A Study On Lenin’s Criticism Of Russian Populism And Enlightenment

Populism,as a prevailing social trend of thought,has been active in the political stage of China and the West,and has been one of the top ten international trends of thought selected by the people’s forum for many years in a row,which has great influence at home and abroad.However,populism is not the social trend of thought that has appeared since the new century,and it has appeared and developed in Russia as early as the 19 th century,which has affected the healthy development of Russian revolution.Therefore,Russian Marxist theorist and proletarian revolutionist Lenin profoundly criticized populism,exposed its wrong essence,and then spread and developed Marxism,and promoted the development of Russian revolution.Lenin’s profound criticism of populism provides important theoretical weapons and methods for the correct understanding and treatment of populism in the new era,and has important research value.Russian populism was a kind of small-asset-class socialism thought which promoted the non-capitalist path in the feudal serfdom country Russia in the 19 th century.The emergence of this trend of thought is closely related to the increasing influence of capitalism in the 19 th century and the deepening crisis of feudal serfdom in Russia.According to Lenin,Russian populism has gone through two stages in its evolution and development in the past 100 years:the old populist period and the new populist period.The old populism advocated overthrowing the feudal czar by violent revolutionary means and stepping into the socialist society.The new populism advocates a path of improvement and peaceful transformation of Russian society.Russian populist views cover economic,political and cultural aspects,actively promote the Russian traditional rural village economy in the economic aspect,deny the existence and development of capitalism in Russia,think that the development of Russian capitalist economy will bring disaster to the people;in the political aspect,advocate the peasants as themain force of the Russian revolution,by calling on peasants to carry out revolutionary movements and violent terrorist activities,overthrow the czarist feudal autocratic system,directly across capitalism into the socialist society;in the cultural aspect,populist Russian traditional culture,think that Russia’s own artifacts,systems and other than Western European civilization.In addition,in schools to promote the concept of grade education,against class education.Over time,the utopian view of Russian populism has been exposed to fierce criticism by Russian Marxists led by Lenin.Lenin agreed with the rationality of Russian populist views and criticized the populist erroneous views.Lenin pointed out that in economic view,populism divorced from Russia’s actual conditions,attempted to cross the capitalist "Kafding Grand Canyon" through the village community,did not see the collapse of the Russian village economy and the rapid development and progressive significance of the capitalist economy in Russia;in political view,populism blindly engaged in violent terrorist activities to destroy the revolution,hurt the revolutionary economy of the masses,Lenin pointed out that the alliance of workers and peasants is the backbone of the revolution;in cultural view,populism did not see in school education itself is class education,populist cultural romantic view is a variant of Western Europe.Lenin’s strong criticism of Russian populism played a positive role in the spread of Marxism in Russia and the development of Russian revolution.But restricted by many factors,early Lenin’s understanding of the degree of capitalist development in populist viewpoint and the problem of peasants in revolution is insufficient.Populism in China today is a social trend of thought with wide influence and long influence.It is necessary to absorb the positive results of Lenin’s criticism of Russian populism and deal with it effectively.First of all,we should guide the people to understand the two sides of populism scientifically,actively solve the social problems reflected by populism,and guide the development of populism.Secondly,dialectical evaluation of the historical role of capitalism progressive significance and limitations,extremely using capitalist civilization to develop their own economy.Finally,we must always adhere to and develop Marxism,let the people believe in Marxism,and be able to resist all kinds of erroneous ideological attacks.