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ENDRE MARTON: CHAPTERS ON LENIN, 1970
the internationalization of civil war.? While Lenin votes for signing the
ultimatum, he allows those who hold the opposing opinion to openly agitate
against the peace, since it is the only way “to gauge the opinion of the party,
and if the party votes against signing, then the ratification cannot happen".
The third chapter edits Elizaveta Drabkina’s first-hand account of the defeat
of the Kronstadt rebellion (a severe destabilization of Soviet power) together
with Lenin’s closing speech at the Party Congress on 9* March, 1921, where
he not only draws the conclusions of the Kronstadt events, but moves beyond
to discuss worker-peasant relations and the necessity of a new economic
policy in order to prevent further crises.°* The fourth part, the ending of
Chapters (but for the Brecht-cantata written for the day of Lenin’s death),
forms a framing device, since it is as lyrical as the first chapter. It initiates
us into the friendship between Lenin and Gorky through their personal
statements; a friendship that was not without disagreements or even attacks
against one another. And while it is not untrue to state that “the friendship
fades to a cliché this way”,”° the chapter relaxes us with “a beautiful and
natural resolution of tensions”,©” fulfilling its purpose, whitewashing the
origins of Communist Dictatorship.
62 In this chapter, we see the Lenin who was described by Gyérgy Lukacs in 1924 in the
following way. “If we examine its basis and internal context, Lenin’s ‘realpolitik’ proves to be
the peak of dialectical materialism achieved so far. On the one hand, it is a strictly Marxist,
sober and detailed analysis of the situation, the economic structure and the class relations.
On the other hand, it is of extraordinary clarity in the face of any new trends resulting from
the situation, and it is not obscured by any theoretical bias or utopian desire.” Forradalmi
reälpolitika, Korunk 29:3 (1970), 309. (My italics — A.K.K.) Ideas subordinated to practice
were the result of a change in attitudes in the period. Cf. a statement by Bela Köpeczi: “It
can be said, of course, that the [1958] directives overestimated the importance of ideas in
the education of our society’s worldview to some extent. This is true, and we have seen it
particularly since 1968 that economic processes sometimes have a larger, more decisive
impact on daily life.” Bela Képeczi: Mtivelédéspolitikai alapelveink dokumentuma, in Péter
Agárdi (ed.): Művészet és politika. Tanulmányok, dokumentumok 1977-1983, Budapest,
Kossuth, 1984, 30.
Gyurkó: Fejezetek Leninről, 451. — Miklós Almási considers this chapter to be the very subject
of the work, in the context of which he points out the “ordinary conflicts” of the “exercise
of power” that deserve consideration today. Cf. Miklós Almási: Viták a köznapisággal,
Kortédrs 14:8 (1970), 1329. — The critic of Nők Lapja saw “the university of democratism and
agitation” in “the human drama of ingenious insights and the commitment to historical
responsibility”. Féldes: Gondolatok szinpada, 10.
624 Several reviewers called this section “the most shocking” (Sas: Fejezetek Leninrél — Déntés, 5.),
“the most exciting, the most human part” of the dramatic montage. Kriszt: Fejezetek Leninröl,
4.
Therefore, “the community of partnership, the friendly relationship full of disputes:
Krupskaya and Gorky” just serve liveliness around the central two chapters. E. Fehér:
Fejezetek Leninről, 7.
626 [bid.
627 M.B.B.: Fejezetek Leninről, 5.
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