Cheng Enfu: Lenin's Merits and Historical Contributions are Indelible!

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s passing. At the beginning of the 20th century, capitalism evolved from the stage of free competition into the stage of private monopoly. Lenin termed this the stage of imperialism and identified its three major characteristics: “Imperialism is a specific historical stage of capitalism. Its specific character is threefold: imperialism is monopoly capitalism; parasitic, or decaying capitalism; moribund capitalism.” Lenin revealed the law of uneven economic and political development ^[1] in the era of imperialism and its effects, pointing out that in order to re-divide world territories and expand outward, the imperialist powers formed various alliances and engaged in fierce struggles for hegemony, which led to the First World War. Lenin emphasized that Russia's backward relations of production and superstructure did not adapt to the requirements of the revolution in science and technology and the great development of productive forces; he thus led the proletarian vanguard to seize state power through the “October Revolution,” forming a series of theories and successful practices of proletarian revolution.

Following the “October Revolution,” the Soviet Union, under Lenin’s leadership, established a state system ^[2] of the dictatorship of the proletariat and a political structure ^[3] of democratic centralism. It launched large-scale economic, social, educational, and cultural construction, and repelled the armed aggression of fourteen capitalist countries, forming a series of theories and successful practices for building socialism in one country while surrounded by capitalist nations. Under the guidance of Leninist thought, the Soviet period achieved developmental successes across all fields, including economics, politics, education, science and technology, culture, health, people's livelihoods, society, ecology, and national defense.

The Comintern led by Lenin made indelible historical contributions to the cause of world socialism and the liberation movements of nation-states, possessing significant historical value in the ideological, political, military, and economic spheres. Meanwhile, in the 21st century, the hegemony, power politics, and right-wing neoliberal trends promoted by the United States have brought increasing problems to humanity. International economic, political, and military frictions and conflicts—triggered by frequent economic and social crises and the polarization between the rich and the poor—are intensifying daily. The entire world is facing “great changes unseen in a century” ^[4]. Amidst these great changes, all Marxist-Leninists must re-examine the substantive value of the Comintern led by Lenin to promote world peace and development, improve the quality of life for the working class and the broad masses of laboring people, and advance the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity.

Lenin emphasized the issues of “war and revolution” in the great era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, but he also dialectically emphasized the issues of “peace and development.” In 1984, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “There are two outstanding issues in the world today: one is the issue of peace, and the other is the North-South issue. There are many other problems, but none possess the global and strategic significance of these two.” In 1990, Comrade Deng Xiaoping said again: “Regarding the two major issues of peace and development, the issue of peace has not been resolved, and the issue of development has become more serious.” It is evident that Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s emphasis on “peace and development” as the two major issues or themes to be resolved in the contemporary era is dialectically unified with the two major issues or themes of “war and revolution” articulated by Lenin; it does not negate the nature of the great era in which capitalism and neo-imperialism tend toward socialism. Neo-imperialism is both a new stage of capitalism—developing from free competition, general private monopoly, and state monopoly to international monopoly—and a new expansion of the international monopoly bourgeoisie. It is a new system dominated by a tiny minority of developed countries and a new policy of economic, political, cultural, and military hegemony. Judging from the tortuous development of international forces of justice and the international class struggle at the current stage, the 21st century is a new era for the world's working class and the broad masses of the people to maintain world peace, a new era for the rapid development of socialist countries, and a new era for progressive and civilized nations to jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity.

In short, Leninism not only guided the victory of the proletarian revolution and construction in Soviet Russia but also guided the international proletarian revolution and construction. It is an international Marxist theory standing alongside Marxism. In the 21st century, world-class Marxism-Leninism still possesses immense contemporary value and “presence.”