation of discipline requirements, while socialized large-scale production provides the material conditions and economic basis for the discipline of the proletarian party.
On the disciplinary requirements of the proletarian party. Lenin proposed that loyalty to the party should be the basic condition for the requirements of party discipline. After the victory of the October Revolution, in the face of a sharp increase in the number of party members, Lenin placed greater emphasis on the discipline of party members, considering it a prerequisite for the fulfillment of the party's tasks. In April 1920, the Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (CPR) was held, at which a detailed resolution was adopted on the question of organizational work, which provided a specific plan for the training, training, and organizational use of Party members. At the closing ceremony of the congress, Lenin pointed out that "our Party is developing rapidly, and we cannot keep up with the work of educating these members to accomplish the immediate tasks of the Party." We must always note that this army of 600,000 men should be the vanguard of the working class, and that without iron discipline it would have been impossible to accomplish its task in two years. He made it clear that "the loyalty of party members is the basic condition for us to exercise and maintain our strictest discipline". ④
Lenin also profoundly expounded the importance and necessity of strengthening centralization and unity within the party. At that time, there was a controversy within the Russian Communist Party over the issue of democratic centralism. Although party members have reached a consensus on building a unified and centralized political party and affirmed the importance of observing party discipline, there are differences on how to implement the requirements of party discipline. Plekhanov, Rosa Luxemburg and others believed that discipline could only be established on the basis of voluntary obedience by party members, and stressed the priority and importance of giving full play to democracy within the party. In response to this, in April 1920, Lenin wrote the article "The Infantile Disease of the "Left" in the Communist Movement", in which he systematically discussed the question of the discipline of the proletarian party and responded to the controversy over democratic centralism.
On the one hand, Lenin analyzed the conditions for the proletariat to establish and uphold party discipline. He argues that "only the history of the entire period of Bolshevism's existence can satisfactorily explain why it was able to establish the iron discipline necessary for the victory of the proletariat and to hold it under the most difficult conditions." From this, he answered a number of questions: by what is the discipline of the proletarian revolutionary party maintained, by what is tested, by what is it strengthened. He also believes that three conditions are needed: "First, it depends on the consciousness of the vanguard of the proletariat and its loyalty to the revolution, on its tenacity, self-sacrifice and heroism. Second, it is good at contacting and approaching the broadest masses of the working masses, first of all, with the proletarian working masses, but also with the non-proletarian working masses, and it can even be said to mingle with them to a certain extent. Third, it is the correctness of the political leadership practiced by this vanguard and the correctness of its political strategy and tactics, and the fact that the broadest masses are convinced of its correctness on the basis of personal experience. Without these conditions, it is impossible to establish discipline for a revolutionary party to truly become an advanced class that is bound to overthrow the bourgeoisie and transform society as a whole." ⑤
On the other hand, Lenin stressed in his essay that the proletarian party must rely on iron discipline in order to defeat the bourgeoisie. By reviewing the experience of the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, he proved that "the unconditional centralization and extremely strict discipline of the proletariat are one of the basic conditions for the victory of the bourgeoisie." (6) He pointed out that "the denial of political parties and party discipline – this is the result of the opposition." And this would be tantamount to the complete disarmament of the proletariat in favor of the bourgeoisie. This is precisely the petty bourgeoisie's distraction, vacillation, inability to persevere, inability to unite, and inability to move in unison, which, if tolerated in, will inevitably destroy any revolutionary movement of the proletariat. "To resist all this, and to enable the proletariat to play its organizational role correctly, effectively and victoriously (and this is its main role), it is necessary to practice the strictest centralization and the strictest discipline within the proletarian party." ⑦
Lenin's important thesis on the discipline of the proletarian party is an innovation and development of the theory of discipline building on the basis of practice, and has put forward relatively clear concepts, methods, ideas, and measures for strengthening the political and organizational discipline of the party, effectively promoted the centralization and unity of the whole party in ideology and action, and rapidly realized the development and growth of the Russian Communist Party. In August 1920, the Second Congress of the Comintern adopted the Conditions for Joining the Comintern, drafted under the auspices of Lenin, which set out disciplinary requirements for all proletarian parties that joined the Comintern: "In the present era of fierce civil war, the Party can only carry out its duties if the Communist Party is organized in a highly centralized manner and exercises an iron discipline within the Party that is akin to military discipline, and the Central Organs of the Party become authoritative organs with broad powers and the general confidence of the Party members." (8) Since then, Lenin's understanding of the regularity of party discipline building, which he gradually formed in the process of founding and leading the Russian Communist Party, has also been tested by the practice of other proletarian parties. To this day, Lenin's expositions and reflections on party discipline are still of great enlightening significance for us to promote the building of party discipline.
Exegesis:
(1) The Complete Works of Lenin, Vol. 14, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2017, pp. 121-122.
(2) The Complete Works of Lenin, Vol. VIII, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2017, p. 254.
(3) The Complete Works of Lenin, Vol. 37, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2017, pp. 11-12.
(4) The Complete Works of Lenin, Vol. 38, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2017, pp. 318-319.
(5) The Complete Works of Lenin, Vol. 39, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2017, pp. 4-5.
(6) Ibid., p. 4.
(7) Ibid., pp. 23-24.
(8) Ibid., p. 205.
(This article was published in the 09th issue of the magazine "China Discipline Inspection and Supervision" in 2024, author: Zhao Chao, Information Archive of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature)