Did communism come from the West?
The most popular theory of origin of communism proclaimed that this ideology came from the East to stand the ruling layer and replace the people of the “Caucasian-Aziatyc” origin. However, this legend contained a lot of contradictions, because, as Józef Mackiewicz writes, Asian provinces in Russia fought against Bolshevism, until 1927. According to the author of “The Victory of Provocation”, communism in the east was not “natural”, it was a product of coercion and terror, while communism as aware and voluntary only occurred in Europe – i.e. as an ideology accepted by a free society. As Mackiewicz states in the book “The Victory of Provocation”, communism in Moscow was imposed and performed in the form of a coercion, while in Italy and France in free elections, the communists gained up to 30% of votes.
As well, Lenin spent more time in Switzerland, Berlin, Paris, London than in Moscow. Mackiewicz emphasizes that the commander of the proletariat could not take his inspiration from Russia, but only from Western Europe. Lenin was also an opponent of all pro-Russian, non-Sparks Revolutionary Party. As J. Mackiewicz writes in the book, Marxism walked from the west east, not the opposite. At the end of the 19th century, Marxism mastered German Social Democracy, and then went to Poland. Already then, at the party “Social Democrats of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania” (SDKpil) communism was similar to Bolshevism (“The Victory of Provocation”, p. 50-51). The leading Polish communists from the Sdkpil circle were Rose Luxembourg, Julian Marchlewski and Feliks Dzierżyński. Mackiewicz emphasizes that this is not Lenin, he was an idol of communism – he drew inspiration from German social democrats, admitting in the Working Truth “… only entirely progressive and in the best sense … mass workers’ party …”.
Mackiewicz categorically and repeatedly rejected the concept that Bolshevism is a historical consequence of the history of the former Russia. In his opinion, this theory simply does not take into account the fact that the pre-revolutionary Russia was more similar to Western Europe than to the Soviets.
Bolshevism, according to Mackiewicz, not only was not a continuation of the former Russia – as, for example, Jan Kucharzewski claimed (From white to red tsarism) – but it was a radical reversal – political, systemic, economic, philosophical, custom and even mental. As Mackiewicz wrote – Bolsheviks retained the external framework of the empire, but completely changed its internal substance. Interestingly, as the author notes, Bolsheviks were almost in St. Petersburg in 1917 at the moment of the outbreak of the February Revolution. The main headers, or 500 people with families, were brought from Western Europe.
According to Mackiewicz, there is no difference between communism, Bolshevism, Stalinism or “Khrushchevism”. There is only a difference of tactics between them. According to the writer, communism is also not a geopolitical issue. This is a kind of psychic epidemic (“plague”) whose first victims were Russians. It was a mistake to identify Russia and ZSRS, Russianness and Bolshevism (Sovietism, communism), while, according to Mackiewicz, it was necessary to emphasize the difference between the Russian nation, Russia and the communist state. The thing is not in the Russian soul – wrote Mackiewicz – not in mysterious powders, not in the traditions of the dangerous or Jeangiz Chana, but “in the terrible invention of mental violations of human characters, to which the Bolshevik system has a patent reserved in relation to all nations regardless of race or cultural level”.
According to Mackiewicz, communism, as a deadly enemy of all civilizations,tries to transform each captured country into an invented utopia. For the implementation of its own purposes, it may use any political doctrine to play on nationalist feelings and exploit every social movement. An example can serve formulas – national in the form but socialist in content. Mackiewicz was aware of this, disagreeing that the greatest enemy of Poland was Germany, because no Pole can be at the same time a German, but it can be a communist, because the concept of a Pole and the communist do not exclude each other. That is why he often said that the largest enemy of every nation is the Bolshevik of a given nation. Russia in this case was not an exception.
References:
1. J. Mackiewicz, Nie trzeba głośno mówić, Londyn 1985, s. 251.
3. http://www.e-znaczenia.pl/?p=1007
4. Józef Mackiewicz „Zwycięstwo prowokacji”
Translated by Joanna Zawalska.
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