From the 'Logic' of Hegel to the Finland Station in Petrograd

In: Critique: journal of socialist theory, Band 6, S. 5-15

Abstract

Lenin's speech on 4 Apr 1917 at the Finland Station in Petrograd appeared to alienate his supporters, but instead he drew greater support as he successfully broke with the scientific socialism of the past. There was a tension between revolutionary realism & the limitations of orthodox Marxism in the mind of Lenin. One month after his Finland Station speech, Lenin turned to the thought of Hegelian dialectics, & this freed his thinking from the limitations of orthodox Marxism. The new Bolshevism of Apr 1917 was born out of the old Bolshevism to the extent that Lenin preached the unification of the peasantry & the proletariat without or against the liberal bourgeoisie. The road from Hegel's logic to the Finland Station speech was a theoretical journey marked by changing international conditions & the concrete analysis of a concrete situation. L. Kamel.