School of Marxism invited Dr Yiannis Kokosalakis to give a lecture online about ”The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power: the founding text of socialist governance” on April 2nd, 2021. Dr Yiannis Kokosalak is completed his PhD at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology of the University of Edinburgh (2012-2017). Shortly afterwards, he held a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship at the Centre for War Studies of University College Dublin. Dr Yiannis Kokosalak has long been engaged in the study of Soviet history, especially is interested in the complex relationship between politics, ideology and their influence on the development of institutions. The associate dean Fang Yumei took the chair in the lecture. Dr Song Liang and Dr Yan Ping took the job of interpreter.
Dr Yiannis Kokosalak focus Lenin’s article on The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power. He argued that the Immediate Tasks contained the first clearly formulated expression of certain principles of governance that would guide both the political practice and the institutional development of the Soviet Union for many decades after the text’s publication. Precisely because it was written in response to a developing situation, it provided a concrete elaboration of what subsequently became key concepts of Marxism-Leninism: workers’ democracy, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the leading role of the communist party in a socialist society. Of these three principles, the third in particular would go on to become a cornerstone of the constitutional order in all socialist countries, including of course contemporary China. The Immediate Tasks offered the first clear articulation of communist party leadership and its connection with workers’ democracy and proletarian dictatorship in the Marxist-Leninist cannon. I argue that it is the founding text of political theory on socialist government.
This lecture will consist of three parts. First, Dr Yiannis Kokosalak briefly talked about the state of Marxist theory regarding the nature of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat before the October revolution. Marxist thought at the time was dominated by the suppression of the Paris Commune in 1871 and remained primarily concerned with questions relating to the destruction of bourgeois power rather than the construction of a socialist state.
Following this, Dr Yiannis Kokosalak turned to consider The Immediate Tasks as a text written in response to the very specific challenges faced by the Bolsheviks after October. These included civil war and counterrevolutionary sabotage, but also the complete collapse of the Russian economy. Dr Yiannis Kokosalak argued that Lenin approached the writing of the Tasks with a very clear theoretical intent; he was not simply outlining a number of policy issues of immediate concern to the Bolshevik party. He was trying to work out the principles according to which the Bolsheviks ought to govern as a communist party; the principles governing the practical implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In the last part, Dr Yiannis Kokosalak examined how these principles came to guide the formation of Bolshevik policy in subsequent years. This concerns the so-called Trade-Union discussion that took place in 1920–1921. This I think is a very good example demonstrating the way that the principles of executive power and participatory administration could clash, and in which party leadership could handle this contradiction.
At the end of the lecture, Dr Yiannis Kokosalak had interacted about topic of socialist governance with the teachers and students attened. The discussion was proceeding in a warmly and harmonious atmosphere.
