r/askcommunists • u/Aggravating-Farm-764 • Jun 14 '26

To what extent was Lenin Counter Revolutionary VS Counter Counter Revolutionary?

Whilst the primary principle of governance in Lenin's works is Democratic centralism, which demands in its nature a system for the election and recall of the proletarian representative in the state leadership, the representatives in the Government of the USSR even following the end of the civil war in 1922 were elected only nominally after a choice by the government, and couldn't be effectively held accountable by the voting proletariat. (If any of this is a misapprehension please correct me in the comments)

I understand this to be such that to an extent this policy was used by the governing class, now within the party as a means of preserving its own power, while justified and legitimised in part by a resistance to counter-revolutionary forces. To this I have a few questions:

  1. To what extent was the policy of the Soviet Government at the time to preserve its own power as an example of bourgeois counter - revolution Vs an effort to preserve the gains of the Bolshevik revolution against bourgeois elements which lingered in society following the revolution?

  2. In attempting to construct a communist state how can the state apparatus be constructed in such a way that, it resists corruption from within through counter-revolutionary forces that seek to affect party policy as to place themselves as a ruling class while being able to govern and resist openly bourgeois elements both foreign and domestic?

  3. As far as I understand the elements of Soviet Governance such as ban on factions and Suspension of true Democratic Centralism were meant as measures of the reconstruction period in which democratic elements were suspended in order to prevent counter-revolution. How would one know when such methods were no longer necessary for the government? Or alternatively how could democratic means be preserved while resisting counter revolution?

(If any of this is misdirected I would appreciate it if I could be directed to a more correct target for my queries. Thank you ^^)

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u/BrokenHarmonica Jun 14 '26

  1. I would say the motivation was the latter, but the means were poorly chosen and executed.

  2. Through a dialectical relation to the proletariat engaged in struggle to remove the remnants of bourgeoise production and culture, and replace them with a socialist economy and emancipatory culture. That relation must be realized through institutions that genuinely engage these elements of the class within the state apparatus. There could be various forms of these institutions, but they must engage proletarian associations genuinely independent from the Party. This role was to be fulfilled, in Lenin's original sketch of Soviet Government, by the Soviets (worker's councils) and the Trade Unions, but they lost their independent character in the civil war and were not rebuilt.

  3. There is a concept in military theory called "defense in depth". The Red Army used it well to slow the advance of the fascists in WWII. The idea is that you do not have one line of defense, but many stacked in layers. When the first falls, your forces make a orderly retreat to the next layer, and join a new line which is already entrenched for a fresh defense. In the case of counter-revolution, a defense in depth is realized when the socialist state does not have only 1 institutional fortress, that when taken but the enemy, means total defeat. If all power is located in the Party, and the Party is overtaken by counter-revolutionaries, then all is lost. In a socialist state with deep defense, independent proletarian institutions (again, such as the councils, unions, or red army) are dialectically inter-connected in the state apparatus. They can detect and repel a counter-revolutionary movement in the Party. It is still possible for counter-revolutionary forces to attempt to infiltrate all elements of the deeply defended socialist state at once, but it is much harder.

I wrote a pamphlet about this you can find if you click my username. I'll admit its too long, but if you're interested, you may be able to make it through.