Vol 35 Iss. 3

The First Russian Revolution is the most important milestone in the history of the Russian and international labor movement. It shook the system of tsarist autocracy to its foundations and dealt the first serious blow to the domination of landlords and capitalists in our country.The revolution of 1905—1907 put an end to the thirty-four-year period of relative quiescence in the world workers' movement that had come after the fall of the Paris Commune; since 1905 the epoch of gathering and preparing the forces of the proletariat has been replaced by an epoch of deep revolutionary upheavals and storms.

The revolution of 1905-1907 raised to active political life and struggle millions of masses of workers, peasants, urban poor, small urban and rural bourgeoisie. An integral part of the all-Russian revolutionary movement were the revolutionary speeches of sailors and soldiers and the national liberation struggle against the tsarism of oppressed peoples, inspired by the heroism of the working class of Russia. Revolutionary sentiment embraced the student youth and the democratic intelligentsia.

The bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905-1907, which unfolded in the era of imperialism, raised with all its acuteness the question of the peasantry as an ally of the working class in the revolutionary struggle. This was due to the fact that the agrarian question was at the center of the revolution. It constituted the economic basis of the revolution.

The experience of the Russian and world workers' movement during the fifty years that have passed since the first Russian revolution has emphasized the depth and vitality of the ideas and theories put forward by Lenin in the years of the revolution, the correctness of the revolutionary tactics of the working class party justified by him.The theory of land nationalization, developed by Lenin in the main features during the revolution of 1905-1907, is a brilliant example of creative development in the new historical situation and application to the specific conditions of Russia of the basic provisions of Marxism on one of the most important issues of the revolution.

During the first Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, the working class of Russia, acting under the leadership of the Bolsheviks as the leader of all democratic forces, applied a variety of tactical forms and methods of political struggle against tsarism and the bourgeoisie. The tactics of the Bolsheviks were aimed at ensuring the main strategic goal - the overthrow of tsarism by the united forces of workers and peasants, the establishment of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, the achievement of the complete victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and its development into a socialist revolution. The strategic plan of this stage of the revolution also included striking a blow to the liberal-monarchical bourgeoisie in order to isolate it from influencing the course and outcome of the revolution.

The revolutionary storm that broke out in Russia in 1905 dispelled the twilight of the political stagnation that had engulfed Europe for decades after the defeat of the Paris Commune. It accelerated the course of historical development to an extraordinary degree, giving rise to new, powerful forms of class struggle, which the pre-imperialist epoch had not known. At the same time, the new conditions of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat made new and difficult demands on its party.

After the defeat of the main forces of foreign military intervention and the end of the civil war, the Soviet Republic entered the period of reconstruction, covering the years 1921-1925. Mobilizing the Soviet people for the rapid restoration of the national economy, the Party proceeded from the tasks of defending the country, preserving the economic independence of the Soviet state, and improving the welfare of the working masses. In doing so it was guided by the most important Leninist position that socialist industry is the main and leading branch of the national economy, that heavy industry, based on electrification, is the economic base of socialism and communism. “The real and only base for the consolidation of resources, for the creation of socialist society, is one and only one-that is, big industry Without a highly placed big industry there can be no talk of socialism in general, and still less can there be talk of it in relation to the country of the peasantry".

One of the most significant expressions of the deepening of the general crisis of capitalism now under way is the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism. An important factor in this process was the defeat of German fascism and Japanese imperialism by the forces of the anti-fascist coalition led by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This victory strengthened the faith of the peoples of colonial and dependent countries in the triumph of the cause of national liberation.