HISTORY AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION(1967) tion only one fact by way of illustration: we knew hardly anything other Communists. In such circumstances it is not surprising that of Lenins theory of revolution and of the vital advances he had a magazine called Communism was founded which for a time became made in that area of Marxism. Only a few articles and pamphlets a focal point for the ultra-left currents in the Third International had been translated and made available at that time, and of those Together with Austrian Communists, Hungarian and Polish who had taken part in the Russian Revolution some (like Sza- emigrants, who provided the inner core and the permanent muely) had little talent for theory and others(like Bela Kun) membership, there were also sympathisers from the Italian were strongly infuenced by the Russian left-wing opposition. ultra-left, like Bordiga and Terracini, and Dutch Communists It was not until my emigration to Vienna that I was able to like Pannekoek and Roland Holst. make a thorough study of Lenin's theory. The result was that In these circumstances it was natural that the dualism of my my thought of this period, too, contained an unresolved dualism. attitudes should not only have reached a climax but shoule It was partly that I was unable to find the correct solutio also have crystallised out into a curious new practical and principle to the quite catastrophic mistakes committed by the opportunists, such as their solution to the agrarian problem which mumism I was active in helping to work out a new ' left-wing' went along purely social-democratic lines. And partly that my political and theoretical line. It was based on the belief, very own intellectual predilections went in the direction of an abstract much alive at the time, that the great revolutionary wave that utopianism in the realm of cultural politics. Today, after an inter would soon sweep the whole world, or Europe at the very least, val of nearly half a I am astounded to find how fruitful to socialism, had inno way been broken by the setbacks in Finland, our activities were, relativelyspeaking. (Remaining on the theoreti- Hungary and Munich. Events like the Kapp Putsch, the occupa cal level i should point out that the first version of the two essay tion of the factories in Italy, the Polish-Soviet War and even the What is Orthodox Marxism? and The Changing Function of Historical March Action, strengthened our belief in the imminence of Materialism, date from this period. They were revised for History world revolution and the total transformation of the civilised and Class Consciousness but their basic orientation remains the same world. Of course, in discussing this sectarianism of the early My emigration to vienna was the start of a period of study. twenties we must not imagine anything like the sectarianism seen And, in the first instance, this meant furthering my acquaintance in Stalinist praxis. This aimed at protecting the given power with the works of Lenin. Needless to say, this study was not di- relations against all reforms; its objectives were conservative and vorced from revolutionary activity for a single moment. What was its methods bureaucratic. The sectarianism of the twenties had needed above all was to breathe new life into the revolutionary messianic, utopian aspirations and its methods were violently workers'movement in Hungary and to maintain continui opposed to bureaucracy. The two trends have only the name in new slogans and policies had to be found that would enable i common and inwardly they represent two hostile extremes. survive and expand during the White Terror. The slanders of the (Of course, it is true that even in the Third International zinoviev ictatorship--whether purely reactionary or social-democratic and his disciples introduced bureaucratic methods, just as it is was immaterial-had to be refuted. At the same time it was true that Lenins last years, at a time when he was already necessary to begin the process of Marxist self-criticism of the burdened by ill-health, were filled with anxiety about the problem proletarian dictatorship. In addition we in Vienna found ourselves of fighting the growing, spontaneously generated bureaucratism- swept along by the current of the international revolutionary tion of the Soviet Republic on the basis of proletatian democracy movement. The Hungarian emigration was perhaps the most But even here we perceive the distinction between the sectarians numerous and the most divided at the time, but it was by no of then and now. My essay on questions of organisation in the means the only one. There were many emigres from Poland and Hungarian Party is directed against the theory and practice of the Balkans living in Vienna either temporarily or permanently. Zinoviev s disciple, Bela Kun. Moreover, Vienna was an international transit point, so that we Our magazine strove to propagate a messianic sectarianism by were in continuous contact with German, French, Italian and working out the most radical methods on every issue, and by