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Publication Details

The October Revolution and our Time

(Original title: Október a dnešok)
Filozofia, 22 (1967), 5, 457-464.
Type of work: Papers and Discussions
Publication language: Slovak
Abstract
The Great October Socialistic Revolution represents the beginning of a new epoch of the world history of mankind. Owing to the influence of the October Revolution, the form and contents was changed not only of the nations of Russia but of the whole world as well. In Russia, the reign of bourgeoisie had been defeated and the historical process began of surmounting capitalism and building socialism. Capitalism writhed in spasms of its own contradictions and gave birth to fascism and wars, while the Soviet Union changed from backward Russia into a rich, well-developed and strong socialistic country. The democratic capitalistic countries were not able to resist successfully the war caused by fascists, only the young socialistic state saved mankind from fascist slavery by defeating it. The Soviet Union was, and is also today the main guard, organizer and fighter of the pacific mankind against imperialism. Progressive and humanistic significance of the influence of the October Revolution is, however, not recognised by everybody. There are people who assert that it was detrimental to socialism to begin realizing it in such a backward country as czar’s Russia. There were not, they say, the necessary conditions for socialism. The present author disproves these views. He points out that the October Revolution is an inevitable fruit of the development of the world system of capitalism. The whole world’s chain of capitalism, in which the individual countries represent its links, breaks at the weakest link and there a revolution arises. That means that a revolution does not arise in a country with the most developed productive powers, industry, and culture, as it was asserted by social-democratic theorists who understood Marx dogmatically. Using Marxist method, Lenin revealed the monopolistic stage of capitalism and, with regard to changed conditions, elaborated a modified tactics of class struggle. In this tactics, consciousness of a historical subject has the decisive significance and, therefore, it can, in a favourable situation, seize power even under less developed objective conditions, in order to catch up with mere developed countries. It is evident that not any sort of consciousness of a subject who is the creator of history, enables him to do so. The historical process of transformation of the bourgeois democratic revolution into the socialistic one is proved to be an objectively dialectical process, controllable only by adequate subjective dialectics. Lenin managed to accomplish this task and in the unity of theory and practice led the struggle of the working class in such a way that it resulted in the October Revolution.
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