The Paris commune, its glorious history, its immortal work... This topic occupied V. I. Lenin for almost 30 years, and he devoted many pages of his research to it. On July 19, 1920, the opening day of the Second Congress of the Comintern, V. I. Lenin, together with Delegates of the fraternal Communist and workers ' parties, took part in the laying of a monument to the communists on the Palace Square in Petrograd. At a rally of thousands dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of the Paris Commune, Vladimir Ilyich made a vivid speech. Recently, a chronicle recording of this performance was found. "Today," Lenin said, " a monument is being laid to the fighters for communism who 50 years ago raised the banner of the Paris uprising, took power into their own hands and set about building a socialist society. They were defeated. German imperialist troops in alliance with the French bourgeoisie crushed the workers in Paris. Despite this defeat, however, we see that their cause is not dead. We are successfully continuing to build the Soviet Republic in Russia ... " 1 This was Lenin's last speech on the Paris Commune.

And history preserves the memory of Vladimir Ilyich's numerous speeches on this topic during the period of emigration at international rallies and meetings dedicated to the anniversaries of the Paris Commune, in London and Paris, in Geneva and Zurich, and a number of other cities. M. M. Essen recalls one of them, which took place in Geneva on March 9(22), 1904: "Lenin spoke about the Commune, and we felt its powerful breath, its pathos, its tragedy, its world significance... I still remember that speech and the enthusiasm it generated. From Lenin's entire speech, which was so inspired and fiery, it became clear that the Paris Commune is not only a heroic episode in history, showing the strength and power of the working class, but also an inspiring example for us. " 2 V. I. Lenin repeatedly reminded about the experience of the Commune, its lessons and significance in his speeches after the victory of October. V. I. Lenin wrote dozens of works that dealt with the immortal lessons of the Paris Commune. Among them are articles specifically devoted to the Commune, such as "Lessons of the Commune", "In Memory of the Commune", and such fundamental works as" The State and the Revolution","The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky". We meet Lenin's assessments of the Commune in many of his books, articles, and notes.

Lenin deeply and comprehensively studied the history of the struggle of the Paris Communards. He studied a huge number of historical and sociological works on this topic. In all of his research, he described-

1 "Village Commune", 21. VII. 1920. (The document was identified by the Leningrad researcher B. G. Metlitsky in the State Public Library named after M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin: B. G. Metlitsky. One day in Petrograd. L. 1967, p. 110).

2 "Memoirs of V. I. Lenin". Vol. 2. Moscow, 1969, pp. 114-115.

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He drew first of all on the works of Karl Marx and Fr. Engels, who were the first to show the world-historical significance of the Commune. Especially often Vladimir Ilyich turned to the work of Karl Marx "The Civil War in France" and the preface of F. P. Blavatsky. Engels ' commentary on this work. Written hot on the heels of events, Karl Marx's work contains a brilliant analysis of the history and significance of the world's first proletarian state. V. I. Lenin examines this work in detail in the third chapter of the book "The State and the Revolution", which is specially devoted to the experience of the Commune. He attached exceptional importance to Karl Marx's letters to L. Kugelmann , 3 especially to the famous letter of April 12, 1871, in which Karl Marx glorifies the great feat of the Paris Commune . 4 Lenin wrote a preface to the Russian translation of these letters, where he gave "a brief overview of the lessons of proletarian politics taught by Marx."5 In these letters, Lenin wrote an introduction to the emails. A copy of the collection of these letters with notes by Vladimir Ilyich has been preserved, showing with what close attention he studied these letters .6 In his work "Marxism on the State" V. I. Lenin collected all the most important statements of K. Marx and F. Lenin. Engels ' article on the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat. A significant place in them is given to the Paris Commune. This work is preceded by a list of their writings7, which shows that Vladimir Ilyich did not ignore any of the works of the founders of Marxism related to this topic.

V. I. Lenin carefully studied the testimonies of contemporaries and participants of the Paris Commune, the events of 1871. As early as 1895, during his first trip abroad , his attention was drawn to the book of a member of the Commune, G. Lefrancet, "An Outline of the Paris Communard movement in 1871"8, one of the first books on the history of the Commune. Vladimir Ilyich carefully outlines the first part of this book, which describes the events leading up to the birth of the first proletarian state .9 While criticizing the ideological positions of the Proudhonist Lefranc, V. I. Lenin at the same time uses the facts contained in his book to characterize the revolutionary movement in France on the eve of the events of March 18 and clarify the circumstances that contributed to the proclamation of the Commune. Of considerable interest is a book written by another member of the Commune, P. Lissagare, entitled "The History of the Commune in 1871"10 . Its author relied on documents, published materials, and personal memoirs. Its translation into German was edited by Karl Marx. V. I. Lenin refers to Lissagare's book in some of his writings11 . Vladimir Ilyich was also familiar with the book of J. P. Blavatsky. Weil's "History of the Social Movement in France" 12 . In particular, V. I. Lenin used the letters of the Corresponding Secretary of the General Council of the International, P. Dupont, and other factual material given in it13 . During the first Russian Revolution, Vladimir Ilyich paid great attention to the tactics of street fighting and the experience of its application. In this regard, he carefully studied the memoirs of the General of the Commune G. P. Kluseret14 . On the initiative of V. I. Lenin in 1905.-

3 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 14, pp. 373-379.

4 See K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch. Vol. 33, pp. 172-173.

5 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 14, p. 379.

6 See Voprosy Filosofii, 1966, No. 4, pp. 142-143.

7 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 33, pp. 123-125.

8 G. Lefrancais. Etude sur le mouvement communaliste a Paris en 1871. Neuchatel. 1871.

9 See Foreign Literature, 1957, No. 4, pp. 7-17.

10 P. Lissagaray. Histoire de la Commune de 1871. P. 1896.

11 See, for example, V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 9, p. 330; vol. 28, p. 574.

12 G. Weill. Histoire du mouvement social en France. 1852 - 1902. P. 1904.

13 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 492; vol. 9, p. 329-330.

14 G. P. Cluseret. Memoires du general Cluseret. Т. I - III. P. 1887 - 1888.

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The Shevik newspaper Vperyod published an excerpt from this book. Lenin's preface to it stated: "Kluseret's original ideas should serve for the Russian proletariat only as material for an independent reworking of the experience of the Western European comrades, as applied to our conditions." The text of the translation of this passage, made by V. V. Filatov (Severtsev), was edited by V. I. Lenin 15 . His attention was also attracted by the three-volume work of E. Lepelletier, published on the eve of the First World War, as well as lectures by the leader of the Italian syndicalists A. Labriola, 16 read at the "Social School" of the Italian Socialist Party, which covered the history of the Commune. Lenin's synopsis of the book "Modern France"by a major French historian and archivist G. Anoteau has been preserved. The synopsis is not finished; it ends on page 147 of Anoto's book 17 . This book was used by V. I. Lenin in the preparation of the report that he read on March 5 (18), 1905 in Geneva . These examples give an idea of the fundamental historiographic basis on which Vladimir Ilyich relied in his research on the history of the Paris Commune.

Lenin's works are now the methodological basis for developing the history of the Paris Commune. Following K. Marx and F. Engels thoroughly explores the events of the first proletarian revolution, shows the role and place of the Commune both in the history of the French workers ' movement and in the development of the world revolutionary process. V. I. Lenin was the first to address such important aspects of this topic as the Paris Commune and the Russian revolutionary movement, the Commune and the first Russian Revolution, the Commune and questions of revolutionarythe Commune and the problems of socio-economic development of the imperialist era, the Commune and the Great October Revolution, the Commune and the experience of Socialist construction in the Soviet Country. This article attempts to reveal Lenin's method of studying the history of the Paris Commune and to show V. I. Lenin's elaboration of the question of the role and place of the Commune in the world revolutionary process.

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of V. I. Lenin as a historian of the Paris Commune was his extraordinary ability to consistently and steadily apply the Marxist methodology of social development research developed and enriched by him to the coverage of the history of the Commune. V. I. Lenin very clearly raises the question that both the successes and failures of the first proletarian revolution are ultimately rooted in the state of the productive forces and relations of production in France at that time, in the peculiarities of French capitalism at that time, and in the social structure of the population, in the degree of maturity, experience, and solidarity of workers. In his 1904 report on the Paris Commune, he identified as one of the starting points the "rapid industrial development" of France under Napoleon III, and then a description of the working-class movement .19 Vladimir Ilyich described this topic in more detail in 1908 in his article "In Memory of the Commune", where he considered the dependence of the working-class movement on the level of development of the country's productive forces. In the synopsis of the report on the Paris Commune, written by

15 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 9, p. 347; "Lenin's Collection" XXVI, p. 355-365.

16 E. Lepelletier. Histoire de la Commune de 1871. T. I - III. P. 1911 - 1913; A. Labriola. La "Commune" di Parigi. Raccolta di otto Conferenze. Lugano. 1906.

17 G. Hanotaux. Histoire de la France contemporaine. 1871-1900. T. 1. P. 1903: "Lenin's Collection" XXVI, pp. 59-60.

18 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 9, pp. 328-329.

19 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 483.

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In 1904, V. I. Lenin pointed out that rapid industrial development caused "orgies of plutocracy", "the prosperity of speculation", and "venality", which accelerated the revolutionary explosion. In the article "In Memory of the Commune", he raises the issue more broadly, exploring "the prerequisites for a victorious social revolution". To this end, he refers to the level of development of the productive forces and the preparedness of the proletariat, and notes that by the beginning of the seventies of the nineteenth century, the development of the productive forces had not yet reached the level necessary for the successful completion of the proletarian revolution; " French capitalism was still poorly developed, and France was then primarily a country of the petty bourgeoisie (artisans, peasants, shopkeepers, etc.) " 20 . Thus, analyzing the concrete history of the Paris Commune, V. I. Lenin proceeds from objective factors and, first of all, the specifics and level of economic development of France, linking with them many essential features of the first proletarian revolution.

Vladimir Ilyich emphasized that a correct understanding of class relationships and class antagonisms is crucial for historical research. Understanding complex social phenomena - economic, political, and ideological-can only be done by firmly adhering to the class principle. V. I. Lenin emphasized the need to take into account not only the aspirations of individual class forces, but also to be able to cover all class relations as a whole, in all their connections and mediations. This approach is also characteristic of Lenin's study of the Paris Commune. V. I. Lenin analyzes the totality of class antagonisms (main and secondary), their manifestations and evolution in the course of events, Lenin specifically shows the social composition of the communard movement in the initial period and at the end of the struggle, identifies the proletariat as the main driving force of the Commune. On the other hand, when he characterizes the counter-revolutionary camp, he reveals its bourgeois class essence.21 From the motley interweaving of heterogeneous class elements, V. I. Lenin clearly distinguishes the working class, which determined the nature of the Commune's activities. In the article" In Memory of the Commune "V. I. Lenin wrote about it:" At first this movement was extremely mixed and uncertain. Patriots joined him, hoping that the Commune would resume the war with the Germans and bring it to a successful end. He was also supported by small shopkeepers, who were threatened with ruin if the payment of bills of exchange and the payment of rent were not deferred (the government did not want to give them this delay, but the Commune did). Finally, at first he was partly sympathized with by the bourgeois Republicans, who feared that the reactionary National Assembly (the "rednecks", the savage landlords) would restore the monarchy. But the main role in this movement was played, of course, by the workers (especially the Parisian artisans), among whom, in the last years of the Second Empire, active socialist propaganda was carried out, and many of whom even belonged to the International. Only the workers remained completely loyal to the Commune. The bourgeois Republicans and petty bourgeoisie soon fell behind it: some were frightened by the revolutionary - socialist, proletarian character of the movement; others fell behind when they saw that it was doomed to certain defeat. Only the French proletarians supported their government without fear and tirelessly, only they fought and died for it, that is, for the cause of the emancipation of the working class, for a better future for all working people. " 22
V. I. Lenin studied the experience and history of the Paris Commune from-

20 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 483; vol. 20, p. 219.

21 See V. I. Lenin's PSS. Vol. 8, pp. 483-488; vol. 9, pp. 328-330.

22 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 20, pp. 218-219.

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In the same way, it is necessary to consider each phenomenon "(a) historically; (b) only in connection with others; (g) only in connection with the concrete experience of history".23 . Vladimir Ilyich shows the revolution of 1871 against the background of the entire history of France, he constantly recalls the events that preceded the uprising of the communards, draws parallels with other French revolutions, noting their qualitative differences and similarities. It is characteristic that Lenin usually began his essays on the Commune with a general historical sketch. "France under Napoleon III" - this is the first paragraph of the summary of the report on the Paris Commune in 1904, the heading "Historical sketch of the Commune" opens his "Plan for reading about the Commune" in 1905, 24 and the well-known article "Lessons of the Commune" begins with a description of the development of France after the revolution of 1848. Here, when describing the patriotic illusions that blinded the French proletariat in 1870, the Great French Revolution of the XVIII century is mentioned, from which the "patriotic idea ""originates" 25 .

Lenin's demand to consider each phenomenon "only in relation to others" is well illustrated by the study of events in the history of the Paris Commune in connection with the general situation in the country, in individual departments, as well as in connection with the general international situation, the course of military operations at the front, Bismarck's policy, etc .26 In his works on the Paris Commune, Vladimir Ilyich dwells in detail on all these internal and external relations. V. I. Lenin and the demand for considering phenomena "only in connection with the concrete experience of history"are equally consistent27 . This principle is of paramount importance when covering the history of the Paris Commune, and for him it is the main goal of research on this topic. The lessons of the Commune, its experience-this is what he highlights and emphasizes in all his works about the Paris Commune. Sometimes the entire study is devoted to this question 28, and sometimes this question is put forward among other materials as the main conclusion 29 . For V. I. Lenin, the experience of the Commune is a support for solving today's problems. Even at the first mention of the Paris Commune in the book "What are the" friends of the people " and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?" he assesses this event in relation to the specific tasks of the proletarian struggle of the late nineteenth century .30 In this respect, his reference to the history of the Paris Commune is also significant when developing certain sections of the RSDLP Program in 1903, in particular on national and peasant issues. In the first case, Vladimir Ilyich warned against the danger of a nationalist deviation, and in the second, he spoke about the inadmissibility of underestimating the peasant movement. 31 Lenin showed that the experience of the Commune provides an answer to both questions.

V. I. Lenin makes extensive use of historical parallels in his research. In the notes of his report on the Paris Commune of 1904, he wrote:: "Bismarck 1871. Confer (compare - V. E. ) 1904", "Bismarck 1871 and 1904" 32 . In the" Reading Plan for the Commune", compiled in the spring

23 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 49, p. 329.

24 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 483, 489, 492: vol. 9, p. 328.

25 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 16, p. 451.

26 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 483 - 484, 489 - 490, 492 - 493; vol. 9, p. 328; vol. 16, p. 461, etc.

27 See also V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 40, p. 167.

28 See V. I. Lenin's PSS. Vol. 16, pp. 451-454; vol. 20, pp. 217-222, etc.

29 See V. I. Lenin's PSS. Vol. 8, pp. 488, 491, 493; vol. 9, p. 330; vol. 14, p. 379, etc.

30 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 1, p. 155.

31 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 7, pp. 241, 270

32 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, pp. 488, 491.

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1905, V. I. Lenin draws an analogy between the executioners of the Commune, Chief of the National Guard d'Aurelle de Paladin and Prefect of Police Valentin, and the executioners of the first Russian Revolution Trepov and Vasilchikov , 33 and in the article "In Memory of the Commune", written in April 1911, compares the Bonapartist generals with the stranglers of the revolutionary movement in Russia, the tsarist generals Rennenkampf and others. Moeller-Zakomelsky 34 . This connection with modernity (taking into account the concrete experience of history) can be clearly traced in all the works of V. I. Lenin about the Paris Commune. Lenin's approach to its history stands in stark contrast to the works of G. V. Plekhanov on the same subject. In this respect, the latter's letter to V. I. Lenin dated April 20, 1901, dealing with the decision of the Iskra editorial board to order Plekhanov an article for the anniversary of the Paris Commune, is characteristic. While Plekhanov did not object in principle to this decision, he wrote that the Commune, in his opinion, was only "ancient history." If for Plekhanov the Paris Commune was a " hoary antiquity, "then for Lenin it always remained a living experience of the immortal cause. 35
This approach clearly revealed another fundamental feature of Lenin's method of historical research - proletarian partisanship in covering and evaluating all events. Describing Marx's views on world history, in particular on the history of the Paris Commune, Lenin emphasized that " Marx looked at this history from the point of view of those who create it. "36 Lenin also approached history in the same way. Consistently upholding the principle of communist partisanship, Lenin was irreconcilable with the manifestations of bourgeois objectivism. The difference between the positions of the defenders of proletarian partisanship and the so-called "neutral judges" of the historical process, who observe it from the outside, V. I. Lenin brilliantly showed on a concrete example, comparing the attitude of Karl Marx to the Paris Commune and G. V. Plekhanov to the December 1905 armed uprising in Moscow. Vladimir Ilyich writes about this in detail in the "Preface to the Russian translation of Karl Marx's Letters to L. Kugelman". Lenin wrote that Karl Marx approached the struggle of the "madly brave" Parisians, " ready to storm the sky, ""as a participant in the mass struggle, which he experienced with his characteristic fervor and passion while sitting in exile in London." 37 It is significant that V. I. Lenin emphasizes the word "participant" here, which he repeats again later. Recalling Plekhanov's infamous position in 1905, Vladimir Ilyich ironically asked his opponents: "Perhaps Marx used this (like Plekhanov, the December events) only to 'infringe' on his enemies, the Proudhonists and Blanquists who led the Commune? Perhaps he began to grumble like a classmate: I told you, I warned you, here's your romance, your revolutionary nonsense? Perhaps he was guiding the Communards, like Plekhanov the December fighters, with the edification of a self-satisfied philistine: "I shouldn't have taken up arms"?". And then he said, " No... Marx, who in September 1870 called the insurrection madness, in April 1871, seeing the mass movement of the people, treats it with the greatest attention as a participant in the great events that mark a step forward in the world - historical revolutionary movement. " 38 In February 1908 V. I. Lenin sent a letter to A. V. Lunacharsky with a request to prepare for the jubilee but-

33 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 9, p. 329.

34 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 20, p. 221.

35 "Lenin's Collection" III, pp. 160-161; V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 20, p. 222.

36 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 14, p. 379.

37 Ibid., p. 377.

38 Ibid., p. 376.

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The Bolshevik newspaper Proletarii published an article about the Paris Commune. In this connection, Vladimir Ilyich asked Lunacharsky whether he had new books by J. Jaures and L. Dubreuil about the Commune, although V. I. Lenin doubted that these authors could "correctly assess the Commune"according to their beliefs. Again, he recalls the crucial significance of Karl Marx's letters to Kugelmann for the history of the Commune, and recommends that Lunacharsky: "We should certainly mention the Pacs and quote them as a lesson to the opportunists."39
V. I. Lenin also resolutely exposed Kautsky's revisionist views, which distorted the class meaning of the Paris Commune. In particular, with regard to Kautsky's demagogic claim that the Commune was elected by universal suffrage, V. I. Lenin wrote indignantly in his book The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky:" First of all, it is known that the flower, the staff, and the upper ranks of the bourgeoisie have fled from Paris to Versailles. Louis Blanc was a "socialist" at Versailles, which, by the way, shows the falsity of Kautsky's assertion that "all branches" of socialism participated in the Commune. Isn't it ridiculous to portray as "pure democracy" with "universal suffrage" the division of the inhabitants of Paris into two warring camps, one of which concentrated the entire militant, politically active bourgeoisie? Secondly, the Commune fought Versailles as the workers ' government of France did against the bourgeois government. What does it have to do with "pure democracy" and "universal suffrage" when Paris decided the fate of France? " 40 Studying the history of the Paris Commune, Lenin opposed subjectivism in assessing the situation and tasks of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat. In this connection, it is appropriate to recall Lenin's criticism of the Blanquists, who during the revolution of 1871 tried to jump over obsolete stages of historical development and gravitated towards voluntarism .41
In contrast to bourgeois sociologists, Marxists in historical experience are primarily interested in the germs of tomorrow, the prospects for future development. Raising the question of a deep study of the great theoretical legacy of Marxism (in particular, the Paris Commune), V. I. Lenin wrote: "... a communist should be expected to pay more attention to the tasks of tomorrow, not yesterday. " 42 Marxism's discovery of the laws of social development made it possible, for the first time in the history of human thought, to solve the problem of scientific foresight of social phenomena. This allows us to see qualitatively new connections of the future even in weak, unrooted sprouts that do not yet determine the relations between phenomena as a whole. The attention that Karl Marx, F. Engels, and V. I. Lenin paid to the immortal lessons of the Paris Commune is not accidental. Generalizing the experience of the past and, above all, the experience of revolutions helped the founders of Marxism-Leninism to develop forecasts of the future that were astounding in depth and accuracy, and to open up the prospect of its development to humanity. Describing the Marxian methodology of scientific foresight, Vladimir Ilyich emphasized: "Marx does not have a drop of utopianism in the sense that he invented and fantasized a' new ' society. No, he studies, as a natural-historical process, the birth of a new society from the old, the transitional forms from the second to the first. It takes the actual experience of the mass proletarian movement and tries to draw practical lessons from it. It "learns" from the Commune, just as all the great revolutionary thinkers were not afraid to learn from the experience of the great movements of the oppressed class ... " 43
39 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 47, p. 146.

40 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 248.

41 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 31, pp. 137-138.

42 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 313.

43 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 33. p. 48.

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Lenin's studies of the Paris Commune were always connected with the solution of specific problems of the revolutionary struggle and socialist construction. At each historical stage, this orientation had its main, central, line, its main accents.

If we take all of Lenin's works on the Paris Commune in their chronological sequence, we can outline three periods of his work on this topic: 1) before the February Revolution of 1917; 2) the period of preparation for October; 3) the Soviet period. The first period is characterized by a particularly strong interest in the tactical issues of the communard struggle, and in this connection also in a detailed account of the history of the first Proletarian Revolution. At this time, V. I. Lenin paid special attention to the most important lessons of the Commune, which the Russian proletariat had to take into account in the coming struggle: its intransigence to the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, which was ready to commit even national treason, the importance of independent organization of the proletariat-a necessary condition for its victory, and the readiness of the workers for decisive and merciless revolutionary struggles. 44
On the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution, when the question of a new proletarian government and the creation of new social relations arose in the most concrete form and directly, V. I. Lenin again turns to the history and lessons of the Paris Commune, considering first of all the question of the need to break down the old state machine and create a new type of state. In Lenin's works of the Soviet period, the lessons of the Paris Commune are considered mainly in connection with the immediate social, political, and economic tasks of the Soviet government. In this regard, we can note Lenin's criticism of the views of N. I. Bukharin, who undertook to review "The State and the Revolution". As V. I. Lenin noted, "Bukharin did not see what should have been seen, and this happened because he wrote his review in April, but took in quotations what was already outdated for April, what is yesterday, exactly what we need to break up the old state; we have already done this this is the task of yesterday, and we must go forward and look not at the past, but at the future, and create a commune state ... " 45 Bukharin approached the great experience of the Paris Commune, which showed the necessity of breaking down the bourgeois state machine, as a dogmatist, one-sidedly, without taking into account that in the new situation, after October, it was already necessary to practically solve creative tasks and go further, and this also required a more in-depth analysis of the experience of the Paris Commune, first of all in this regard, V. I. Lenin called once, criticizing Bukharin's anti-historicism. Vladimir Ilyich suggested carefully studying the experience of the Paris Commune in state and economic construction. Based on this experience, he puts very specific questions, for example, how to deal with a nationalized bank, how to use bourgeois specialists, how to solve the housing problem, etc.

Tracing the theme of the Paris Commune in the works of V. I. Lenin, one can see not only the formulation of certain aspects that are especially important for this historical stage, but also the development of the ideas themselves, the deepening and expansion of the topic, the connection to the study of more and more new issues. On the eve of the first Russian Revolution, in the synopsis of his report on the Paris Commune (1904), V. I. Lenin gives a rather detailed historical sketch of the events preceding the Paris Commune.-

44 See V. I. Lenin's PSS. Vol. 8, p. 487; vol. 9, etr. 330; vol. 16, p. 454; vol. 20, p. 218.

45 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 264.

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After the revolution of 1871, he describes the course of the armed struggle itself, then analyzes the political and economic activities of the Commune, and finally summarizes the results and lessons of the struggle. The report of 1905 was drawn up on approximately the same plan. But here, speaking of the struggle of the communards, V. I. Lenin also recalls the revolutionary events taking place in Russia, and in connection with this, a new important topic appears-the Commune and the peasantry, and the conclusion about the necessity for the proletariat to have an independent political organization is emphasized. In 1908, the article "Lessons of the Commune" focuses on a comparison of the revolutions of 1871 and 1905-1907, a comparative analysis of their similarities and differences. In 1911, the article "In Memory of the Commune" reveals the economic and social prerequisites and conditions for the development of the revolution of 1871 much more fully than in previous works. In 1917, the third chapter of the work" The State and the Revolution " contains a generalization of all the previously accumulated material and draws new important conclusions about the essence of the Paris Commune as a new type of state.

Studying the development of the theme of the Paris Commune in Lenin's works, one can see how the ratio of concrete historical and analytical material gradually changes in them in the direction of increasing the share of the latter. In his works of the post-October period, V. I. Lenin repeatedly refers to the lessons of the Paris Commune ("Intimidated by the collapse of the old and fighting for the new", " How to organize competition?", "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky", "Letter to the Workers of Europe and America", reports at the Seventh Congress of the RCP (b), the Third Congress of Soviets, the First Congress of the Comintern, etc.). In each of these works, in connection with the demands of socialist construction, a certain facet from the history of the first proletarian revolution, from the experience of the first proletarian state, is highlighted. Together, they reveal a completely new problem - the Paris Commune and the Soviet government, opening a new stage in the development of Marxist historiography of the Paris Commune.

As a historian of the Paris Commune, it is characteristic of V. I. Lenin that he considered the experience of the first Proletarian revolution not in isolation, but in a series of other historical events of the past and present, in close connection with the general development of the world revolutionary process. Speaking about the Marxian approach to the study of the history of the Paris Commune, V. I. Lenin wrote: "In the mass revolutionary movement, although it did not reach its goal, he saw of great importance historical experience, a well-known step forward in the world proletarian revolution, a practical step more important than hundreds of programs and arguments." 46 V. I. Lenin also took the same approach to studying the lessons of the Paris Commune. This is shown first of all by a comprehensive analysis of the experience of the Paris Commune: both from the point of view of the development of the French and European revolutionary movement, and from the point of view of the influence of the Paris Commune on the working-class movement in Russia, and in connection with the assessment of the place and role of the experience of the communards in the world revolutionary process in general and in the preparation for the victory of the proletarian revolution in particular.

For V. I. Lenin, the main thing in the study of the world revolutionary process is, first of all, the knowledge of the laws of the class struggle and its concrete role in the development of world history. A necessary prerequisite for elucidating these patterns is a thorough study of the social contradictions in each individual country and determining the correlation of each national revolution with the entire world revolutionary process. Evaluating from this point

46 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 33, p. 36.

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Recognizing the world-historical role of the revolution on March 18, 1871, Lenin wrote: "The Commune is the greatest example of the greatest proletarian movement of the nineteenth century." 47 He called the Commune the" great revolution " of the proletariat .48 In order to determine the role and place of the Paris Commune in the world revolutionary process, V. I. Lenin comprehensively analyzed the features, nature and regularities of the development of both the previous and subsequent stages of the revolutionary movement. He showed, in particular, at what stage of the development of capitalism the Paris Commune emerged. The period from the beginning of the Great French Bourgeois Revolution of the late eighteenth century to the Paris Commune was a turning point in the formation of the bourgeois system in Western Europe. "At the end of this epoch," V. I. Lenin pointed out, "Western Europe turned into an established system of bourgeois states..." 49 . Describing the period immediately preceding the Paris Commune, Vladimir Ilyich made an emphatic remark: "Expropriation of France by a gang of bandits" 50 . But the main thing to bear in mind when summing up the results of the bourgeois revolutions is that they opened the door to rapid capitalist development, exposing and enormously sharpening the contradiction between labor and capital, 51 the basic contradiction that gave rise to the revolution of March 18, 1871.

Lenin's elaboration of the question of the end of the epoch of bourgeois-democratic revolutions and the transition to a new historical epoch was of great importance for assessing the historical role of the Paris Commune in the world process of revolutionary development. In the" Notes of a Publicist "written in March 1910, Vladimir Ilyich comprehensively considered the content of the very concept of "completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution". He pointed out the possibility of a twofold understanding of this term: in the narrow sense of the word, when each individual revolution is considered as one of the waves "that beats the old regime, but does not finish it off", and in the broad sense-as "the solution of objective historical tasks of the bourgeois revolution, its "completion", i.e., the elimination of the soil itself." a revolution capable of giving birth to a bourgeois revolution, the completion of the entire cycle of bourgeois revolutions." Considering in this broad sense the French bourgeois-democratic revolution from its beginning to its completion of the entire historical cycle of the revolutionary struggle, Lenin noted that in this sense "in France, the bourgeois-democratic revolution was completed only in 1871 (and started in 1789)." 52 In his work" The Historical Fate of Karl Marx's Teaching " (1913), V. I. Lenin also points out: "The Paris Commune (1871) comes to an end... development of bourgeois transformations... " And here V. I. Lenin puts forward the very important idea that only the heroic struggle of the proletariat can complete the development of the bourgeois revolution .53
Thus, the Paris Commune was a historic milestone in the world revolutionary process; having completed the cycle of bourgeois revolutions, it was the first proletarian revolution. Thus, it belongs to such revolutions that entail qualitatively new shifts in the development of the entire world revolutionary process. The Paris Commune placed the socialist revolution on the agenda of world history. As V. I. Lenin noted, the Paris Commune

47 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 16, p. 453.

48 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 33, p. 55.

49 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 25, p. 269.

50 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 8, p. 483.

51 Ibid.

52 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 19, pp. 246-247.

53 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 23, p. 2.

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it marked the beginning of the achievements of the "international workers' revolution " 54 . And the most striking and significant of them was the Great October Socialist Revolution. Vladimir Ilyich regarded the Paris Commune and the October Revolution as links in the united revolutionary struggle of the international proletariat, as historical stages in the development of the world proletarian revolution. "Soviet power," he wrote, " is the second world-historical step or stage in the development of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The first step was the Paris Commune. " 55 V. I. Lenin's question about the place of the Paris Commune in the world revolutionary process has not lost its relevance today. It is no accident that many modern bourgeois historians seek to distort the meaning of the revolution of March 18, 1871, and belittle the significance of the Paris Commune in world history. Some of them portray the Commune as a" family affair " of the French and limit its role only to the yesterday of history, which did not have its continuation, while others ignore this great event altogether. The first variety can be illustrated by the works of L. Girard and J. Shastene. Girard, for example, believes that the Paris Commune is an archaic phenomenon connected only with the past of France, but which had no continuation in the further history of the country. A similar position is taken by Chasten, who declares that the Paris Commune was not the dawn of a new world, but the "flaming twilight" of the past. 56 Representatives of the second kind of bourgeois historiography try to silence the Paris Commune altogether. This is particularly evident in the so-called theory of two "world revolutions" - Western and eastern. Defenders of this concept, the French historian J. Godchaux and the American R. Palmer argue that the French Revolution of 1789-1794 is the highest crest of a single revolutionary wave that swept Europe and America in the XVIII-XX centuries. To this" world revolution", called" Atlantic"," Western "and" democratic", the authors contrast the" world revolution "of the twentieth century, which they call "eastern" and "communist". The sympathies of bourgeois authors, of course, are entirely on the side of the "Atlantic", which they portray as the only one capable of producing the most perfect system, and such, in their opinion, is the bourgeois social system .57 The attempt to discredit and denigrate the socialist revolutions is obvious here. But it is also significant that there was no place for the Paris Commune in this scheme. Godchaux and Palmer consider the revolution of 1848 to be the boundary between Western and Eastern revolutions .58 The Soviet historian Ya. I. Drazninas rightly points out that the" oblivion " of the Paris Commune by these authors is quite natural, since they cannot in any way include it in the "second cycle" constructed by them, which, according to their scheme, covers only the "Eastern" revolutions. 59 On the other hand, the proletarian revolution of 1871, which is fundamentally different from the bourgeois ones, cannot be attributed to the "first cycle"either. Thus, for the sake of a contrived scheme from isto-

54 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 58.

55 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 457.

56 See L. Girard. Etude comparee des mouvements revolutionnaires en France en 1830, 1848 et 1870 - 71. P. 1960, p. 10; см. P. Dominique. La Commune de Paris. P. 1962, p. 25.

57 R. Palmer. The Age of Democratic Revolution. The Challenge. Princeton. 1959, pp. 4 - 5, 9, 11 - 13; J. Godechot. La pensee revolutionnaire en France et en Europe 1780 - 1799. P. 1964, p. 7; ejusd. Les revolutions (1770 - 1799). P. 1963, pp. 1 - 3, 82, 236, 268.

58 J. Godechot. Les revolutions, p. 265.

59 J. I. Drazninas. Some problems of the revolutionary past of France in the works of V. I. Lenin. "V. I. Lenin and Historical Science", Moscow, 1968, p. 518.

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This simply excludes an event that has played a huge role in the global revolutionary process.

Knowledge of the laws of the world revolutionary process at each individual stage of its development is impossible without solving the question of the nature of the historical epoch in which this process develops."...We can know, and we know, "wrote Vladimir Ilyich," which class stands at the center of a given epoch, determining its main content, the main direction of its development, the main features of the historical situation of a given epoch, and so on. " 60 The banner of the Commune raised by the Paris workers meant that a new social force, the revolutionary proletariat, had entered the world political arena. It is not without reason that the year 1871 so accurately marked a new historical milestone: the beginning of a new stage in the development of the world revolutionary process - the cycle of development of the socialist revolution. The place of the Paris Commune, the first proletarian revolution that opened a new cycle in the world revolutionary process, determined the enormous significance of its experience for the entire subsequent workers ' struggle.

The revolution of March 18, 1871, had a powerful impact on the entire further development of the French working-class movement and on the political education of the working masses of France. Assessing the significance of the struggle of the communards, Lenin followed Marx in developing the idea that "there are moments in history when the desperate struggle of the masses, even for a hopeless cause, is necessary in order to further educate these masses and prepare them for the next struggle." 61 Vladimir Ilyich recalled that six years after the suppression of the Commune, a new upsurge in the working-class movement had already begun in France. "The new socialist generation, enriched by the experience of its predecessors, but by no means discouraged by their defeat, took up the banner that had fallen from the hands of the fighters of the Commune."62
Noting the enormous role of the Paris Commune in the development of the French revolutionary movement, the founders of Marxism-Leninism constantly emphasized its international character and its importance for the workers ' and liberation movement in all countries. The world revolutionary process is not just a chronological succession of social movements and revolutions of different epochs, it is above all their organic interrelation, when one revolution prepares another, influencing other countries, rallying world revolutionary forces, expanding the front of the struggle against the old world. Assessing the significance of the revolution of 1871 in this respect, V. I. Lenin wrote: "The memory of the fighters of the Commune is honored not only by the French workers, but also by the proletariat of the whole world... As the foremost fighter for the social revolution, the Commune has won sympathy wherever the proletariat is suffering and struggling. The picture of its life and death, the sight of the workers ' government seizing and holding in its hands for more than two months the capital of the world, the spectacle of the heroic struggle of the proletariat and its suffering after defeat-all this raised the spirits of millions of workers, aroused their hopes and attracted their sympathies to the side of socialism. The thunder of the Paris cannons awakened the most backward strata of the proletariat, which were deeply asleep, and everywhere gave an impetus to the strengthening of revolutionary socialist propaganda."63 V. I. Lenin emphasized the same idea in his work "Lessons of the Commune", pointing out that the Paris Commune"stirred up the socialist movement in Europe" 64 . In the article "Eugene Potier "(1913), dedicated to the author of "Internazio-

60 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 26, p. 142.

61 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 14, p. 379.

62 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 20, p. 221.

63 Ibid., pp. 221-222.

64 V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 16, p. 453.

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V. I. Lenin reminded an active member of the Paris Commune: "The commune is suppressed... and Potier's Internationale has spread its ideas all over the world, and it is now more alive than ever." 65
V. I. Lenin pointed out an important historical pattern in the development of the revolutionary process in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - the gradual shift of the center of the world revolutionary movement from West to East - and showed the place of the Paris Commune in this process. In the book "What to do?" Vladimir Ilyich, emphasizing the enormous success in the development of the Russian revolutionary movement by the beginning of the XX century, wrote: "Where would we be today without the model of the British trade unions and the French political struggle of the workers, without the colossal impetus given in particular by the Paris Commune?" 66 Lenin noted that after the defeat of the Revolution of 1871, the center of the revolutionary struggle shifted to Germany . Speaking about the future prospects and development of the world revolutionary movement, he pointed out that its center was moving to Russia: "History has now set before us an immediate task, which is the most revolutionary of all the immediate tasks of the proletariat in any other country." 67 In the historical relay, the torch of the proletarian revolution, lit by the Paris communards, passed into the hands of the Russian working class. At the very beginning of the revolution of 1905 - 1907, V. I. Lenin emphasized: "We all stand on the shoulders of the Commune in the present Movement." 68 And shortly before the defeat of the first Russian Revolution, remember the words of Karl Marx about the heroism of the communards" storming the sky", V. I. Lenin wrote: "The working class of Russia has already proved once and will prove again that it is capable of 'storming the sky'. " 69 Defining the tasks of preparing for the socialist revolution, V. I. Lenin put the Historical experience of the "Paris Commune of 1871 and the Russian Revolution of 1905"side by side .70
Shortly after the victory of the Great October Revolution, Vladimir Ilyich, pointing out the continuity of the two proletarian revolutions-March 18, 1871, and October 25, 1917 - again resorted to the vivid image he had found back in 1905: "...we stand on the shoulders of the Paris Commune"71 - he now spoke of Soviet reality. But V. I. Lenin did not limit the connection of these two historical events to the national framework of France and Russia. Comparing the Paris Commune with the Soviet government, he noted that "from this comparison of the previous Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the present one, we can immediately see what a gigantic step the international working-class movement has taken." 72 V. I. Lenin's remark in his theses and report" On Bourgeois Democracy and the Dictator of the Proletariat " to the First Congress of the Comintern on March 4, 1919, that "the Soviet movement, embracing the whole world, continues the work of the Commune in full view of all."73
These words of V. I. Lenin get more and more confirmation every year. Today, hundreds of millions of people of the great socialist commonwealth are already following the path that the heroic communards first took.

65 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 22, p. 274.

66 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 6, p. 26.

67 Ibid., p. 28.

68 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 9, p. 330.

69 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 14, p. 379.

70 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 31, p. 40.

71 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 50.

72 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 35, p. 261.

73 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 493.

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