V. I.

Lenin

“The Struggle of the Proletariat” [1]

Inthe article “Reply to Sotsial-Demokrat ” we should like
to mention the splendid way in which the problem of the celebrated
“introduction of a consciousness from without” had been posed. The
author divides the problem into four independent parts:

1) The philosophical problem of the relation of man’s consciousness to
his social being—social being determines consciousness. Corresponding to the existence of two classes, two
kinds of consciousness are evolved—the bourgeois and the
socialist. Socialist consciousness corresponds to the position of
the proletariat.

2) “Who can and does evolve this socialist consciousness
(scientific socialism)?” “Contemporary socialist consciousness can arise only on the basis of profound scientific
knowledge” (Kautsky), i.e., its evolution “is a matter for a few Social-Democratic intellectuals who possess the necessary
means and time”.

3) How does this consciousness penetrate into the proletariat? “It is
here that Social-Democracy (and not only Social-Democratic intellectuals)
comes in, and introduces socialist consciousness into the working-class
movement.”

4) What does Social-Democracy meet with when it comes to the proletariat with
the message of socialism? It meets with an instinctive urge towards
socialism. “Together with the proletariat, a tendency towards socialism
is of necessity engendered both among the proletarians themselves, and among
those who adopt the viewpoint of the proletariat; this accounts for the birth
of an urge towards socialism” (Kautsky). From this the Menshevik draws
the following ridiculous conclusion: “Hence it is clear that socialism
is not introduced into the proletariat from without, but, on the contrary,
comes from the proletariat and enters the minds of those who adopt the views
of the proletariat”!

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Notes:
[1]
No. 22 of Proletary , October 24 (11), 1905 carried a review of No. 3 of the Russian language edition of Borba Proletariata , organ of the Caucasian League of the R.S.D.L.P. Part of the
review published in this volume was written by Lenin, and contains an appraisal
of the article by J. Stalin entitled “Reply to Sotsial-Demokrat ”.