Lenin’s Recognition of the Peasants

In the face of much criticism by early Russian Marxists who, according to Esther Kingston-Mann, were
“rooted in denial of…sociological insights,”26 Lenin formulated an ideology that featured the peasantry as a
revolutionary ally. Vera Broido suggests that Lenin was a mere opportunist who recognized the “desperate and
dangerous” mood of the peasantry and “harnessed it to his advantage.”27 Lenin would have recognized the
peasantry to represent the “sphinx of all the Russias”28 (Turgenov) who, if on your side, would assure your victory.
Esther Kingston-Mann defends Lenin in saying his opportunism had not “invalidated his real political insights or
defined the overall character of his theory and practice.”29
Lenin was careful not to overlook the peasant question, which Stalin referred to as the ‘national question.’
Lenin believed the peasantry to be a potential revolutionary ally to the workers because of its antagonism to
feudalism, and saw the peasantry as a tool to resolve the contradiction between industrial workers and feudalism.
He attempted to formulate a Marxist peasant policy in his address “To the Rural Poor” (1903), in which he called the
peasantry to realize their need for political and civil liberty, to be aware of the materialistic reasons for their poverty,
and to finally recognize the urban workers as a body with similar goals. Maurice Meisner argues that Lenin only
turned to the peasants when he discovered the failure of the bourgeoisie in the urban centers to uphold its political
role, and saw the ‘petty bourgeoisie’ as a substitute that could play a role in his political strategy. However, Lenin
never let go of his fundamental belief that workers were the central revolutionary force in Russia, and only accepted
the peasantry as an ally led by the proletariat in the bourgeoisie-democratic phase in history:
…all Russian workers and all the rural poor must fight with both hands and on two sides; with one
hand – fight against all the bourgeois, in alliance with all the workers; and with the other hand – fight
against the rural officials, against the feudal landlords, in alliance with all the peasants.30
Lenin saw the peasantry as a petty bourgeoisie whose main concern was attaining private plots of land, and although
it was capable of revolutionary action, leadership could only lie in the hands of an urbanite. Only under the
leadership of the cities could they hope to achieve the abolition of feudalism, the nationalization of land, and the
establishment of a provisional revolutionary government. Lenin summarizes his perspective when speaking of the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1905: “…the real ‘possibility of holding power’ -- namely, in the revolutionary-democratic
dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, in their joint mass strength, which is capable of outweighing all the
forces of counterrevolution.”31 It is interesting to note that on the day of Lenin’s death, January 24, 1924, the First
National Congress of the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party included the peasantry in their strategy for
national liberation.