Lesson of Revolution: Lenin reading Hegel

Abstract

The essay aims at investigating the mutual, dialectical mediation between Hegelian speculation and Leninist theoretical practice. It was inspired by the anecdote about Lenin who, having seen all European Social Democratic parties adopting the “patriotic line” that condemned proletarians to fratricidal violence after the outbreak of World War I, decided to retreat to countryside to read Hegel‟s Logic. In desperation, during intense theoretical work on Hegel, Lenin was able to recognize the unique chance for revolution (a fact that belied the evolutionary historicism of the Second International). This brings up certain questions: how far did Lenin‟s reading of Hegel influence his own heterodox theory of revolution (“the weakest link in the chain”)? Did this return to Hegel open the way to the Leninist event? The attempt to address these questions will be supplemented with reflections on the other side of the dialectical interaction, namely, on the Lenin‟s lessons for understanding Hegel‟s philosophy. Lenin in the Philosophical Notebooks tried to read Hegel in materialistic manner, anticipating Lukács‟ interpretation of Hegel‟s dialectic and even contemporary readings (for example SlavojŽižek‟s or StathisKouvelakis‟). Perhaps it was Lenin, not Marx, who “discovered the rational kernel within the mystical shell” of Hegelian dialectic, and showed more understanding of it than his great predecessor. I will combine these two moments of dialectical equation and try to deduce what lessons Hegel-Lenin gives us concerning the possibilities of radical social change in the epoch of late neoliberal capitalism. Ultimately, the old Leninist question of “what is to be done?” remains. Maybe the answer is: go to countryside to read Lenin?