The Struggle Against Fascism Begins With The Struggle Against Bolshevism

by Otto Rühle

As the tragic history of both fascism and bolshevism completes the full course of its format development, culminating in the modern democratic State, Otto Rühle writing becomes more readily comprehensible to us.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

22 pages, Softcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

German socialdemocrat turned council communist.

Rühle was active in the SPD, KPD and the KAPD.

When the Nazi party came into power, Rühle fled to Mexico

Reviews

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

" All policy of compromise is a policy of bankruptcy. What began as a mere compromise with the German Social Democracy found its end in Hitler. What Lenin justified as a necessary compromise found its end in Stalin. In diagnosing revolutionary non-compromise as “An Infantile Disease of Communism”, Lenin was suffering from the old age disease of opportunism, of pseudo-communism."

Brief pamphlet critiquing Bolshevism via Lenin's "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder", a text to which Tankies still direct anyone who thinks perpetuating bourgeois class structure, wages, and the commodity-form might not be the best way to build socialism. Fascism is identified in being directly rooted in Bolshevism which, itself, is unmasked in not being a communist theory at all, but a bourgeois one. Stalinism is therefore not a deviation from Leninism, but actually identical with it, carrying the same opportunistic and counter-revolutionary principles.

Obviously this won't convince any MLs, MLMs, modern-day "China is communist really!"-dreamers, who always have an excuse, but anyone of a libertarian-left persuasion will get a kick out of reading this.

That said, one is always left after reading these things with a vague sense of unease. Be it as it may that Bolshevism ultimately paved the way for fascism to smash the worker's movement in Germany and set the ball rolling on the Second World War, it's also the case that, if it weren't for rapid industrialisation in Russia, the Russians would have been sitting ducks when the Nazis invaded. I've always been generally persuaded by the argument that the brutality of the state was ultimately justified in the wider imperialist context. So, are there any good answers? I'm not so sure.

[Nightocelot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent brief palmphlet.
Clearly exposes true face of actual roots of all "red" systems in the XX.
Must read for those who want to know why Stalinism was a logical extension of Leninism.

[abclaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timely left-communist rant against all things bolshevik and leninist.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Аргументът "ама то това не е било истински социализъм" е може би най-често срещаният и определено най-досадният в политическите дебати. Сещате се - всеки път, когато някой описва до какви катастрофи и ужаси е довел тоя или оня социалистически/комунистически режим, защитниците на левите идеи винаги вадят тоя коз от ръкава си - разбираш ли, истинският комунизъм е добър, благороден и води до благоденствие, само някой да го приложи "правилно" на практика. Ама що все така се случва, че не го прилагат правилно...

"Борбата против фашизма започва с борбата против болшевизма" е памфлет, написан някъде преди Втората световна война, който ултимативно представлява гореописаният аргумент, но доста интелигентно написан.

Накратко идеята на автора е, че болшевизмът (начинът, по който Ленин и Троцки, а после и Сталин прилагат за пръв път в света социалистическите/комунистическите идеи) е изключително погрешен и практически с нищо по-различен от фашизма, който по онова време е в разцвета си в Германия и Италия.

Разбира се, тоя памфлет е отлична критика на болшевизма по същия начин, по който Капиталът на Маркс е отлична критика на капитализма - без да дава никакви реални алтернативи. Болшевизмът наистина е ужасен - но той не е "погрешният" социализъм. Той е правилният социализъм, защото е единственият начин да се въведе на практика социализмът чрез революция така, както Маркс е описал в трудовете си.

Ленин и Троцки не са вятърничеви глупаци: те отлично са видели истинското лице на социалистическата идея - че единственият начин за осъществяването й е чрез терор - и са сметнали, че целта оправдава средствата. Затова по света няма нито една социалистическа революция, извършена без терор и затова всичкия тоя социализъм е "истински". Истински ужасен и истински тираничен.

А идеята за изключителните прилики в прилагането на социалзима и фашизма е развита отлично и много подробно в книгата на Желю Желев "Фашизмът".

[R. Reddebrek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short text but it gets to the point and many of its predictions came true.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where has Otto Rühle been my whole life? Brilliantly written, and smartly constructed critique of Lenin generally and Left Communism is an Infantile Disorder specifically. There are parts I'm still digesting, parts I disagree with, and parts that were eye opening. I've often struggled with the Democratic Centralism aspect of Bolshevism, but had never found anything that could put those struggles into such a concrete form. A blistering rebuke of centralism that has given me so much to think about.

[Michael Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this pamphlet Otto ruhle masterfully analyses the Soviet Union , and how it is antithetical to Marxist by pointing out its contradictions with Marxist theory, which was inherently anti statist. Must read for anyone interested in communism but disturbed at the idea that they would be ascribing to the regimes of such monsters as Stalin- spoiler alert, your not.

[Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most influential political pamphlet I ever read. It left me permanently suspicious of political parties in all forms, and of the ridiculous ongoing civil war between Stalinists and Trotskyists. They both spring from the same poisoned root.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pure ignorance of marxism-leninism

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Berk Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting

[Nikolai Arnaudov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good