Some may suspiciously question how the October revolution can still be current 100 years after it took place, and particularly, after the tragic collapse of the Soviet Bloc in '89-91. And this question may face the objection of many, either slightest ones by shrugging their shoulders or crudest ones with their swearwords. Or, for those who lost their revolutionary horizon and only have a 'literal' understanding of socialism, the October may only mean a nostalgic calendar page, which is mentioned once in a year as a custom and mostly, on condition of keeping their distance from October's "extremenesses".
Let's put all post-Marxist, post-modernist or various post-garbage arguments which announce that preserving the aim of socialism is a sin after '89-91 collapse aside. But just as how much it is true that this collapse means a closure to a historical period of the struggle for socialism, it is as much as true that the October revolution is still symbolizing the emancipation path of the laborer and oppressed humanity, and continues to be a revolutionary enlightening source for the new historical period of the struggle for socialism.
The October was an historical event branding its stamp to whole century. With Eric Hobsbawn's words, it was the start of the "short 20th century" that was closed by the collapse of Soviet Union. If the Paris Commune was a kind of a snowdrop rising up from the whitenesses, then the October revolution would be a moment of historical leap, a new breakthrough within the flow of history. To emphasize by referring Marx, it was the move of humanity "to exit from prehistory".
Eastern European, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Cuban revolutions entered from the historic gate opened by the October. It was this gate that transformed the age of imperialism into the age of proletarian revolutions. With all their successes and deficiencies, their victories and defeats, all those 20th century revolutions and socialist construction experiences triggered by the October, have prepared the conditions of actualization of socialism in the 21st century. By taking Lenin as a reference, who was asking "has it ever happened in the history that a new mode of production has taken root immediately, without a long succession of setbacks, blunders and relapses?", we can say that even it reached a defeat at the end of the 20th century, the way that the October paved was a milestone for a new mode of production to root.
Couple of months before the October revolution, in April, Lenin was writing: "Our theory is not a dogma, but a guide to action, Marx and Engels always said, rightly ridiculing the mere memorizing and repetition of 'formulas', that at best are capable only of marking out general tasks, which are necessarily modifiable by the concrete economic and political conditions of each particular period of the historical process." It is this comprehension of theory as an action guide, which enabled Lenin to discover the genuine path of the October revolution.
Since Marxism is not a dead dogma or a complete and stable doctrine but a guide to action, the October revolution which made Marxism a worldly power, also can not be understood by being stuck with the analyses and viewpoints of its time. That is to say, the October is not a receipt or a template, neither it is a temple of revolution. What we need is the October's vivacious revolutionary essence.
In the October revolution and the experience of the Soviet Union, today's general theoretical and practical aspects of world revolution and socialist construction appeared. However, the practice of that time might be incomplete, or even wrong in some angles. Moreover, because of the aging effect of the historical flow, the practice itself might need to be overcome as well, even if it was necessary for its own period. If we hold it with a dialectic materialist perspective, our concern would not be having a divine loyalty to every practices of the revolutionary power of the October, but instead, being loyal to its living revolutionary essence, that is, to the cornerstones which are being embodied in the actuality of revolution today. Victory of the revolution and the construction of socialism will come true by stepping on these cornerstones, but definitely by finding new ways under new historical conditions. Plus, today's Octobers will achieve to proceed with even greater leaps, on the social material base that the imperialist globalization immensely brings up for the revolution.
It is neither possible to repeat the October, nor it is necessary. Changing status of the world, changing objective and subjective conditions of the revolution, different historical, social and cultural shaping of each country, and moreover, regenerateness of the revolutionary consciousness filtered through the experiments of socialism in the 20th century, compel every social revolution to discover their own unique paths. And for sure, development course of the world revolutions in the 21st century will not be the same as it was in the 20th century. But, the revolutionary essence that resides in the October will save its validity in the 21st century, they are: the communist party and socialist revolution, the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat, soviet democracy, liberation of the oppressed, abolition of the classes, collective property and planned economy.
Prologue Of The Revolutions Of The World
Actualized on the October 25th, 1917, the October Revolution was the star shell of the wave of world revolutions. The curtain of the First Imperialist War was drawn by the following revolutions which threw the 'glorious' crowns out to roll down in the streets within a series of European countries that became the weak links of the imperialist chain.
The October revolution was a historical moment that was grasped by the Bolsheviks through leaving their traditional perspective of revolution aside owing to Lenin's April Theses. There in the theses, the proletarian revolution which was thought to follow the bourgeois democratic revolution in Russia was not tied up to the condition of a preceding socialist revolution actualized in Europe first, but on contrary, it was considered as a detonator for the European socialist revolution. Because, the Tsarist Russia, which seemed to be inadequate for the socialist revolution with its underdeveloped conditions of capitalism, was in the position of the weakest of the weak links with respect to its extremely sharp contradictions and growing class struggles that were conditioned by the imperialist re-division war. Thus, the October revolution broke imperialism from its weakest link. However afterwards, this wave spread from there, couldn't manage to leave behind another victorious rule of the proletariat in Europe and in couple of years, was suppressed by the imperialist bourgeoisie.
The world working class was split into two political lines. On one hand, there was the line of the revolutionizing by force and building socialism through the proletarian dictatorship. Other pole was the line of waiting socialism through parliamentary and social reforms. The reformist worker's parties, which undermined and carried on the 2nd International, became the cursed firemen to extinguish the revolution fire in Europe on behalf of the bourgeoisie. The revolutionary worker's parties on the other hand, founded the 3rd International. The global gain of the October revolution, The Komintern, was the central communist leadership of the revolutionary fight carried on each country, the unified commandment to set the world revolution, sort of a world communist party taking the united socialist republics of world in its programme.
The ability of the Soviet Union to survive and undertake the construction of socialism brought a new great social contradiction that became dominant over the whole world. Just as this contradiction between the capitalist states and the socialist state would become the basis for the Cold War, it would also bring consequences which can be traced by all world-historical events. Despite of the weakening and the abrasion of revolution's continuity, the Soviet Union was the epicenter of the workers and the oppressed from all countries, the agent of all progressive values and achievements of the humanity. Such that, it was this socialist stronghold of the October revolution again which saved the world from the evil Hitler fascism at the cost of its 26 million citizens' death.